Why, why, why (and a little how)

Little Mr. A is a curious fellow. Whenever we read or watch anything, and I do mean anything, he wants to know why or what or how. But usually it’s why. 

If we are reading about bees, he wants to know what's happening, the why of what's happening and the why and how of the why. Once we read that bees eat nectar, and explain what nectar is, he wants to know why they eat nectar ("because that is what they like to eat."), why they like it, etc. If we are looking at a book about painting a wall, he wants to know why the wall is being painted ("because it needs it"), why it needs it ("to protect it"), what to protect it from ("getting ruined by the weather"), why the weather ruins it (wanting to move on "that's just the way it works"), "Nana, why that's the way it works," then why it's being painted that color ("because that is the color they liked"), why they liked it, etc.

When we have scriptures and it is their turn to “read,” the boys repeat the words of their verse after someone reads the verse a few words at a time. Then the adult stops to explain what happened in the verse or what something means.

Yesterday in scripture time 1 Nephi 10:12 was his verse (in case you want to follow along):

Me:  Yea, even my father . . .

A: Yea, even my father what just happened? (Honest- not even a pause where you could imagine any punctuation between the two phrases)

Me: Nothing yet . . . . spake much . . . .

A: spake much now what happened?

Me: Nothing, he’s just explaining that his father was talking a lot. . . .concerning . . .

A:  concerning what happened now?

Me: He's still just talking. . . . the Gentiles . . .

A:  what the Gentiles gonna do?

Me: (Prompting) . . . .the Gentiles . . .

A:  the gentiles what they doing?

And so on. Through the ENTIRE verse. Nothing ever really happened in the verse, but he never gave up hope. I could hardly get a word out before he would ask what had happened. It got harder and harder to hide my amusement and I almost lost it when I could tell that J was starting to think it was a little funny. But we made it through the verse. We will finish chapter 10 tonight.

And we're back . . .

Camp Grand Nana is up and running again in Kohler. We've been at it a few days and things have been mostly as expected- challenges mixed with surprisingly smooth times, three panic times and multiple teary 'he's being mean to me' times followed by giggly, romping heaps of brothers.


Here are a few of the things we have done:



'Eaten' lots of apples (they showed up later, trimmed and chunked in an apple salad).

Glow sticks before breakfast (whole-wheat chocolate, chocolate chip muffins)

 

A cocoa party, with little kitty pitchers and tiny cocoa cups

 

 

Home made window clings

Dual nappers after 4 days of no nappers

Desperate times call for desperate measures when your two favorite laps are out of the country!

More to come later.

Good morning, Kohler!

Last night went so much better than expected! Nana is working hard to not get her hopes up too much, but a repeat would be nice.

Mostly ordinary stuff today. Glow sticks, meal times, play times, snack times, resting time, meltdown times, rollicking-frolicking times. The usual stuff. But overall, a tolerable day.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. No kidding!

Trivial tidbit of the day: If you put a glow stick in the freezer, it still glows a little bit the next morning. In case you were wondering.

Tidbit #2: If a cat’s favorite man is out of town and his favorite woman is no where to be found, suddenly a Nana’s lap will look absolutely perfect.

Oh, Mama!

Today is day one without Mama. We worked really hard to stay on our regular schedule but managed to get to bed a little late anyway.

Today's score:

Blood- none

Snot- plenty

Insanity- so far, so good!

Events of the Day:

Played with glowsticks while it was still a little dark in the morning. The camera compensated for the dark, but you get the idea.

Ate waffles

Did dishes and swept floor

Played indoors

Snacked.

Purchased a prize toy from Mama’s prize box

Napped, practiced writing name, played Peggle

Played outside

Went for walk.

Made milkshakes, talked to Mama

Played racing, searching, rescuing game in the sunny front hallway.

Played some more

Ate dinner and cleaned kitchen

Played with balloons while Nana ate dinner

Took a shower, had scriptures, songs and stories

Went to bed

Cutest thing heard today (Explained to me during a break in a rambunctious, giggly, bouncy goof-off session they had)

"We just can't have fun without Mama. It's not fun without Mama."

