Horton Heard a Helicopter

We heard a helicopter go by the house tonight. Not very common but we are close to the hospital so it is to be expected from time to time. Rob asked Willon if he heard it and got a stunned response, then, "Wob, come on! Go outside ride da helicopter!" Rob told him it was already gone but Willon insisted, "Go catch 'im!" He needed proof so Rob took him out the front door into the dark night and showed him it was gone. When they came back in ("Go back, pretty cold.") Willon very excitedly shook me by the arm and rattled off, "Mom! Helicopter! *gasp* Ride! It's GONE!"

Drawings

I don't get many in the way of keepsakes so I take pictures of the ones I can catch before she erases them. She is much more cooperative lately in waiting until I get the camera ready. She'll even attempt to explain some of what she's drawing. This whiteboard was a gift from our friend Margaret already years ago and it is by far the most loved, most used thing we own.

This she drew weeks after their joint birthday party. She must have enjoyed it!



This appears to be a maze.



This she drew after a recent walk around the lake near our house. We learned all about bodies of water, bridges and islands that day.



After a week back to school following winter break she's been acting out lessons. This she drew of her Teacher and a student (not her) in front of the classroom whiteboard.



And finally, this is a picture of our house and where it is on our continent and planet. LOL! Too cute.

Pay it forward

Pay It Forward

Here's how it works. The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a handmade gift or treat from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise. The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going. Then come back, let me know you're going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift! Yeah, for homemade things and surprise packages!

This is a great idea, Jess and Angie!

A sign of spring at our house

I have a juniper skeleton in my back yard. When the last leaf falls I decorate it with ball ornaments to add color to the otherwise winter ravaged scene. They don't make ball ornaments out of colored glass anymore, rather color-coated glass. When the winter weather has taken it's toll on them they start to look like a little desheveled. But in the desert that means if you start looking closely at the living trees you'll see buds forming. This is my hap-happiest time of the year.

Rhetta's story writing

This one reads:

Story.
Rhetta
is
outside
swings
and
slide
But
Rhetta
is shovel.

(She was going to write more but her pen dried out so she erased the whole thing.)



This one reads:

Story.
Once
upon
a time
their was
a inside
the house
Rhetta
going to
draw.

Thomasita Jefferson

Hee hee. They're studying presidents and Mt. Rushmore in school this week. Rhetta came home today with a colonial hat on that she made herself. One side reads, "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." and another side reads, "All men are created equal."

A day in the rain

We found a pretty interesting place today, Sewemup Mesa. No, really! It sounds like someone making fun of a Ute word and guess what? It is. It has to do with rustlers excising brands, sewing up the wound, then once it healed put their own brand on the cow. But there's more to the mesa than old tales.

It was a longish drive and either was raining or snowing depending on our elevation. But we all had a nice time and I got some nice pictures (and video) out of it.

Enjoy!

Defused by DIR ® Floortime

I say it all the time. I LOVE DIR ® Floortime.

Rhetta found a sheet of stickers this morning and decided they would look best on one of the doorjambs. In her defense, there is one doorjamb where I let each kid put stickers but this was not the doorjamb she chose.

I first tried reasoning, because I feel it's important to try, but she was resistant. I next showed her the doorjamb she was allowed to use to no avail. I foolishly decided to show her what I wanted by taking the offending stickers off the one doorjamb and putting them back on the sticker sheet.

This set her off. Gah.

I next offered her a sheet of paper to put her stickers on and she promptly took the paper, stashed it (still in full-on fit mode) and proceeded to start all over on the doorjamb of her choice, but by now she was amped up; crying, and screaching, unable to self-calm. Clearly my efforts took a wrong turn immediately when I peristed in trying to reason with her. I swear I know better but it's instinctual, or ingrained, or something. I forget that it's not the best approach with her.

Anyway, that's when a bell went off in my head and I stopped and changed directions. I took out a marker and a fresh sheet of paper and started to write a story. Rhetta loves reading and writing. I had her attention immediately when I said, "Let's write a story about trains. We can use the stickers. Let me show you how."

She got very quiet once I wrote our title. She let me place the first sticker and from there I had her undivided attention. It was so much fun we did it twice. I asked questions, she contributed keywords and placed the stickers. Her fingers were too busy with stickers to do any writing but we'll try for more of that next time.

She was very proud of our creations so we posted them on our school wall.

100th day - A GFCF(and soy-free) celebration

Rhetta had her 100th day of kindergarten! They celebrated by counting out ten each of ten different snack foods then counting to 100 by tens. Finally they got to eat their array of snacks. Unfortunately Rhetta was home sick for her 100th day but we went ahead with the celebration. There turned out to be a lot more safe foods in the house to count then I thought. It wasn't difficult at all to find enough to count.

We had:

10 pieces of Arrowhead Mills Puffed Rice cereal
10 Orgran Outback Animals chocolate cookies
10 Private Selection Organic raisins
10 Florida's Natural Au'some Fruit Nuggets
10 Edward & Sons vegetable Brown Rice Snaps
10 pieces of Envirokidz peanut butter Panda Puffs
10 pieces of Terra Nostra Ricemilk Choco chocolate bar
10 pieces Rice Chex
10 Ener-G Wylde pretzels
10 Sunridge Farm gummy bears

We also found other things to count like a pile of colorful buttons, a stack of books (which we tried to read but, well, that's a LOT of books), and we alternated counting first with her taking evens then odds then backwards, etc. Willon joined in by shouting each number after one or the other of said it. It was a lot of fun.

Rhetta didn't have much of an appetite but rest assured she ate the chocolate.

A time-lapse dream

DQ Fries