Numbers and Letters

Felicity's latest feats include counting to 10 (or maybe 12) on her own, and recognizing several letters. She likes to count as we go up and down steps (something we do quite a bit of every day). Sometimes we count in numbers, and sometimes we say the alphabet instead. We have -- or had, really -- a set a foam letters. Several have succumbed to physics experiments; you know, seeing how much force they can withstand before breaking into pieces. Felicity has used these to begin recognizing letters. I would say she can correctly identify at least a third of the alphabet.

Good work, Felicity!

We All Scream For....

... Seaweed!

Yes, one of the stranger foods the Hosdil kids have learned to adore is sheets of seaweed.

I like furikake on my rice (that's a Japanese condiment made of seaweed, seasame seeds and other sea vegetables), and since it makes rice look more interesting, Kwamai took a liking to it. Felicity followed suit. Then I happened to get some sheets of seaweed used for making sushi. They both adore it and will crunch it up like potato chips.

High Chair to Move to Storage

We took the leaves out of the dining room table, mostly to get a handle on the clutter that was always overtaking it. Now we four can sit comfortably around a round table. After a few days, Felicity would have none of being in her high chair, prefering the more intimate setting of being directly at the table.

Of course this arrangement requires more frequent floor sweeping, but hey, it has to be done anyway, right?

Here she is with her morning cup of tea. (It's the leftovers of mine, actually, with only a few drops in it, but she did gulp that down and request "More tea".)

Kwam the Builder

Here is Kwamai with some of the Lego creations he built on Saturday. They are (from right to left, Kwamai's prefered ordering of all things) a Report Ship, a Fire Ship, a Repair Ship and a Space Ship.

Miss Felicity

This is one of my favorite recent pictures of Felicity. Somehow she looks to me like she should speak with a British accent.

King of Tarts

Kwamai was playing a pop-tart computer game this morning (yes, it seems every product under the sun has its own computer game to imprint the product on the mind of kids). So this afternoon he decided he wanted to make tarts of his own. He first used the abacus as a visual representation of ingredients he'd better leave out (due to the types of foods that get him coughing and wheezing). So out went wheat, corn syrup, corn starch, and milk. Then he asked me to cut him some spelt bread, and I scooped him a gob of cherry conserve, and he was off making his tarts. He out the chocolate soy milk, and I didn't want to watch what he was going to do with that. I just reminded him that he was responsible for eating his creations. He liked it well enough.

So I got to thinking, what are pop tarts, really? Glorified toast sandwhich with jam, right?

Oh yeah, and he specified the most important thing to leave out of his creation was the advertisements, since that's the worst :)

A little counter-consumerist in formation :)

Whoops?!

While getting my hair cut this afternoon, I learned that Steubenville recently changed the mandatory school age cut off. To be in Kindergarten, a child has to be 5 years old by August 1. This means that Kwamai would not have been eligible for Kindergarten this year and would be starting next year! Gee -- and here he thought he was "in Kindergarten" all year!

Oh well, I'm glad it doesn't really matter. However, I might not have to report to the school board our intent to homeschool for another year. What a bonus!

Felicity's Doings

One of Felicity's current interests is putting baby dolls to bed. They sleep all over the house, on chairs, on the couch, on the floor, and are often covered by little scraps of something, or they just lay face down. Jesus and Mary also go night-night, but they always have to be together, of course. Felicity has pretty much moved over to her own bed (well, she and Kwamai share) for going night-night herself, at least until she hears me come to bed, and then she gets nursing fever again.

Yesterday we had lunch at a Chinese place, and before the food came Felicity was interested in visiting the restroom. After dinner, she was getting a bit bored with the ladies room, so I asked her if she wanted Papa to show her the men's room. She excitedly said yes, and ran out to the table shouting "Papa, I wanna see the men's room!" Fortunately we were pretty much alone in the place at the time! Kwamai and I had a good laugh over that as they went off to explore.

It is interesting that she will repeat almost perfectly just about anything I say to her. One of the big exceptions I can think of is her own name. She's said it once, but if she makes a self-reference she either says "Baby" or "Tee". But she also usually doesn't repeat as a performance (Like "Felicity, say '...'"). You can completely forget that if you are not an immediate family member. She will barely say boo to an adult she's not used to.

