What We're Up To

We went to the Natural History museum yesterday to see the new dinosaur exhibit. For once, I realized I actually have children in two different age groups. Felicity's basic reaction was fear. She burrowed her head in my neck, wanted out, and pretty much wanted nothing to do with them. Kwamai on the other hand probably could have stayed in the exhibit twice as long as we did, wanting to have me read him all the exhibit display signs and interact with the models, etc.

Most of the time lately Kwamai and Felicity are like two peas in a pod. Today they spent the better part of the afternoon playing together. Felicity played "cooking show" and Kwamai was her opening dancing act. Kwamai played tent-dweller and Felicity was his visitor. They like to play games where they sing songs back and forth, one starting and the other finishing a line or a sound or whatever.

Felicity looks more and more like a giantess to me. When I tell her she is a big girl she always insists "No, I'm little." We've had a few warm days when she's worn lighter dresses that she wore last summer. One in particular that was nearly touching the floor in the summer now hits well above her ankle. Of course I especially notice her size when I hold her, all 30 pounds of her!

Kwamai's reading has taken off to soaring in the last two weeks. He isn't always willing to try to read something on his own, but more and more he can decode words, and more and more I have to figure out how to explain why English is such a weird language where we have know, now and mow, knight, night, enough and all those other nonsensical spellings and pronunciations.

Felicity can read letters nearly without fail. She is like a little preschool text book poster girl and is very into shapes, colors, numbers and letters these days. I'm getting the idea that actually teaching her may work much more simply than with Kwamai, who is adamant about figuring everything out himself. But, so far, so good.

Oh, then of course there is the election coming up. Kwamai is in lock-step with Papa in keeping up with the news on his favorite candidate. And since Mama has a different favorite candidate, we've had some talks about how to hold different opinions than others without feeling the need to resort to name-calling and sign stealing. At least it looks like neither of us will have our favorite candidate running in the general election, which might just break Kwamai's heart.

Quotable Kwam

He says to me tonight: "You know how at Mass sometimes Father says something that's funny to grownups, but the kids don't get it, and so they don't laugh? Well, not even I get it!"

The Skate Car

Kwamai watched Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang this afternoon. So currently he is busy creating vehicles. This is the Skate Car, complete with horn and laser.

Felicity Writes!

Kwamai was busy creating a game and I had just given Felicity her own used calendar and crayon to draw. Suddenly Kwamai yelled out, "Felicity just wrote her first numbers!" Lo and behold, on the calendar square for the 29th, she wrote a very neat and legible 26. She did say she was trying to write 29, but hey, a great accomplishment nonetheless!

She then embellished the remainder of the calendar with the typical scribbles and squiggles.

The scribe. You probably don't want to elarge the picture and be grossed out by how dirty her nose is.

By the way, she has been obsessed with learning alphabet in the last 24 hours and learned to spell "bus" this morning. Let's sign her up for University.

Felicity Has a New Bedroom!

Whoo-Hoo! Somehow the transition has happened to Felicity sleeping in her own bedroom. What helped, of course, was the fact that I finally sorted through all of the baby clothes, cleaned out the closet, took down (ahem) the co-sleeper, and other things I've been meaning to do but just haven't gotten to with such a ... young... baby around. Ok, so Felicity officially turned 2.75 on Sunday, but she was born just yesterday, or at least that's what my organization seems to reflect.

I would post pictures, but she's upstairs sleeping in it right now. Of course, I wake up in there more often than not, because she calls out for me and before I wake up I respond and go there so she can nuzzle up with her favorite comfort items. Some day I imagine she will stop that, but I do actually get more sleep than if she climbs on me or if I can hear her every peep right next to me all night, or if Kwamai nudges her awake. I still have hyper-reactive Mommy ears.

Each day the room looks more civilized. Today I put her toy box, her dresser and all of her clothes in the room, and tonight, at her request, I hung some pictures and a crucifix. She wanted a picture of Mary, one of Jesus, one of Mary and Baby Jesus, and one of Jesus in his manger (or he's manger, as she says). I managed to fulfill each request. She was concerned that there are sharks in her room, but I assured her that sharks sleep too, and are rather friendly anyway. So she decided she will also share her room with fishies, seahorses and whales.

And then there's Kwamai. He is more afraid of the dark and of being alone now than he ever has been. He is now the lone occupant of the extra bed wedged in the parental bedroom. Perhaps by the time it gets warm and light at night again he'll be ready to shift.

What We're Reading

I read Call of the Wild as a Freshman in high school, and I remember not liking it much. It made me feel cold whenever I read it. But Kwamai is enjoying it, I think because of all the fighting and wildness in it.

I think I might choose something a little tamer next time around, maybe Stuart Little.

