Kindred loves Rocketships

I think that it comes as no surprise that Kindred has had a little tiny bit of an obsession with rocketships and space shuttles these days. It all started way back in August, when me and the boys were in FL, and Kindred and I went to retrieve my parents from the airport. On the way home my mom was sitting in the back seat with Kindred. She discovered a program or brochure of some sort from my in-laws' visit to Kennedy Space Center and she began explaining to Kindred all the parts of the space shuttle and the process of launching.

Since that time, he has not only been to Kennedy Space Center himself, but he also go to be near Cape Canaveral when the last shuttle launched and watched it go into space, initially on the TV then, as he says, "We ran outside and watched it go up and up. It was a big ball of fire. It was nighttime."

When he got home, his block projects began to get a little more elaborate. Here he has built the rocket ship and launch pad. (Notice the symmetry of the pad.)


Later, he built the "International Space Station":


And just recently, he did a full demonstration of a shuttle launch, complete with countdown from 12 (which includes the phrase "don't forget the main engine start" around 5), followed by "...1 and liftoff of the space shuttle Endeavor." Then as the shuttle roars up into the sky, the rocket boosters drop off and the ship turns upside down for it's continued flight into orbit.

I have actually gotten video of the demo. You can view it here.

Elias tries very hard to mimic his big brother. He does his best to build big rocket-sips:


And he tries very hard to get in Kindred's spotlight and take credit for work he has not done:


Then he kicks the international space station to bits, and Kindred cries and cries. And then we all take a little break. (Cmon, they can't both be brilliant angels all the time.)

Tenny too, tenny free and and an early Christmas gift

Kindred has two obsessions lately: Rocket ships (naturally) and counting. He nearly bowled me over with shock the other day when he was counting away: ..."nineteen, twenny, twenny-one, twenny-two..... (continues)....forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine....(continues)....seventy-three, seventy-four....(continues)....ninety-nine *pause* one hundred! One hundred and one, one hundred and two.... (continues)....one hundred and ten!" *grins* My three year old counts to one hundred and ten. He rarely misses a number in the sequence, and after he realized how to figure out where to go when he hits *9, he became a pro. He is so proud of himself.


Elias has started to imitate Kindred. Today he was running in a big circle, counting away: "Tenny-won, tenny too, tenny sitz, tenny sevan, tenny ate, tenny sevan, tenny ate, tenny sevan...." He still gets stuck sometimes.

When the children and Daddy went to the aquarium (without me) last week, they were giving me the report of everything they saw there. They told me about the sharks with, as Elias put it, "The biiig mouth-is, and a biiig teef-is, and biiiig noses and biiiig lip-is." They told me about the (Elias again) "Addidators" and the hippos. Then Michael was trying to get Elias to tell me about the funny animals that ate the fish standing up in one big gulp who looked funny (penguins). Elias sat and said "Ummmmm, ummmmm, ummmm..." for a minute, then we heard Kindred, who was dying to answer, whisper, "Elias, it starts with a 'P'."

And finally,

this guy:


and these cuties:



went out last week and gave me a present, so that I could show you this:


Any guesses? (You all should be very happy and thankful, especially the grandparents.)

Deck the Halls... fa la la la, yeah.

I had a great Thanksgiving holiday. I really did. I didn't get out of my PJ's much, I put off showering until the last possible acceptable moments, I spent oodles of time with my kiddos. I had no schedule, no deadlines, very few obligations and none that I didn't enjoy. It was great.

And we decorated for Christmas! This is quite possibly the earliest in my life I have ever gotten decorations put up. My family would wait until the last minute to decorate-- not out of tradition so much as the realization that if it didn't happen by Christmas Eve, it might as well not happen at all. (Then the decor would stay around sometimes as late as Easter.) But I got a jump on it this year.


We aren't getting a traditional tree this year. It's somewhat heartbreaking to buy a live cut tree for just a few weeks of use, but an artificial tree feels wrong too. So we are probably going to get a "living tree." We did this 2 years ago. You buy a living tree in a pot, keep it outside, then bring it in for a few days to decorate and enjoy indoors. But it goes back outside until next year when the whole thing happens again. We think we could potentially get 3-4 years out of the tree in the pot, and then we will plant it.

This great plan offers up the dilemma: What will we hang the ornaments on? Even if we waited until we brought the tree inside, we still have too many ornaments for such a little tree. So I came up with a solution: Hang garland across the mantle and fireplace and have the boys decorate it.

Kindred and Elias are slightly (ok, majorly) symmetrically-deficient. They group things together that I would certainly advocate spreading out. They don't care.

And here's Elias modeling the near-finished product. The plan worked better than I had imagined. I have since replaced the red bow in the middle with a few silk poinsettias, added some blue balls and white lights. I have also organized the mantle and added our wonderful Peruvian holy family statues. It looks really nice, if I do say so myself.

And here's my crack-up kid. Elias kept running around the room repositioning himself and smiling beautifully for me so I could take his "pitcher" when he requested (demanded) it.

Isn't he a nut? And speaking of nuts, Kindred heard the popular Spanish Christmas song that permeates our radio play today, and proceeded to run around the house singing, "Red-DEE snotty duh! Red-DEE snotty duh." He is most definitely not bi-lingual.


Slightly unrelated to the post, I must add a huge HOORAY and welcome to Willa and Anna, the best set of news today.

And the worser news is this: I wanted to add pictures of the finished living room decorations that I am so proud of. Alas, technology has failed me. I went to take the photos just now and uploaded them. They all look similar to this one:




Our trusty camera was a gift for Michael presented at his "Man Shower," right before Kindred was born almost 4 years ago. It has been an essential part of our lives. And now it seems it has snapped its last photo.

(Alas the bog is about to get real boring....)