Call It What You Want...

This afternoon, after he'd gotten up from his nap but before we headed downstairs, Adam and I snuggled in the rocking chair for a little bit. He suggested that I tell a story. I thought maybe he could help. This story was told in a sort of Mad Libs style, with me saying the first part of the sentence and then pausing for him to finish the sentences. His completions are underlined in the story we told, below.

Once upon a time there was a loader.

The loader had a driver named Dozer.

One day the loader got a load of rocks to take to the paper mill.

They saw their friend Backhoe. They said, “Don’t turn off the light!”

Backhoe said, “Turn off the light!”

Then they went on a picnic. They had a tissue picnic. They ate some corn. Then they had dessert. It was yummy.

Then they went home for naptime.

They went to blankey bear. They went home.

The End.

We went to see Grandma Skelly today at the rehab center. When we got there, she was snoozing in bed with crocheting in her hand. That makes me smile, because Grandma has always been all about the crocheting, whether super-attractive vests (ahem!) or afghans for Christmas (one year all the cousins got them; I still have mine) or doilies or angels or clothes for an entire Barbie wedding party (maybe just the girls?) or new baby blankets for my boys or... the list goes on and on.

In another wing of the rehab center is a nursing home "for retarded people," Grandma told me, and she's crocheting lap robes for them. There are sixteen people there. She knew she'd never get 16 lap robes made, but even if she made a few, it would give her something to do.

She's up past 10 now. Apparently the people at the rehab center cleared out their yarn stash for her. The finished ones are in all different colors; the one she was working on today was in pinks and reds and white.

And then she told me that when she first got back to the rehab center, she had a bad attitude. She was feeling nasty all the time. When someone would walk by her door talking, she'd feel mad that they were talking about that -- whatever it was. Since crocheting has been the way she's filled her hours and days and weeks for years and years now, she decided she'd see if she could do some crocheting.

Now, something like a month later, she has piles of these lap robes for the people in the nursing home, she has something to do, and she has a better attitude -- and she'll tell you that, too.

No wonder the people in the craft room cleaned out their yarn stash for her!

So let's hear it for the 98-year-old (two months from 99!) lady who's keeping her hands busy and has found a way to improve her attitude. (And who has Aunt Jeannie pick up a couple of cute cars for my boys when they came to visit today. They loved them. And Mark said, "We are thankful for what we got," when we got home.")

In the Family Circus comics from my childhood, it was always an invisible gremlin named "Not Me" who did stuff around the house.

"Who scribbled on the wall?" "Not me!"

At my brother's house, it's Mister Nobody. Actually, in Jonathan's eyes, Mister Nobody is good for a lot of things, including a silly name to call people when he feels ornery.

At our house, it's someone else.

Tim didn't get up on time yesterday because his alarm, when it went off, was turned down so low it didn't make any sound. I recalled that the boys had been playing in our room the day before.

"Adam did it!" Mark told me.

"Adam, did you play with Daddy's clock?" I asked.

"JONAH did it!"

That's right. That same guy who didn't want to go to Ninevah and headed for Tarshish, the same guy who got swallowed by a big big fish and didn't want to tell the people to obey God.

Yep. Jonah played with Daddy's clock. Jonah did it.

Sigh.

How can I put Jonah in time out?

Du kannst mir sehr gefallen! (You can please me very much.)

Yes, perhaps it's true and I am the last person to put up my Christmas tree, as suggested by Janay and Cheryl, but one must wait until other December obligations (my birthday) are met...

So up goes the tree, and the boys are pleased. Decorations will come after naptime, but let's just enjoy the important things:

The lights

The "Baby Jesus set"

The "Baby Jesus rug"

Now the tree is up and the boys are in their naps, but not before giving the tree a kiss and a hug (Adam's idea). Ornaments will come later, as will the snowman that lights up and other exciting things.

For now, enjoy our tree. I'm sure we will.

The boys got to spend Thanksgiving with their best friends -- two of their cousins! Of course they got Grandma, Grandpa, and two aunts and uncles in the bargain as well, but it's nice to watch the four little boys play together.

Jonathan (center) has always been a really sweet kid, but since he turned 4, he's apparently (according to his mom) decided that following rules and stuff works better than not. In this picture, he is patiently and sweetly "reading" to Adam and Andrew. I think this was the book with the snakes in it. He was reading to them that "THIS snake is very poisonous. You should NOT try to kill it. Leave it ALONE." Too cute.

Andrew is an ace at smiling at the camera. He has such a pleasant little face -- and it goes along with his personality. He's always pretty even-tempered (except when he's hungry!) -- I could stand for my corresponding-age boy to take a little from the Andrew book.

We went over to the church fellowship hall for a little large-motor fun on Friday afternoon. Jonathan and Andrew have a couple of Plasma Cars, which are fun to "drive" using the steering handle. Mark and Jonathan drove the things all over, while Andrew and Adam used other ride-on toys -- Adam favoring the Lightning McQueen ride-on. They had soooo much fun.

It also turns out that, when the situations seems to warrant it, Mark can actually pedal. It was a little hard to pedal as fast as he wanted on the slick floor, but no, we do NOT have to enroll him in a remedial tricycle class in kindergarten. WHEW.

Got some cute pictures of the boys on the computer this week, so I thought I should share...

Adam demonstrates his building skills. Would the Denver Developmental Tests say his fine motor skills are okay?

In this image, we catch Mark on what might have been his first date. He told me yesterday that he was kissing Anna. I thought he had just slipped his arm around her in a super-smooth date-move. Incidentally, both moms were there to supervise said date, so all was fine.

Here we see how Daddy deals with boys drawing in the condensation on the front door... he gives them cleaner cloths and puts them to work! They cleaned what they could reach, and then Mark retrieved a stool to clean a little higher (which explains how he appears THAT much taller than Adam). They were very proud of their work.

We got a couple inches of snow Sunday morning, and it was enough -- and of the right texture -- to make perfect snowmen! Our two snow-people are facing each other in the yard and waving their arms. So we couldn't get Adam to participate in the photo op... he was more than ready for his nap!