My Baby Can Read!

Ty Reading from Kate Rober on Vimeo.

I had to share this clip of Ty reading. We just got this book from the library, so the book is not memorized. Apparently the kid is hooked on phonics. He just decided he wanted to learn how to read, and he did. It's pretty amazing to hear him go. I forget that my 4 year old can read until he starts reading through the cards at the grocery store labeled "Humorous" (and they should be labeled "adult") and I start trying to distract him with the "soundy" cards (as he calls the cards that make noise).

I love how in this clip he gets distracted by the pictures and says "It" about twenty times before he resumes reading.

LOST

I'm a fan.

Loved the finale (even though it was two and a half hours long).

Man vs. Man

Yesterday, I learned just what kids are capable if you give them an opportunity to learn.
One of them made the comment at lunch that there is always a bad in movies. Another little smarty-pants refuted this with, "Not in 'Fisher-Price Little People'".

I couldn't help myself. I introduced them to the literary conflicts of Man vs. Man, Man vs. Himself and Man vs. Nature. I gave simple examples of each one, and they really seemed to get it.
At one point I tried to give the example of an inner conflict. "Imagine if you have to decide to go to the park or go to a party. This is Man against Himself."

"That's not much of a conflict, Mom!" Ashlynn was quick to reply.

Then once they all got it, they started going through movies and books that they liked and siting examples of each type of conflict.

I was very impressed. I think we don't give children enough credit. I think if you tech them what ubiquitous means and use occasionally, they will understand.

YSA

How do you know when you are raising your children in the LDS culture?

When they come home from school and say, "Mom. We had a substitute today. She was a Young Single Adult."

Ty Has An Announcement!

Ty asked me to type this on the typewriter. Then he asked me to send it to someone. You better hope you are not the lucky recipient...

In other news, I found a great way to keep the kids crayons and pencils from rolling off the pew at church and through the crack in the back. I got this little bucket from IKEA. Everything was so neat and tidy, and the kids actually colored and kept busy!

Ninja

Ty, like most kids his age, thinks the whole house is his canvas when it comes to coloring. The other day I found a little plastic hippo in which he had colored black with a permanent marker. When I asked him about it he said, "Oh. I was making him a ninja."

Of course.

His preschool teacher was also pleased because he shared some things she had taught him through practical applications at home:

1. While watching vintage episodes of The Mario Bros. show, a character shouted to a turtle, "Hey! You reptile!" To which Ty responded, very miffed, "Turtles aren't reptiles! They are amphibians!" (Manny on Modern Family last night referred to his turtle, Shell Turtlestein, as a reptile. I think this is a common misconception. But Manny and Gloria remain two of my favorite characters!)

2. As I was making some pasta, I poured it into the strainer as Ty watched all of the steam escape into the air. He pointed out very matter of factly, "That's eeeeevaporation. Yea. Evaporation."

Watch what you say around this kid.

Camera Roll:part 5

Briggs and Ashlynn playing chess before school. Briggs knows how to play, Ashlynn doesn't really, which leads to interesting conversations.

This was the breakfast Ty woke me up with on Mother's Day morning. That would be an old package of cheese crackers, Knott's shortbread cookies, an opened bag of rice cakes and a raw egg. When I told him I couldn't eat the egg right away he said, "Yes you can. You just peel it!" and he used his little chipmunk hands to mimic how you peel an egg.

That's gum on the wall... way out of reach of anybody in this house, but conveniently right across the stairwell from where Ty was "fishing" earlier...

Mom! Take my picture! (in the craft store)

At the dentist getting a flouride treatment and picking out a prize.

"Kate. Can you go to the hardware store and get a piece for the sprinklers?"
"Sure. What does it look like?"
"It's a female/female connector."
"Sure. What does it LOOK like?"
"It's black in the center with blue rings on the end."
"Is this the right piece?"
"Yep."

I love these iphones!

