Rainboots and Bare Feet

The Ft Wayne Zoo

We made a trip to the Ft Wayne Zoo this fall.  It was a beautiful day and the zoo was pretty empty.  Some of the rides were 1/2 off, so we went on the Sky Chairs and on the train.  I think the kids had a good time.  Their favorites were the zebras and the giraffes. 

Rockets

Brian got some model rockets about a month ago to shoot off with the kids.  His brother Mike had recently gotten some and was talking to Brian about them.  Here are some pictures from the first launch day.  Since then, we have gone twice more and both kids like to push the button.  The first day, Isabele launched hers.  It took Titus a bit longer to get into it, but he launched one all by himself on our second outing.  Here are a couple of pictures from the first trip.

Painting Her Toenails

I guess this is one thing you can do with your watercolors when mom isn't watching.

She can't say I wasn't being tolerant today, and have anyone believe her.

Sleep? Guess I don't need that.

Sleep is hard to come by for me in consecutive hours.  If it isn't Titus trying to climb into bed with me, then it is Isabele crying mummy, mummy, mummy.  Last night was especially wakeful.  Isabele woke up at 10, too hot and thirsty.  Fixed that and put her back to bed.  I went to bed about 10:45.  11PM, Titus was in my room wanting to sleep with me, for no apparent reason.  Back to his bed.  I'm tired of being poked by a 3 year old all night.  Needless to say, sending him back to his bed did not provide me with more sleep.  I think it took till about 12:30 for him to really be all the way asleep.  During that time, Isabele woke up.  It is so hard to know what she understands and what is going on with her.  Teeth?  Growing pains? Hunger? Brat attack?  Finally it dawned on me that maybe it was some or all of those, other than Brat attack, so I gave her some tylenol and took her upstairs for a graham cracker.  After eating the cracker and having a drink of water, she was ready for bed.  So, back to her room we went.  And finally she went to sleep.  Titus got me up 2 or 3 more times, but went back to bed nicely.  And they both got up for the day at 5:40AM.  I guess I really don't need sleep.

The one and only sweet / amusing thing between 11P and 2A was that Isabele at one point wanted me to "sing" "sycmore".  What??  "sycmore".  I sing 4 songs to them at bedtime each night: "The BIBLE", "Zacheus Was a Wee Little Man", "Jesus Loves Me", and "Amazing Grace".  Apparently the part about the Sycamore tree, stands out the most to Isabele.  So she got Zacheus very quietly sometime in the middle of the night.

I have been told that this too shall pass, and that I won't remember it.  I know that eventually they will outgrow needing "mummy" in the middle of the night.  As far as not remembering it, that's probably true too.  Lack of sleep is pretty powerful.

Firetrucks

After a small mishap with some bananas and a skillet ... Kimber managed to have WLFD arrive for Micah's Birthday.  Titus and Isabele got to see 4 firetrucks and a zillion firemen, outfitted to the gills - including helmets.  Isabele said "fire man" and "helmet".  That was her take on it.
Titus was quite concerned that the firemen were going to spray fire on Kimber's house.  Brian explained that the firetrucks only have water in them and that they spray water, not fire.  We thought that was clarified. 
We went home, almost had a repeat of the smoke (from the granola in the oven), and put the kids in the bathtub.  There Titus told me that he didn't want the firetrucks to come to our house and spray the fire.  I could not convince him that fire trucks spray water on fire, and that they would not come to our house tonight.  He finally seemed satisfied to think that the firetrucks would only spray water on bananas.  (Lucky for Titus we were out of bananas).
The next day we had a fire and water science lesson.  I think he understands a bit better after pouring water on lit matches.
It is so interesting to observe and participate in what and how a 3 1/2 year old learns. 

Sampson

Titus' Sunday School lesson a couple weeks ago was about Sampson.  The card that came home had a typical bible story depiction of a man with bushy shoulder-length hair, with flowing, somewhat ragged, white cloth about his body.  He was also "hugging" a scrawny lion.  Titus found this paper in the car yesterday and asked me what it was.  I told him it was about Sampson and the lion and what happened when Sampson's hair was cut.  So, Titus then proceeds to tell me what it is about.  It went something like this:
Titus: Yeah, this is about Sampson.  He got his hair cut.  Then he killed the lion with his hands.  And he leaked.
Me:  He leaked??
Titus: Yes.  He leaked.
Me: You mean he was weak?
Titus: No.  He leaked.
Me: Okay.  What did he leak?
Titus: He leaked in his pants.
Me: Oh (rather amused).
Titus:  No, He leaked in the toilet paper.
Me: Okay.  Interesting.

All I can figure is that the teacher told him Sampson was weak after having his hair cut, and Titus thought she said leak.  To his credit - Sampson's clothes do look a bit like toilet paper (especially if you are 3 1/2).
I suppose it is good that he remembers the story.  I'm not sure how much he has benefited from the story, but, at least he remembered it.

On a side note:  My little sister had her own adaptation to the end of the Sunday School song Zacheus, when she was little ... "For I'm going to your house to play toys and eat pizza".  Hannah was in the 2 and 3's class - so probably somewhere around Titus' age when she changed the song.