Au Naturale

I am aware that I am tend to err on the side of not putting clothes on my children in the house. Unless it's outside in the winter, in which case I force them to dress like we're going to the arctic.

But, for painting, I'd just as soon they not wear anything. And they would too. So it works out.

Halfway between taking off the clothes I didn't want to get stained and putting on old t-shirts I thought Why am I making more laundry?

Sadie loves mixing colors.

Silas was really diligent about cleaning his brush. See all his colorful marks? He cleaned the brush between colors.


And here's Sadie's lady:

They love painting, and it's great rainy day thing to do. We have been known to have a couple of rainy days in the winter here in the Pacific Northwest.

I guess I'm going to have to crank up the heat.

Countdown

As we were finishing up dinner tonight Sadie asked to be excused. So she brought her plate to the counter and then came back to the table and hung out next to me while we all talked.

Suddenly she holds up a hand and says:

Wait! Ready?

Then she begins counting, raising her fingers one by one:

1...2...3...

Of course, now she has our attention. Dada, Silas and I are all eagerly awaiting her announcement. What interesting thing could she be counting towards? Is this something new she learned in preschool?

And then, with a huge grin, she farts.

Yep, you read right. Passes some gas. And I have to ask:

When did my child turn into a nine year-old boy?

Suhcrocka

Forgive me, but I had to spell that word phonetically. And it's not actually a word, but what Sadie informed me she is going to name her child when she has one.

And it's a girl's name, obviously.

No Two

Silas has discovered the world of numbers. Or maybe I should say number.

He has one, which is Two.

The other is No Two.

So none or 1 is No Two.

Followed by Two.

Keeps it simple.

I Believe

Sadie and I have been talking a lot about what people believe.

She wants to know why some people believe in God and others don't, why some people believe in fairies but not others, why do some people only believe in what they can see.

I told her that sometimes we hold a belief in our hearts and bodies that we can't prove, that we will never be able to prove is true. It's called faith, that feeling.

Faith is often co-opted by religions. But they don't have a monopoly on faith.

We can believe that there is more to life than just our time on earth, that there is something bigger than us. And we can believe it with every cell of our bodies. We can have absolute faith in it.

And it's not a weaker faith just because we can't name the deity or state with absolute authority what happens when we leave the world.

She loves to think about this stuff. I remember thinking about it all too.

And she has theories.

One is that our spirits go on and love each other forever. I believe that too.

Another is that fairies are 100% real, which I would like to be true, but I'm not so sure.

And here's the latest. She came in from the yard very excited and said:

Mama, want to know what I believe? Let me tell you.

I believe that there are girl giants up in the sky. Only girls, no boys. And they have gardens and when it rains down here is when they are watering their flowers.

But they're nice giants. But they have no idea that we're here because we're just a tiny little ball on their flower. That's how big they are!

So they don't know they're making it rain here, because they can't see us.

And there are no boy giants, just girls.

That's what I believe, mama. And no one else has to believe in it. That's okay.

God (or Goddess, or maybe even Girl Giants), I love this kid.

Wow

Silas is a man of few words. But he does has a way of getting his point across.

Sometimes it's like living in a game of charades, a non-stop party in the '70s.

I will ask him a question, say: Do you want grapes or strawberries?

He will say, Ummm. Huh. Like he's thinking really hard.

So I'll pantomime and do something silly like make a little ball with my hands for grapes and pretend to pick a strawberry for strawberries.

And then he'll pretend to pick a strawberry and say yeah!

And now he says things like Mo! (more) and Ank Ooo (thank you). And he can say Wawa (I'm sure you can guess that one) but still uses the hand sign for water anyway.

But my favorite is the way he differentiates sizes.

He likes big things. Big things are Wow!

Things that aren't so big in comparison are No wow.

No wow is said in a little voice, which makes it seem like he feels bad for the thing, like he's sorry it's not Wow!

And, judging by Sy's growth chart at the doctor last week (follow the line to see the growth):

Um, yeah, I think he's pretty Wow!

Pumpkin Picking

Did I say pumpkin picking?

We do have 3 giant pumpkins in our garden, just waiting for Halloween. But we're not picking them yet.

I really meant nose picking. Is there any child who doesn't find it amusing?

Just try to get some nice pictures of your kids in the pumpkin patch and they do this:

And then the little one thinks: How have I not been doing this for every picture?!

So he joins in the fun.

Then, after taking 15 shots in various stages of nose picking and hysterics, you beg them for a nice pose for the love of all that's holy.

And every once in a while they throw you a bone.