Camera Roll: part 4

Ty "fishing off of the balcony

Ty's prize at the optometrist

The kids getting ready to board the Ferry from Vallejo to San Fransisco

The kids at the Tabernacle the day before Conference. They snuck up to the organ rostrum and got to talk to the organist for Conference (sorry I don't know his name...)

There goes Briggs! "Wait for me!"

Camera Roll: part 3

Once again, Ty's eye.

Lemons from our tree for our hosts in Utah

Making faces on the "M" of Madonna Mountain

All I needed was salt for the water softener and "D" batteries. Of course a man had to come up to me in line and say, "You know they won't let you buy that. You could get charged with "Salt and Battery"... Remind me to avoid Food 4 Less on Saturday afternoon.

A beautiful scene of our neighborhood park taken on a run. You can't see it in the picture clearly, but there was a pack of boys all playing with their light sabers. I thought it was cute.

Camera Roll: part 2

Ty showing the big boys how it's done on the DS

Packed for ONE day at the snow!

These look good! Found them in a magazine in some waiting room

LEGO Ty sleeping, thanks to a LEGO app on my phone

Normal Ty sleeping thanks to a hard day's play.

Camera Roll

I love my iphone I got for Christmas. I should probably devote a whole post to it. Instead, I'm going to clean out my camera roll, because it's probably the best way to show you how we've spent the last 5 months.

Ash and a friend dancing in the famous Madonna Inn bathroom.

My sister and her family on my niece's baptism day.

Ash asleep.

Ash and her classmates on "Dress up Like What You Want To Be When You Grow Up" Day. Ash would be dressed as the President of the United States.

The coldest rainiest week in January for us.

Recent Soundbites

taken on out recent trip to Park City

A friend of ours recently overheard Briggs walk into the bathroom at school while him and a friend commented on the unpleasant smell that was present. "Yeah," said Briggs, "It smells like an old person in here!"

It reminds me of the time he said the city bus smelled like "public old person."


As you may remember, Ty loves Winnie the Pooh. He has a big Winnie the Pooh toy that talks to you. The other day Brian and I overheard him say, "Whoa! I just tripped over my big Pooh!"

Out of context, this made us cackle.

Hachiko: Nice Dog, Sad Story

I don't care for animal movies.

I know that sounds harsh, but I have to set the scene for the story I'm about to tell you.

I've always felt that the way they portray villains in animal movies was over the top silliness. Seriously, a couple of grown men getting fooled by a dalmatian puppy? or how about when they make animals do human things? A dog and a cat make their way across the United States using only a parachute and a debit card? No thank you.

Last night I remembered another reason why i don't like animal movies.

THEY ARE SAD!!!

Ashlynn had read the story of Hachi, the train dog, at school so we thought it would be fun to let her watch the movie. We put in the movie then left Ash and Briggs alone to watch it while we went upstairs to talk about how grateful we are that life is so challenging right now and how we are so glad that we have so many trials in order to make us better people (this would be a good time to hold up my sarcasm sign...)(PS. Ty was at Farmers Market, so this was acceptable.)

An hour later, we came back downstairs only to find BOTH Ashlynn and Briggs in tears!
How could I have forgotten that the movie was about a man who dies, then his dog waits for him for ten years, then he dies! Not exactly a message the kids can feel all warm and fuzzy from.

I was instantly reminded of letting Ashlynn watch Heidi when she was four or five, only to have her burst into tears because Heidi was forced to leave Grandpa and the mountain.

Moral of the story: I don't like animal movies and neither do my kids. I shall now remove all of them from my Netflix queue

Skid Marks

Today I taught Ty how to make skid marks with his bike tires. He thought that was pretty cool. Really i was just trying to keep him from going down the hill at breakneck speed while he laughed maniacally. He'd roll down the hill, then slam on the breaks and turn around and admire his handy work.
At least now the kid knows how to use the breaks. If only he could apply that to the rest of his life. . .