Ada makes us laugh

A couple cute stories from Ada recently:

Gus was up in the middle of the night working in the office.  Ada got up to go to the bathroom.  He could hear he on the toilet through the office wall talking to herself. 

Ada: When I grow up I am going to wipe my own bum.  When I grow up I am going to eat sour cream.  When I grow up....

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Ada came to Gus in the kitchen and asked him where her snack bowl was. 

Gus:  Weren't you just eating from it at the computer.  Did you check if it is in the office?

Ada: Yes.

Gus: Are you sure?

Ada: Yes

Gus: (In an accusing tone) If I go in there and I find it sitting on the desk, what will I get?

Long pause.

Ada:  (slowly and simply so that her dense father can understand)  A bowl.

Ada discovers synonyms

Ada and I were quietly rocking on the rocking chair.  She was staring pensively out the window.  Suddenly she said "Mom....Autumn and fall mean the same thing. You can say 'in the fall the leaves change colour and fall' and that means the same as 'in the autumn the leaves change colour and fall.'"

She seemed struck by the idea that two different words could have exactly the same meaning and I was struck by her linguistic ability!

On a completely unrelated note, here is a cute picture I took the other day of Darwyn teaching Ada to write:

Our summer pet

Gus and I were on a walk with the kids a few months back and there on a piece of milkweed was a monarch caterpillar.  I immediately decided we ought to raise him, while Gus rolled his eyes at another of my hair brained schemes.  We brought him home along with a tiger caterpillar who soon escaped (largely because I had not made a cage) and had to be relocated outdoors.  Anyway, the whole thing turned out to be awesome fun.  Fun facts we learned from our pet monarch:

(1) Monarch caterpillars are very impressive at pooing.  This, I guess, goes hand in hand with being impressive eaters.  But it isn't just how much they poo that is impressive, but how far they poo.  There was poo landing as far as 16 lateral inches away from the milk weed plant the caterpillar was on.  The kids were impressed when I told them that was like them pooing and having it land down the block. 

(2) Monarchs make their chrysalis very quickly.  We researched the whole process and woke one morning to find our Monarch hanging upside down in a J shape.  We knew from online research that meant she would make her chrysalis, so checked on her obsessively.  She hung in a J for an eternity.  We went on one short walk, during which time Ted watched her closely.  Somehow, she made her Chrysalis in a span of 5 minutes when no one was watching.

(3) I always envisioned the Chrysalis to be something that the caterpillar spins around itself.  It isn't.  They just shed their skin and the Chrysalis is underneath.  The Chrysalis has a line of golden shimmering dots on it that Darwyn was delighted to discover.

(4) Monarchs hatch from their chrysalis very quickly.  This was an exact replica of what happened in point 2.  We missed the whole thing.  One minute we looked and there was a chrysalis, the next there was a butterfly drying its wings.


Anyway, here is a video and a cute picture of Darwyn to enjoy:

A love poem

By Darwyn.

Not a leaping frog

Not a shooting star

Not the perfect cherry 

Can break our love

(Bottom photo taken by Darwyn.)

But everybody likes me!

We have mice in the attic...and now mice in the kitchen.  The kids love catching them in the live trap.
After awhile of staring at the terrified mouse refusing to eat her cheese Ada was offering her, she turned to Darwyn and observed in an incredulous tone, "Darwyn, I don't think this mouse likes us."

"Of course he doesn't like us!" Darwyn exclaimed "We've trapped him in a cage he can't get out of."

Ada: Oh.

Happy Halloween

This Halloween is better told with photos:

The whole family

Did you need a closer look?  

The kids absolutely loved Gus and my costumes.  They spent the whole night calling me daddy and Gus mommy.  Ada was particularly thrilled with the switch.  The neighbors were a mixed bag.  Half of them loved it.  The other half started by smiling and commenting on how cute the kids were, but their faces quickly turned to horror as their eyes drifted upwards to Gus's smiling face.  But Gus and I had a riot making terrible jokes all evening at the other genders expense.  

Pumpkin farm 1

Pumpkin farm 2

pumpkin farm 3

Help mom!  He loves me!

fall leaves

Jose purchased pumpkin carving stencils and fancy tools so our pumpkins were a cut above this year.

Ada's Halloween pumpkin

Max and Darwyn's pumpkins

Ada really got Halloween for the first time this year.  She stared wide eyed as each household gave her candy just because she said trick or treat and then we went home and she got to eat a whole bunch of it!  The next day when Ada woke up the first thing she asked was "Mom, how long until Halloween again?"

Darwyn promptly replied "Oh forget Halloween Ada.  That's ages away.  Now we focus on Christmas!"  Sigh....

Read lots, keep active

Here's how Max reads books these days:

He's into the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan.  Yesterday he finished The Lost Hero.  We checked that book out of the library on Wednesday.  That's 550+ pages in 60 hours.  His other big passion these days is swinging on his rope in the backyard.  (Thanks to Ted for capturing this wild animal behaviour on video.)