Catching up

Here is it mid-January already and I've let two and a half weeks of cute kid things slide by unrecorded. For shame. Let's see if I can pull some interesting tidbits out of my memory.

Kwamai is super-duper keen on starting karate, and I plan to call the school to see when we can get him started. He spends so much time daily doing his version of martial arts, and I would like to see him learn to do it safely (especially for him to learn how not to karate chop little sisters). Truly I have never seen a 6 year old as muscular as he is. If he were my size I know he could pin me to the ground with one arm.

Felicity keeps coming up with cutisms. At the Pancake Breakfast on Sunday she pointed out "Look Mama, there's a snowdeer." You know, that's what Santa pulls his sleigh with.

Their latest comedy routine together is for Kwamai to say part of a phrase and Felicity to finish it. Their favorites are "What the....." "heck?" and "Our Lady of Guadalu..." "pe"

On cue this evening as we sat down to dinner, both of them started crying over how much they hated what was being served. (The culprit was a chicken and rice casserole.) The enticement I gave to win over Kwamai made Felicity more adamantly against it: portobello mushroom sauce! Kwamai decided he loved it and gobbled up two platefuls. Felicity has been feeling a little off anyway and made a dinner out of a few carrots instead. In truth, although it was mushroom sauce I don't think it the broth was from portobellos anyway, but at least it got some dinner into them. Sigh.

Pictures from Christmas Day

We had a really beautiful Christmas day together. I carried around a feeling all day long that this was the sort of days that sweet, warm memories are built from, the kind that will come to mind when my children grow up and someone asks them how their family celebrated Christmas. And that kind that Erol and I will think of when we are old and are remembering "Christmas when the kids were little."

We went for opening all the gifts on Christmas Day, despite my hopes of spreading it out over the 12 days. We went to morning Mass, but before that I convinced Felicity that she needed a trip over to Franciscan University to see Baby Jesus in the manger there (she'd been patiently awaiting His arrival). I also convinced Kwamai that he had to be the helper and go along with Erol and Felicity. In the meantime, I unhid all of the presents and put them under the tree. I do think the out-of-sight approach helped them not be so focused on presents and to think more about when Baby Jesus was going to appear.

So, upon arrival home from Mass we opened gifts, and I got dinner cooking bit by bit. There was a curious and natural pause as some really cool toys beckoned to be played with, so we went with that, I got dinner on the table and we ate. Felicity eventually decided we needed to open the rest of the gifts, so we did. Towards evening we went over to some friends' house for, dare I say, yet another Christmas dinner.

And all that was only the first day of Christmas!

Here are some pics:

Felicity opening a gift.

Kwamai contemplating his Avatar book with Erol.

"Could you put Baby Jesus' manger together, please?" (From her Playmobile Nativity set.)

Everyone busily working on their projects.

Felicity and I are ready for dinner.

Kwamai's play-dough creature.

Felicity models a new dress from Mama-Grandma.

It's a Wonderful Day

These still photos certainly don't capture the excited mood of the Hosdil kids right now!

This has been a wonderful day, truly. After Mass and a guest for dinner, we did some decorating with lights, put up the Christmas tree, and had our Sunday-of-Advent picnic with our family rosary. Then tonight we all bundled together upstairs (where our TV is residing) to watch "It's a Wonderful Life." Despite all of Kwamai's protestations about not wanting to watch it, he was glued to the whole story. What we will spend tomorrow afternoon doing, I'm not quite sure (since the initial plan was to do the tree then). It just seemed fitting to use the energy while we were all together today. Throughout the afternoon Kwamai occasionally called for a "family hug." A day of joyful togetherness, if you take out the times when I yelled about the glass ornaments, or the odd tussle between Kwamai and Felicity. I guess those things just prove that it is all real!

The Sounds of Sanity

After a phone conversation with Mama-Grandma sent both Kwamai and Felicity into a complete excitement tailspin over the nearness of Christmas (think screaming AND streaking through the house), I had a brainstorm! Erol is currently entertaining them at the Pittsburgh Zoo. And I, well, I'm baking, doing laundry, wrapping presents, and will shortly go to cleaning the basement and attic.

What a deal!

'Twas the Week Before Christmas....

We have been busy with the flurry of activities that comes the last few days before Christmas. On Monday, on his way to Catechesis, Kwamai happened to see the Bishop and asked if he received his birthday gift. On Wednesday, the Bishop sent Kwamai a formal thank you letter. Kwamai was very psyched that, first of all, it was addressed to "Master" Kwamai Hosdil... which he thought must have something to do with his excellent karate moves or some such. He also said as he opened it that he hoped the Bishop would be inside the envelope and jump out to give him a big hug.

