4 years, 1 month/1 year, 11 months.

Teamwork abounded today, between the Millers' handholding on the slides and the Blue Devils' play to get into the final four!  Graham and Connor practiced the "Let's Go Duke" cheer after dinner; it seems to have done the trick.

4 years, 1 month/1 year, 11 months.

Before, during, and after of Connor's first haircut!  He was somewhat aware that something was buzzing around messing with his head, but Lulu's 3-ring-circus of distractions (movie, special toys, lollipop) kept him from getting too worried about it.  He took his big boy cut to Hometown BBQ afterwards for some caveman-style dining.

4 years, 1 month/1 year, 11 months.

Zoo field-trip!  Top L to R, Oola, Niall, Juniper, Mirabelle, Lucca, Mikkel, Ruben, Sofia; bottom, Lily and Graham, together forever.  At our parent-teacher conference, Therese told us that Graham and Lily have been playing elaborate imagination games that look like so much fun, the other kids want to play too, but Lily and Graham want them to be special games for just the two of them.

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled, "Start your engines":

Hi everyone,

Our week began by reading Career Day. The children talked about
careers in the book and what vehicles those jobs used. They all chose
a career and a vehicle to drive in the big room. We then used our
listening ears to play red light, green light, on wheels. The children
kept reminding each other that there are yellow lights too. Someone
said the yellow light and yield mean the same thing.

Tuesday after reading  Whose Vehicle Is It? we drove different tiny
vehicles thru paint to create a wheels mural. The children used their
cars to mix paint and create new colors. It was wheely colorful and
oval shaped.

We discussed more about how simple machines make work easier. The
children were asked if they thought they could pick up a teacher? All
responded no,  though several wanted to try. After they tried
unsuccessfully, we used a simple machine in the big room and no
surprise, they picked up a teacher.

Friday we went to the zoo. We saw a bull Python, a box turtle, and
some meal worms up close and personal. We fed ducks from a bridge over
(not troubled) water. We saw emus, red pandas, cranes, and otters from
a distance. A free ranging peacock got a very close look at us. After
the trip when asked what was their favorite animal? One person said
excitedly: "The penguins!" There were no penguins. Were there?

It was a pleasure meeting with everyone to discuss the constant growth
of your offspring. It really is a joy getting to while away the hours
with them.

Sincerely,
Therese

4 years, 1 month/1 year, 11 months.

We celebrated Auntie Spice's birthday a little early this year, with Sweet Sugar Sunshine cupcakes hand delivered by Uncle Adam.  Connor only ate the frosting.  Graham licked the crumbs off the table.  Thanks for stopping by, Adam!

4 years, 1 month/1 year, 11 months.

Excitement about the new car is still high.  Graham and Connor made a "car" out of sofa cushions and blankets this afternoon and pretended to drive it around.

4 years, 1 month/1 year, 11 months.

Big news...we bought a car!  Nana drove up yesterday and spent the day with the boys while Will and I test-drove Honda CR-Vs.  We are looking forward to many fun field trips around the city and environs in the future!

Thank you so much for helping us this weekend, Nana!  I have a feeling the car dealership wouldn't have been as hospitable if we were strapping 2 car seats into each car before taking it for a spin.

4 years, 1 month/1 year, 11 months.

Pajama day at school!  While Graham and his school friends lounged around the classroom, Connor played the piano with Gil.  After nap time, we went to Phoebe's birthday party, where Graham rode the ice cream bike (which turns the crank on a manual ice cream machine) and both boys feasted on the fruits of Graham's labor.

Graham is slowly phasing out his nap.  He naps about 3 days a week, and otherwise spends his quiet time (which he is remarkably agreeable about doing) in his room, reading, doing puzzles, playing with his toys, and singing.  He doesn't get all the words right but the spirit is there.  Here are a couple current favorites:

"Black socks: they never get dirty, the longer you wear them, the stronger they get.  I think I should throw them in the washing machine but I keep saying, Not Yet!  Not Yet!"

"Hark the herald angels sing.  Glory to the newborn king.  Keep on Earth and keep milo.  God and sin and creche and silo."

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled, "Rock the boat, don't tip the boat over":

Hi all ye,

We refilled the water table for Float Your Boat week. We added several different toys to predict what would float and what would not. We talked about what boats are made of and what we might make our tiny ships of, like a ship on the ocean.

After reading There's A Train Going By My Window each person got to add their name to our A, B, C train which is traveling around our classroom. Each person made a piece of railroad too. They were workin' on the railroad all the live long day. The class continued adding words to the A,B,C train each day.

We read Clothesline Clues To Jobs People Do and drew pictures of jobs we want to do. The children answered the question, "What job does your mom or dad do?" Some answers were: she plays with me, my daddy is a competition tree climber, my mom cleans my room, she is a doctor, and she is a chef.

We remembered that wood floats so we made our boats using wood and glue.
Some boats floated. Some boats, not so much. We read Sheep On A Ship and noticed that their ship sank too. Hmmmmm.

Friday was pajama day and we slept all day. But not really.

We also had a friend of Lauren's come in and share an adventurous tale about a lost cat bear who traveled on the subway. It was a perfect end, or beginning, to our A,B,C train.

Next week, more wheels and axles.

All aboard!

4 years, 1 month/1 year, 10 months.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Connor was very pleased to discover this abandoned pup in the playground, and took him for a nice stroll.