So, it really is an honor to listen to her babble away, because I know we are her introverted comfort zone.

Youth of the Year

On Saturday night, Kwamai was awarded the Youth of the Year certificate by Erol's Knights of Columbus council. He was so excited he was speechless (for a moment), which is saying a lot. He was so proud, but he really did equate the fact that he got the award with the fact that he's worked pretty hard to help with the Charity Breakfasts for the last few months. And not just with the fact that Papa is the Grand Knight and was ultimately the one who decided who got the awards! (Erol did mention that several of the other Knights agreed that Kwamai should get the award.)

When he wasn't busy getting awarded, Kwamai served as photographer for most of the other awardees, as I was busy attending to Felicity.

Clean Kwam

I just downloaded some pictures, and this one yelled "BLOG!" at me. Kwamai was very excited to be clean after his bath last night (seems that way at least, wouldn't you say?)

Tonight we are headed to the Knights of Columbus Founder's Day dinner. I'll have the camera and must get a shot of Kwam there. Papa dressed up, so of course Kwamai wanted to, too. Plus, he just got his hair cut this afternoon. He looks like a million bucks!

Why Five Year Olds Don't Get Married

Kwamai's quote for the day: "I can't wait until I marry somebody. Then I can have whatever I want for dinner, like ice cream."

Happy Feast Day, Felicity!

Today is the Feast of St. Felicity
And the above pic is her martyrdom scene.

We aren't celebrating in a special way this year, that I have planned at least, but I'll have to think on a good way to do it in the future. Like, something other than having her brother re-enact her martyrdom!

Sweet Felicity moment of the day: as I was making dinner and Felicity was going through her assorted holy cards, she came up to me and said "Jesus loves you, Mama" (repeating it, as she does, until I understand her). Then she looked in the nearby garbage can, saw an empty snack bag, and said "the pretzel loves you, Mama"!

Dr. Kwam

Erol has a bit of a cold today, so Kwamai has shifted into doctor mode (as he says), probably more like nurse mode. He is completely absorbed into attending to Erol's every need, bringing him water, soup, making sure he is comfortable, entertained, fed, etc.

How very sweet.

Felicity is Quotable, Too

There is so much talking going on in our house. I often think of that Groucho Marx quip when Kwamai is around that goes "[he] talks so much I think he was vaccinated with a phonograph needle!" I don't know how many times a day I am asking him to please be quiet, if just for a moment or two. I guess it's not fair, entirely. Sometimes it seems he starts a sentence about 30 seconds before becoming fully awake and finally ends that sentence just before he drifts off to sleep for the night.

Kwamai and Felicity both talk in their sleep, too, by the way.

Felicity is coming out with some of the cutest phrases these days. Many of them have to do with nursing. At Mass last week during the Agnus Dei when she really wanted me to sit down and nurse her, she called out "Have mercy on the boo-boo!" Today we happened to see a girl at the University riding a unicycle. She said to me, "Look Mama, person riding on a wheel!"

Letters are her current fascination, and she is learning to sing the alphabet song. We have some foam letters that she plays with from time to time. This morning Kwamai was trying to show her how he could make his body into a Y, and noted how it looks like a person raising their hands, praising God. He started singing "Praise the Lord", and she held her arms like his and said "Praise Baby Jesus".

This afternoon we came across the foam letter X. I said to her "what letter is this?" And she responded "X!". Then I went in the other room, and I heard her repeat to herself over and over "What letter is this? It's X!"

The cute-topper was tonight, as I was heading out grocery shopping. I had said goodbye to Erol and Kwamai and given them kisses. Felicity was busy looking at a book. I was in the kitchen ready to leave when Felicity came dashing out saying "Hug me! Hug me!" Of course, my heart melting into a little puddle I reached down to hug her. She dashed back off just as quickly, calling "Bye-bye!"

Now I really understand why I stay up for a few hours after everyone else is in bed. And I also remember the days (years!) where I dreaded all the silence I lived with. It truly is all worth it. Maybe I'll just keep earplugs in my pocket for the times I really need a break ;)

Felicity in Action

I took this little video this morning before Kwamai got up. You can't really make out much of what Felicity is saying, but she was loading the creatures onto the bus for a morning drive. A little spontaneous dance, and then a dash for the bookshelf.