We put up the first of our decorations the other day, and Kwamai has been put in charge of decorating to his heart's content on Monday. I think that is when we will put our tree up. I'm going for the symbolic meaning this year (tree = Christ), which is handy since I just didn't get around to putting it up any earlier!

As for Felicity, well she is discovering Veggie Tales. We have a stuffed Bob the Tomato that I got for Kwamai "long ago". So, she is familiar with him. But she also wants to call Larry Bob the Cucumber. She has taken to carrying tomatoes through the house, calling them "Bob To-Cookie". Whatever.

She also waits with great anticipation to see baby Jesus make his arrival in the manger.

Merry Christmas from us to you!

Pondering Our Gift

I don't generally get ponderous on this blog, but today I shall. This evening I printed out a book of all the blog entries currently recorded here, for Tama Bonnie (her Christmas wish). While reviewing everything I've written, and not written, some thoughts come to mind.

There are times when I haven't written too much about what is new on the Kwamai scene. I believe this stems mostly from the sentiment of "if you can't say anything nice...." All children go through their growing stages and pains, and Kwamai has had his share of them in the last year. But tonight I'm thinking about this reality. At my School of Community today we talked about how every person we encounter is a way that we meet Christ. And this does not just (or even primarily) mean the happy, pleasant encounters. Sometimes we meet Christ in His distressing disguise in others, sometimes we experience a pain and longing in our own hearts in difficult encounters and through this we find Christ's agony, His presence, His longing. Raising any child is, without a doubt, a job meant to bring parents closer to Christ. (We think parenting is all about forming our children to be holy, but think again! Really it is about teaching parents to die to themselves!) Raising Kwamai has been for me thus far an immeasurable gift. I am me, I am made a certain way, I have my comfort zones. Kwamai is Other. Very Other. He draws me out and calls me, requires me, to grow, to change, to challenge myself, in the same way a very large hill challenges a jogger to build endurance, develop lung and muscle capacity, to get strong.

I need sometimes to pause and realize this. I sometimes live as if he is not a hill, but a level path, and then I wonder, grumpily, why I am using up all my energy. Or to make the analogy better, I waste energy meant to be used for my hill workout on things lesser in importance. I take as my inspiration my sister-in-law (hi, Leyla) who can breeze up huge hills with amazing speed and seems to find it nothing but exhilarating. There is something exhilarating about expending one's energies like that. But in my experience at least, the exhilaration comes only after the gradual build up of strength. Attitude is everything.

So, I behold the face of Christ in Kwamai, my joy-bomb of a little boy whose cues I often don't catch, whose heart-language is not my native one, whose natural inclinations and needs are so different from my own. God has entrusted this little soul to me to mother. I have to trust that He knew what He was doing in arranging our lives as they are. And I ask God's mercy as I wheeze up the hill.

Lego Creations

Kwamai currently has a growing Lego village in his room. Two of the main buildings were erected primarily by Papa, but the smaller scenes are all of Kwamai's creation. They change a bit from day to day, but here's what it looked like earlier this week.

The creator of the Lego Universe.

The overview.

A restaurant, gaurded by a knight.

The local gang of bad guys, and their weapons.

The police station, where the bad guys, no doubt, are headed.

A close-up of the gas station. The tank-filling thingy doubles as a weapon.

Reading Progress

I'm pleased to report that Kwamai is making wonderful progress with reading. He has picked up lots and lots of sight words, but he is also rapidly improving with phonetic reading as well, which is a rather sudden light-switch-gone-on. The other day he was looking at the box of soy milk and said "va-nil-la. Oh yeah, vanilla!" We keep having this on-going debate where he insists I told him English is read right to left, but I'm changing my tune and then telling him to read left to right. His right-brainedness seems to presume there should be no difference -- it's all the same word, right -- so who cares if you say daer or read?

He has accomplished this learning on his own, I'd add. I've held off trying to drill him, realizing it is much easier to guide a moving learner than to entice a balking one. He loves, more and more, to get books at the library and sit around, well, reading them (or trying to). When he asks for a certain word to be read for him these days he is realizing that it goes quicker and smoother if he spells the word out loud to the adult at hand, and he also no longer stumbles over identifying letters as he did just a few months ago.

There is much to be said for the tenet that when a child is ready to learn something, it clicks in and takes off. I'm pleasantly surprised that it has happened at this young of an age for him.

St. Nicholas Day Pictures!

This is the third year in a row we have done pictures on the feast of St. Nicholas. I'm learning why professional photographers are all about speed. Kwamai wanted to orchestrate some more exact poses for Felicity, but I was lucky to get her to hold still for one picture, let alone all that I actually took.

I left out some of the real clunkers, but here they are the formal, the not-so-formal, and the downright goofy.

(Ok, I'm a bit late here because Blogger was not letting me upload pictures yesterday...)