Amusement

Over the last few weeks, we've done lots of school, met friends from Texas, gone to the zoo and the fair, had picnics, and started wearing warmer clothes. We've also heard some fun statements from our boys (mostly Yikealo, of course!) Here are a few of the recent bits of amusement, interspersed with photos from our adventures:

During Phonics, Y was supposed to use the word "have" in a sentence. His sentence was, "I HAVE a bronze cheerleader." Huh? How does my 6 year old, home-schooled son have any idea what a cheerleader is, let alone a bronze one? Should I be worried about this?

We visited my sister's family and spent some time with their good friend Ginny and her sweet son Stone, who was  adopted from Hannah's Hope at the same time as Jordan and Jalen. We also discovered all over again that it is impossible to get a good picture of 9 kids. 



In Science, we used a balance and gram cubes to measure the mass of various objects: paper clips, pennies, pencils, etc. When David came home, Yikealo proudly told him that a penny was "10 graham crackers." David looked fairly confused...

5 little Ethiopians

I had nearly had it with both boys one day. They were fighting continually, and I had a splitting headache by mid-morning. David texted me at one point to ask how my day was going, and I went off about the behavior of the kiddos. David called to tell Yikealo that if Y REALLY wanted to be just like Daddy, then he needed to treat me like a queen. Later that afternoon, Yikealo gave me a huge hug and said, "You are the bestest, wonderfullest Mama I could ever have. Is that treating you like a queen?"

First fair ride ever for Mr. S



Some neighbors have two dogs in their yard: a yappy little terrier of some sort and a huge, silent Great Dane. While we were walking past one evening, Sintay waved to the canines and shouted out, "Hi Dog! Hi Horse!"

Yikealo's prayer one night: "Help Mama to be warm and snuggly tomorrow and help that Dad would lose the hairiness and boniness from his body and be more snuggly like Mama." Hmmmm....Mama is probably not gonna second that prayer...

While the boys were playing happily together, Yikealo shouted across the house in a rather surprised sounding voice, "Hey Mom! This is really fun, having a brother around! I actually LIKE sharing my toys with him!"

Sintayehu's favorite pair of underwear features Buzz Lightyear prominently displayed across the rear. While he was wearing them, David referred to him as "Buzz-butt." Now S is convinced that is Buzz's actual name. Yesterday he was looking at a Toy Story book and proudly pointing out "Buzz-butt's ball, Buzz-butt's mekina (car), Buzz-butt's Ababa (father)." Imagine how pleased he was to discover that Yikealo has an old "Buzz-butt" costume!

This, I kid you not, was one of Yikealo's questions to David at bedtime: "If somebody had a long rope and they tied a chicken to it and threw it to the sun, could they cook the chicken and then pull it back and eat it?" Where does he come up with this stuff?

Yikealo had awakened before Sintay and was in our bed for some snuggles. David told him to turn his back to me so that the three of us could "be spoons." Yikealo wanted to know where Sintay would fit when he woke up, and then he quickly answered his own question: "I know! Sintay can be the fork!"

The "fork" with his cousin Jalen

Mr. Y emerged from his bedroom dressed for the day and asked, "So, Mom, do I look nice in this? Or do I look like an utter cow?" I think that I need to rephrase some of my Sunday morning questions to David....someone is obviously listening in a little too closely.



Yesterday in his writing practice book, Y needed to finish the following: "She has short hair. I have ______hair." He chose the word "boingy." When I asked if "curly" might not be a better choice, he responded, "No, because if I had a bug in my hair, he could just go boing, boing, boing, and my hair would be sort of like a trampoline for him." There you have it....the definition of "boingy" hair.

In his journaling notebook, Y had the sentence starter "If I could fly..." Here is his completed thought: "If I could fly I would want to be a bold eagle. I woud hav loing weings. I would not haft to licin to my mom and dad." Nice....methinks someone was a bit bitter about being forced to write sentences.