Sweet.

Yellowstone day 4

Yesterday (Tuesday) was a big day. Jonah had fallen asleep the day before at about 4:30 in the afternoon and slept straight through until 7:15 the next morning. Both Jonah and Tommy woke up just in time to get ready for our big hike to Timpanogos Cave.

Tommy and Jonah and Grandma hiked all the way up to the cave and got there just in time to go in with our tour. One great thing about the tour was the ranger. It was Ranger Nancy! She is the ranger that some of us got to know so well when we were training for our hike through the Grand Canyon a few years ago. So Grandma introduced her to the next generation.

On the hike up and back down they saw little animals and had lots of rest stops to eat snacks and lunch. There was a tree that was growing in the shape of a "J" and Tommy decided we should name it the Jonah tree. Everyone decided to they should stop on the way back down to take Jonah's picture by the tree. Jonah fell right before he got to the tree and skinned his knee, so he couldn't smile for his picture, but wanted a picture anyway. Right before they finished the hike, after looking and looking, Tommy finally found a tree that was growing in the shape of a "T" and we took a picture of him in front of the Tommy tree. It was a good hike and both boys did great. They spent the rest of the day playing with their friends.

This morning Tommy and Jonah and Grandma finished the last 3 chapters of The Boxcar Children before they packed up all the boys clothes and things so that they could just play all day without having to stop and get ready to go home. Then they built a fort in the living room.

Yellowstone day 2

Today is the second day of T and J's visit with Grandpa and Grandma while Mom and Dad are in Yellowstone. Yesterday the boys spent most of the day playing with their backyard neighbor friends-swinging, climbing, picking berries and tomatoes, and playing indoors when it got hot. They also went with Grandma to run errands and choose a new book for reading time. For this Camp Grand Nana visit Grandpa is reading us the first book of the Boxcar Children series. We also got a copy of Farmer Boy for another time.

Today we went to Thanksgiving Point. It was $2 Tuesday, more aptly named 10,000 people Tuesday. It was very crowded. Grandma had never seen so many strollers in one place before!

We went to Farm Country and then to the Dinosaur Museum. Lots of fun. Aunt Jenn and JJ went with us and took all three boys around to see the farm animals while Grandma stood in line for their turn on the pony ride. The pony ride was their favorite part. Then we walked over to the museum and Jenn and the boys ate lunch in the shade while Grandma waited in line to get into the museum. We all loved the dark tunnel in the museum where it feels like you are in outer space. Just lots and lots of stars all the way around you no matter which direction you look. We also had fun in the giant sandy play area burying dinosaurs and making rivers.

Next time, we're going on a regular price day. After school starts again.

We are going to bed early tonight because we have big plans for the morning. We are going to pack a little lunch and go "spelunking." We want to get up to the cave before it gets hot so we are leaving early. If you are familiar with the trail, you will know what we mean when we say that we are going to stop on our way back down to eat our lunch in the little grove of trees near the top. Maybe we will see some little animals on our way up. We'll give everyone a report and hopefully have a fun picture or two tomorrow.

Aloha day eleven

Friday May 9

Today was another busy day for Tommy and Jonah. Tommy went to school and Jonah and Grandma baked rolls and then went to the greenhouse to get things for Grandma’s yard. Jonah took a ride on the big greenhouse cart while he was there. Jonah and Grandma went straight from the greenhouse to Ian’s house so that Jonah and Ian could play together. When Tommy was done at school, he and Grandma went to get Jonah. Then everyone went to the greenhouse again to help Uncle David get flowers for his yard. Jonah slept in the van by the greenhouse door. Tommy helped ladies load their flowers into their cars while Grandma helped David. Someone gave Tommy a quarter for helping and someone else’s grandma gave him a package of cheese crackers to say “thanks.”





Tommy and Jonah and Grandpa finished Bunnicula last night, so tonight, they read picture books instead. Tomorrow Tommy will go to his soccer game and then they will go home with Mommy and Daddy. Grandpa and Grandma will miss them. We all had a lot of fun together.