Miscellany Mischief

Oh...we know how to get into mischief alright.

From Magic shows...

to fountain gazing...

to playground days-ing (in the rain)...

From squirrel encounters...

and at-home messes.

Y'alls room...on a Saturday...by 9 am. A GREAT morning.

From hammering in-doors and out...

From grazing outdoors, 

to racing down our new-driveway...

Happy, Goofball, Helmet Dance

To messy and amazing art projects indoors...

(which turned out so beautifully!) 

By Aidan

By Julia...signed with a J (mostly)

By Aidan...signed with an A

Artist unknown.

And out...

It's no wonder that you guys sleep so well!

Mischief has never been so fun!

Masterpieces

Julia, Aidan,

Recently you both have had an artistic awakening or renaissance or self-discovery or something.

Aidan, you used to color and paint a lot. But something over the past 18 months made you shy away from it. You like to paint some, but really had no interest in coloring or drawing or writing. Now sculpting? Play-doh? You could do it all day long. But, for whatever reason, you decided you didn't want to color or paint, and we embraced that decision (and bought a lot of Play-doh).

But late last year your Mom and you started experimenting with less permanent mediums...ie, the Magna-Doodle. No pressure on a magna-Doodle! And you doodled away. Eventually, we started leaving you letters to trace on the Magna-Doodle, and you loved it. You trace the letters at  least once a day and, of course, let us know what letters they are. And, low and behold, recently you started just writing the letters by yourself! Super cool!

Then we started experimenting a little more. Your mom or I would help your draw a circle and then let you draw a face. And, before you knew it, we were drawing your FIRST STICK FIGURES on PAPER! Mommy and I were so pleased!

And then, surprise! For my birthday, I got a signed fully original piece of artwork just from you!

I love it! We proudly hung it in a prominent place at home!

And now, you know what you're saying? You say "I'm Good at Painting, Mommy!" 

Yes you are! And your artistic expressions have started to flow on to paper again!

Also, your Mommy nearly cried when you used scissors properly for the first time in our presence. One handed clipping brought so much joy!

You made a ROBOT:

 And this beautiful masterpiece, which has a surprise involving staples, googly eyes and a lot of glue on the back. This is actually the thing you were working on when you told mommy "I'm good at painting."

Julia, you have always been interested in coloring. You like to use lots of colors, and even have some favorite crayons (which, much to your dismay, I can never seem to find).

Here is one of your latest works.

You're not opposed to collaborations either. You and Mommy worked together to make me a "Silly Mermaid" for my birthday!

For Christmas, Aunt Nessa got you an over-sized Frozen coloring book and you have become quite taken with it. It's the first coloring book that you really showed interest in, and you slave over it with the greatest detail.

Look at the eyes, which you chose to color blue and her mouth, and how you labored to color in each little gem stone green (and one red).

The two of you don't have to be artists, and we really don't mind if you don't like painting or drawing (even though it is such a big part of your mom's career and education). But we love that you guys can both find any way to express yourself artistically. 

And, when dealing with a toddler and a kid when there are paints and markers and crayons at eye-level and fully accessible, we are thankful that most of your masterpieces in these mediums are on paper!

Fun with Friends...and Odds & Ends

Aidan, as you're getting older, you're also becoming more of a social butterfly. You used to acknowledge other children, but now you're really into playing with them, especially your best bud Brady and your awesome little pal (and next door neighbor) Luke.

Here's some evidence:

You're always pretty excited to see Luke! The other day we were at the park and Luke and Tammy came a little later. You saw Luke coming and you ran up to him to say hello! Then you put sticks on his head. No friendship is perfect.

You're also getting along great with Brady! You guys play together, hang out, and encourage each other to be silly...and get wet.


...Very wet...


You guys were so dirty (and wet) from the park, that you even bathed together. What? Friends do that, right? I took some video, but I'm not going to post it here, as the video went from G to R rated pretty quickly when Brady decided to stand up.

But there were some funny moments in your growing friendship.

Brady, standing up, turned his backside to you and bent over. You turned to us and said what anyone in your situation would say: "Meow."

Also, you thought it was very hilarious to continually pour water on Brady's head. You would pour it, then laugh. Pour it, then laugh.

But when Brady tried it on you, you got upset.

So, yeah, friendships need to be fine tuned; but you're off to a great start at learning the basic tune!

Here are the odds & ends:

1. You've been watercoloring with your Mommy, and the results are great!

2. You've been talking a lot more, and trying out new words: especially names.

You now know my name, "aaahn" and Mommy's (hall). And your own ("adn!"). You're working on family and friends names too. You called cousin Kobi "koko," you're working on "Bekka" and have "BG" (Uncle BJ) and "kai" (Kari) pretty much down. Of course, you know Mi and Yaya and Pop too!

3. You're amazing us with your Nursery Rhyming.

Your Mom worked with you pretty diligently one day to get you to fill in the blanks on "Humpty Dumpty". You say 'wall,' 'fall,' 'men,' and 'again,' at all the right places, very excitedly!

But, the other night, we were reading you stories and decided to try some more fill-in-the-blanks, and without any reminding necessary, you new the words to "Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat" which you now request by your name for it: "Been" (since you love to say "been"). We were floored by this development!

"been" "queen" "there" "chair" --- you're quite the rhymer...and really surprised your Mommy and Me by pulling that out of your hat!

4. DANCING!
The other day we heard some street musicians and you just started to bebop and dance all over the place. I helped you out by calling dance moves: clap! snap! spin! drum! (and you beat your hands on the ground). I tried to get  video of it, but by the time I got the camera out, you had found a nearby puddle to dance in. But that was cute too...and still involved some really top notch dancing.



Now you love dancing! Whenever your Muppets songs come on, especially your current favorite ("Life's a Happy Song", which you request by brushing your teeth...trust me, it makes sense), you dance, dance, dance!


With friends, and dancing, and painting rhyming, life really is a happy song (although there are a few cadenzas of Grade-A tantrums). We're ecstatic to sing along with you!