Today while driving through one of Indiana's beautiful semi-rural roads, Jacob spoke up from the back seat. "This place has all the things I ever want in my whole life. The trees are beautiful."
Later, we were watching Bambi. During Bambi's mother's death, Jacob piped up again. His comment: "Can we try some deer meat sometime?"
-Kris
Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The Children's Museum
Saturday the fam met up with Jessica's high school friend, Jennifer and her son, Ray. We met at a German bakery and had Danishes (or Germans, I guess) before heading downtown to the Children's Museum. Once there, we hung out with some Storm Troopers...
We watched The Ella Show...
We pretended to be mummies...
We pretended to be dinosaurs...
We put goop on a skull...
We rode the carousel...
We had a tea party...
We dug in the dirt...
And we saw some cool art.
We watched The Ella Show...
We pretended to be mummies...
We pretended to be dinosaurs...
We put goop on a skull...
We rode the carousel...
(Ella thinks that when the guy says "yee haw" he's saying "ni hao." Ella prefers to greet her horse in Chinese.)
We had a tea party...
We dug in the dirt...
And we saw some cool art.
A good time was had by all.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
In what is sure to turn out to be a spectacular parenting error, I (Kris) have taught Jacob the most basic technique of effective argumentation:
Here is something that is less likely to turn out to be a parenting error. We are helping Jacob learn to read. Here is Jacob giving a reading from the classic early reading canon. For the record, before we began recording, we watched him figure out what the passage means all by himself--well, with a little help concerning "the".
Here is something that is less likely to turn out to be a parenting error. We are helping Jacob learn to read. Here is Jacob giving a reading from the classic early reading canon. For the record, before we began recording, we watched him figure out what the passage means all by himself--well, with a little help concerning "the".
Friday, November 13, 2009
Today I (Kris) took Ella to the art museum. I wasn't sure if she would be completely bored or only mostly bored. But it turned out, she liked it quite a bit.
Her favorite painting was one titled "Saint Joseph and the Christ Child" by Sebastian Martinez. I can't find a picture of it online, unfortunately, but it's a picture of Joseph pulling a three year old Jesus away from a bowl of fruit he's reaching for. For some reason, Ella really latched on to this painting, gazing at it for a good five or ten minutes, asking me a lot of questions about it. "What are they doing?" "Why does Jesus's daddy say 'no'?" "What does Jesus say?" "What does Jesus's daddy say?" "What does Jesus say?" "What's the fruit for?" "It's not their fruit! It's not for Jesus!" "Can Jesus borrow it?" And so on.
She was also quite fascinated with a sculpture of three year old Jesus, innocently naked and reaching forward, looking sort of intense and curious like he's about to touch something with an unfamiliar texture. "Is he mad?" "Hey, he got a penis just like Jacob has a penis. Cause Jesus is a boy!"
After a while, we went to the contemporary art section. One of the installations consists in some silhouettes painted on the wall, with a projector projecting a background scene onto the wall. Ella ran in front of the projector and yelled "Look at the shadows! Look at my shadow! My shadow's dancin'!" and with that, she began to dance, carefuly watching her shadow as it echoed the dance.
We have mislaid our battery charger, so I had no batteries and so had no camera. I really wish that I'd had it today because it's difficult to explain how beautiful Ella's dancing was. It managed to be both toddler-spastic and ella-graceful at the same time.
We next proceeded to come in severe danger of getting kid fingerprints on several abstract paintings. Ella next accused a museum attendant of being a statue. When he laughed at this, she looked somewhat amused but betrayed. "Hey, that's not a statute! You're not a statue!" When he acknowledged this, she then volunteered "I'm not a statue either. I'm a Ella!"
Another installation consisted of three giant sculptures of donkeys standing on carts. Ella was very interested to find out which was the mommy, which the daddy, and which the baby. She begged to be allowed to pet them, and then to be allowed to look inside one's nose to see if it had any boogers.
The last piece we looked at consists ins about 48 transparent panels making a floor, under which are tens of thousands of tiny figurines of men and women holding the panels up. You're allowed to walk over them at will, and Ella willed to walk over them. We spent ten or fifteen minutes in there as she walked, then ran, then tumbled and twirled back and forth over the panels.
We then shared a lunch downstairs of apples, cheese, bread and a cookie while she read some of the kids' books the museum's cafe has conveniently displayed in its dining room.
Then we picked up Jessica from work and told her all about the great day we'd had.
Her favorite painting was one titled "Saint Joseph and the Christ Child" by Sebastian Martinez. I can't find a picture of it online, unfortunately, but it's a picture of Joseph pulling a three year old Jesus away from a bowl of fruit he's reaching for. For some reason, Ella really latched on to this painting, gazing at it for a good five or ten minutes, asking me a lot of questions about it. "What are they doing?" "Why does Jesus's daddy say 'no'?" "What does Jesus say?" "What does Jesus's daddy say?" "What does Jesus say?" "What's the fruit for?" "It's not their fruit! It's not for Jesus!" "Can Jesus borrow it?" And so on.
