Yellow Leaves

Wren went to preschool this morning and had a fun time. He didn't even need to be really "brave" to stay on his own. He made a picture of a spiderweb using marbles dipped in white paint which he rolled around on a tray covered in dark blue paper. Then he glued a black spider t the web. He likes these a lot.

After preschool Wren likes to "go bagel shop" as he has done with Heather on many occasions. I used to be allowed to buy a bagel and leave but apparently HEATHER sits down so we have to sit down and eat his bagel and chocolate milk.

After bagel we walked around the neighborhood. Its a startlingly lovely day - the sky a vivid blue but the air chill enough to give you energy. The weather reminds me of England - that bright peppy sun and chill air of autumn.

Here, we can see some pictures from our walk:

The Sky, the sky.

The yellow tree.

Wren, looking UP UP

A short walk down the road we came across some other smaller trees which Wren wanted to "not climb I hang on". I lifted him up and then left him hanging while I took the picture. He was yelling "AAAAH" at this point. It was not more than a foot if he let go but he thought I he might be dangling over the Niagara Falls and hung on tight. I thought it was ok to let him hang a bit as payback for all the bossiness he has been displaying.

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!!"

We went to the library before lunch but it wasn't open. Our local library is being remodeled and I find it very inconvenient. We are quite dependent on our library for new books. Perhaps I shall have time to go tomorrow. I am now the Librarian for our preschool class and am due to take out some books for classroom use before Thursday. The theme for October is Fall ad Families.

Flying Kites

This Sunday was very windy and Josh suggested we head up to the local playground to fly kites. The wind was so strong that all our kites whizzed up into the air and it was a bit of work to hold the octopus one steady. The box kite which is rated "for light wind" broke bit by bit until Joshua declared it could not be fixed and put it away. While we have taken Frost kite flying before we have never had such a strong sustained wind and it was quite exciting for him and all of us. Wren was very brave considering his recent fear of things that move and make noise (like wind). He talked about the wind but didn't panic or demand to go inside.

Here are some pictures of the boys at the field.

Here is a video I just uploaded. It may take a half hour to process and become available so if it doesn't work, please try again later.

I know that some of you, like me, have been trying to interpret Wren's use of NATING in my prior post. I haven't had any success myself but I don't think it matters. I think he is willing to simply contradict anything I say. He probably misheard me saying something and thought I said NATING and so was going to deny the nating by putting away the game.

A bit later this morning I tested this theory by talking gibberish. I said "I am boggling the herp" and Wren said "NO, YOU MAY NOT BOGGLE the HERP". I asked if we could "Fribble?" "NO," he said. "We are NOT Fribble."

See, its just about control. Not sense. Never about sense.

Imperious. Authoritarian. Almost 3.

Wren and I are playing blocks. I have finally woken up enough to build a little city of towers and battlements. As soon as I get absorbed by the game Wren says:
"Now put it away. It is too NATING."
"Do you mean frustrating?"
"NO NATING. You build the towering and they are TOO TOWERING so it is NATING and we are going to put it away."
"Ah, ok. Can I keep that one?" I ask, gesturing towards my favorite tower that has a nice red turret. Its on a slab of wood we got in Vancouver - the piece we call "dead bunny." The tower is pretty.
"No, they go in the box. I do it." He breaks them all down and dumps them in the slim cardboard box.
"You need to get them flat in the box or the lid won't fit."
"NO, THEY DO NOT GO FLAT IN THE BOX."
"Well, lets see, if I put the lid on it does not shut now."
"NO, I DO IT. IT DO NOT GO FLAT!"
[another demonstration and a sleight of hand in which I flatten the offending blocks. The task is completed quietly.]
"Now we play candyland."
"Ok, first let me go and pee and I will come back."
[I try and re-enter the room which involves opening the door.]
"Do not open the door! I NEED to pee."
"But I am trying to come back in to play"
"I am doing it. I am coming out."
"Ok, I will come back in a minute."

It is 6.59am and I have been ordered about for 45 minutes already. I am feeling 'RATED and 'TATED and wondering where my compliant little toddler went to.

When I woke him in the morning Wren told me that last night Kitty Haiku visited him in the night and came to look at him and he thought she was a scary Halloween cat and so he hid his face in his soft toys and then she couldn't SEE him.

My Kids Are Weird

This morning I noticed Wren had a purple bruise on his foot.

"Oh, look, you hurt your foot! How did you do that?" I asked.

"When I was a baby I trod on a dead beaver and it had a spike in back and it hurt my foot but I am alright now," he told me.

I mean, what do you say to that one?

Wren is also clever at reading 'signs'. He can read the green walking figure to tell me when we can cross the street (but fights me holding his hand while I insist). He saw this sign at the coffee shop we like near Frost's school and told me it said "DOESNT STAND ON ONE FOOT HERE."

We really like that coffee shop because they will make kidicino's - foam filled little espresso cups with a sprinkle of chocolate - for only 50c. As any good Seattelite, Wren takes his 'coffee' very seriously.

Meanwhile, Frost is in the kitchen unpacking the kitchen cupboards to find products "past their expiration date".

Since I poisoned him with rancid peanut butter a few months ago (he had a horrible bout of food poisoning from peanut butter I found in the Emergency Supplies Cupboard and fed him before checking its use-by date which was 3 years prior) Frost is very invested in checking food is not expired. He is also distrustful and routinely looks on boxes and cans before he eats things. The stuff he found in the cupboard today has raised his level of vigilance:

1) A bag of soy flour expired in 2005.

2) A cup of noodles in a flavor none of us eat. When opened it erupted in a purple dust of [probably toxic] mould spores leaving a few undecomposed noodles like the bones of an oracle. At least I would not have FED him that one.

3) Various grains eaten by weavils.

4) Packaged tofu that was EAT BY last year.

See, I tend not to think that expiration dates are very important with dry goods. By contrast, with meat I am quite careful and so those sardines that expired in August 2009 had to go.

For breakfast, I am eating the sardines which expire in a few months. Yum.

Frost and Wren dumped all the expired foods into a bowl and mixed them up. Frost pretended that the tapioca was snail eyeballs and the prunes were something else yucky.

Even though its early we have already been doing gardening and now its time for tea and sardines.