Milestone report: baby's first tattle-tell!  Connor screamed and ran from the living room to find me in Graham's room, saying "Meme head," which meant Graham (which he pronounces "Meme," as in an internet meme) hit him in the head.  So proud (of the little guy, not the big one)!

4 years, 1 month/1 year, 10 months.

Sniffing some spring (straight from the daffodil fields of England, but hopefully Brooklyn flowers aren't too far behind).

Questions from Graham today:
Where does God make the people?  In His house?
Were the dinosaurs nice to God?
Can God keep us from fighting?
How can we see God?

Nana or Grammy, perhaps you would like to field these?

4 years, 1 month/1 year, 10 months.

Graham and Connor were very enthusiastic and relatively helpful helpers when we made cookies to bring to Nana's house this afternoon.  They are both extremely excited to see Nana, their aunts and uncles, and cousins this weekend.  Tonight, when we came home from our playdate, Graham yelled "We're going to Nana's house!!!" over and over, and Connor screamed gibberish that sounded pretty much the same and definitely had the same intention.

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled "I Hear The Train A Comin'":

Dear Parents,

We are beginning to create an alphabet train. We started by reading
The Little Engine That Could and putting our names in alphabetical
order. The children noticed that we had more than one person beginning
with the letters B, L and M. Each person got to use letter stamps to
begin two train cars. We added a simple machine to each train car to
make it go.

While it dried in the big room we played with our new tools and doctor
kit. There were sick babies and children. There were broken jungle
gyms and cars and the stage. The children hammered, sawed, took
temperatures, gave shots and checked blood pressure. By the end
everyone and everything was fixed.

Wednesday Kiera's police officer cousin visited our classroom. She
answered questions such as; Do you ride a horse? Do you save people?
How did you drive here so quickly? Can I look at your badge close up?

During capoeira class people stretched and walked on their hands (with
assistance). In the classroom Heather helped us count Mr.
Sock-to-pusses legs and choose gloves so that each person could begin
making their very own baby sock-to-puss. We stuffed their little
bellies full, chose button eyes and waved them goodbye so they could
go to the sock-to-puss factory, aka Oola's house, to be completed.

Friday we made train tracks so our A,B,C train could move it on down
the line. We used our strong hand muscles to squeeze the glue and our
patience to w a i t for it to come out. Lots of Popsicle sticks a
train track does make. We read Freight Train after assembling our
tracks.

Next week we will see what floats our boats.

Have super weekends,
Therese 

4 years, 1 month/1 year, 10 months.

This was a pile of snow yesterday.

4 years/1 year, 10 months.

This morning at the children's museum, Graham and Daddy built and anthropomorphized bugs while Connor and I looked for hermit crabs in the aquarium.

4 years/1 year, 10 months.

Snow day!  With temperatures in the 40s predicted (promised? looming?) for the coming week, we headed out to the park for perhaps our last day of sledding this winter.  Everyone had a great time, and Graham was particularly pleased to run into his friend Hadley and take her for a spin on his ride.

4 years/1 year, 10 months.

A pile of fresh snow in March forced me to attempt a weekday sledding trip despite the 1:2 adult:children ratio.  Photography wasn't going to happen, but we all had a good time and made it to the apres sledding hot chocolate store.  Graham was distressed that the pac-man arcade machine he remembered from last year was gone, but he consoled himself with the drink.

Therese's e-mail of the week, entitled, "Simply Simple Machines":

Hi All,

We started the week making a list of machines we know: toothbrush, drill, tractor, car, truck, heater, screwdriver, robot, rocket ship and many more. We read A, B, C, NYC and looked for more machines in the book. We talked about simple machines and looked at a picture of a wheel and an axle. We examined our many wheels and axles in the classroom and big room.

After reading Machines and talking about the Rules of the Road and what different street signs mean, we each chose a wheeled vehicle and went for a Monday drive.

We looked for ramps, aka inclined planes, and found a few in our books. We made a tiny inclined plane in the classroom and predicted what would make a car go faster. We then went in the big room and made much larger, taller, longer inclined planes. We made more predictions about which cars would go farther. We rolled our cars. Over and over. Down down the inclined planes they went.

We looked at a third simple machine, the pulley, in two of our books. In the big room we played with a pulley and moved scarves, baskets, dresses and much more, from the kitchen area to the jungle gym.

Gabriel played a berimbau during capoeira and people were seen hopping enthusiastically from one end of the big room to the other. During capoeira the other half of the class made play dough. We noticed two simple machines on our ingredients.

Friday we made personal pizzas. We used a wedge to grate the cheese and a lever to pick up our hot pizzas. Then we ate them and went to work in the big room.

Have a warm and toasty weekend,

Therese

4 years/1 year, 10 months.

In deja vu news, Connor has hit the age of loving to play in other kids' beds.  Here he is with his playgroup friends Wade and Willa in Cece's new bed.

4 years/1 year, 10 months.

Graham painstakingly assembled the collection of paper doll monsters Juni gave him for his birthday while Connor reveled in his good fortune at having graham crackers AND blueberries for snack.

4 years/1 year, 10 months.

Thank you, Calexico, for thoughtfully proving a wide array of hot sauce bottles for Connor to sort and pass and otherwise occupy himself while we attempt to dine.