She was also quite fascinated with a sculpture of three year old Jesus, innocently naked and reaching forward, looking sort of intense and curious like he's about to touch something with an unfamiliar texture. "Is he mad?" "Hey, he got a penis just like Jacob has a penis. Cause Jesus is a boy!"
After a while, we went to the contemporary art section. One of the installations consists in some silhouettes painted on the wall, with a projector projecting a background scene onto the wall. Ella ran in front of the projector and yelled "Look at the shadows! Look at my shadow! My shadow's dancin'!" and with that, she began to dance, carefuly watching her shadow as it echoed the dance.
We have mislaid our battery charger, so I had no batteries and so had no camera. I really wish that I'd had it today because it's difficult to explain how beautiful Ella's dancing was. It managed to be both toddler-spastic and ella-graceful at the same time.
We next proceeded to come in severe danger of getting kid fingerprints on several abstract paintings. Ella next accused a museum attendant of being a statue. When he laughed at this, she looked somewhat amused but betrayed. "Hey, that's not a statute! You're not a statue!" When he acknowledged this, she then volunteered "I'm not a statue either. I'm a Ella!"
Another installation consisted of three giant sculptures of donkeys standing on carts. Ella was very interested to find out which was the mommy, which the daddy, and which the baby. She begged to be allowed to pet them, and then to be allowed to look inside one's nose to see if it had any boogers.
The last piece we looked at consists ins about 48 transparent panels making a floor, under which are tens of thousands of tiny figurines of men and women holding the panels up. You're allowed to walk over them at will, and Ella willed to walk over them. We spent ten or fifteen minutes in there as she walked, then ran, then tumbled and twirled back and forth over the panels.
We then shared a lunch downstairs of apples, cheese, bread and a cookie while she read some of the kids' books the museum's cafe has conveniently displayed in its dining room.
Then we picked up Jessica from work and told her all about the great day we'd had.
Amazing!!!
Jacob can now read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ella can reach the lightswitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jessica has been running!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kris has been writing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*Jacob's been recognizing words for a long time now, but for the past couple of days, he's been sounding out everything he sees and is doing a great job deciphering the results. He can write the entire alphabet and all the numbers 1-10.
**Ella has been saying that she's not a big girl because she can't reach the light. Now she can, so now she is.
***Jessica has joined a gym and has been running a mile every day.
****Kris has been writing grant proposals as a side gig.
Ella can reach the lightswitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jessica has been running!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kris has been writing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*Jacob's been recognizing words for a long time now, but for the past couple of days, he's been sounding out everything he sees and is doing a great job deciphering the results. He can write the entire alphabet and all the numbers 1-10.
**Ella has been saying that she's not a big girl because she can't reach the light. Now she can, so now she is.
***Jessica has joined a gym and has been running a mile every day.
****Kris has been writing grant proposals as a side gig.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Absolutely Tacky
I'm embarassed to say this, but for Christmas, the Rhodes Family would like only flat things. Flat things include: clothes, books, DVDs, Magna Doodle, Aqua Doodle, puzzles, coloring books (no colors, please), and stickers. We are also able to accept edible items such as fruit snacks, popcorn, and hot chocolate. We are limited on space, and though the kids would absolutely LOVE other kinds of toys, we just don't see how we can make everything fit.
Jacob's Likes:
Super Why
Star Wars
coloring
board games
books
Ella's Likes:
ballerinas
Ni Hao Kai Lan
coloring
dresses
Dora the Explorer
Kris's and Jessica's Likes will be few, but available on Amazon's Wish List shortly.
I maybe should have posted this earlier, but my brain is stuck in October...
Jacob's Likes:
Super Why
Star Wars
coloring
board games
books
Ella's Likes:
ballerinas
Ni Hao Kai Lan
coloring
dresses
Dora the Explorer
Kris's and Jessica's Likes will be few, but available on Amazon's Wish List shortly.
I maybe should have posted this earlier, but my brain is stuck in October...
I'd Like to Report a Kidnapping
Ella the Angry has been kidnapped and replaced by an imposter.
For the past week, she has been wonderfully pleasant, charming, and an absolute delight. I hope this is a phase that she stays in for a while...!
For the past week, she has been wonderfully pleasant, charming, and an absolute delight. I hope this is a phase that she stays in for a while...!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
The Childrens' Museum
Today we went to the Childrens' Museum. We met up with my friend from work, Bethany, and her husband, Drew, and four-year-old daughter, Layla. We saw dinosaur bones, a meteorite, and all kinds of other exhibits. We actually skipped two floors of stuff, so we'll have to go back again to make up for it! Jacob's favorite part had a crane and diggers. Ella's favorite part had Eli Lilly's daughter's playhouse. Both kids had a great time, but Ella busted her lip so we went home. She was tired anyway and fell asleep in the car before we'd even left the parking garage.
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