Piano Playing

I had the following conversation with Jack at lunch today:

JACK: Mom, you know how to play the piano, right?
ERIN: I know a very little bit.
JACK: Dad knows how to play the piano, right?
ERIN: Dad knows a little bit too.
JACK (very earnestly) : Well, it sounds like together you guys know quite a bit!

Oh, if it was only that easy! :)

Spaghetti for Jesus?

Theo just told me that he didn't want to eat his spaghetti. More specifically that 'he wanted to leave it until Jesus comes back - in case he is hungry'.

Holding Hands

I have a vivid childhood memory of walking through the Jefferson City Mall (right by Hallmark, going down the little walking ramp) holding my mom's hand. I remember her singing the Beatles' classic, 'I want to Hold your Hand' as we did it.

As this is such a great memory, I have always wanted to be a hand-holder with my kids. Three memories have come to mind lately regarding hand-holding that I wanted to record largely because they are sweet, but also because I know I will forget them if I don't record them, and there will be a day (too soon I fear!) when the participants will not believe it really happened! :)

1. When we flew home to the US this year, Jack (just having turned six) was particularly worried about the take-off on the smaller regional plane that would fly us from Chicago to Kansas City. He loves the big plane that takes us across the ocean, but the little one always shakes more on take-off and he had remembered this from the year before. There was much talk about this before our trip. As we boarded the plane, we realised that it was smaller plane than anticipated with one seat on the left side and two seats on the right side. The flight attendant told us that a child could not sit on the one-seat side by themselves so we put Jack and Theo together (Theo got the window and Jack got the aisle), and I sat across the aisle on the one-seat side. Charles sat in the row ahead with Addie on his lap. As we taxied down the runway Jack asked if we could hold hands. Of course, I said yes. So our arms extended into the aisle and met where we held hands. He held very tightly and bravely until we were at cruising altitude.
2. Last Thursday we took our car through the car wash which was desperately needed after the snow that hit London a week earlier. The boys thought it was great having the water spray on us and the car shake as we sat there. Addie didn't share this view. She didn't start crying, but she got visibly upset. I then heard Jack say, 'it's okay Addie. I will hold your hand.' I turned around and sure enough they were holding hands. It helped settle Addie...a bit.
3. Today Jack and I walked to church together. I have been trying to walk most Sundays for exercise. Charles then meets me there and I ride home with him and the kids after the service in the car. Jack has been very keen to walk with me. A few of the Sundays I have indulged his request. Today was one of those. As we started off on our walk. He grabbed my hand and said, 'Mom, can I hold your hand the whole way?'. We did hold hands a good part of the way, but then we started to play the 'don't step on cracks in the sidewalk game' and he made the point that it was easier to succeed if you were not holding hands. He is a very practical kid. And since the saying goes 'Step on the cracks break your mother's back' I thought it was wise to give in! :)

So there you have it - three holding hands stories for the record. Sweet memories.

Swimming for Theo

So after a year of sitting on the side of the pool, guess who began their swimming career? THEO!  He has patiently watched Jack weekly for a year. Our pool requires you be three and a half to begin proper lessons without your parent in the pool. Theo was three and a half on the 30th of January so we were thrilled when the pool had openings in his age group for this week. It is just a week long course while schools are on half-term. The best part is that the class has six kids and five of them are from college. This means lots of fun for Theo since he knows most of them. Overall, the initial signs are that he loves it.

 Here is a picture of Theo (in the middle) and some of his friends in the water.

Cartoons

So Jack's latest hobby is cartoons. Charles explained to him how cartoons were made frame by frame. Since then he has been SO into drawing cartoons frame by frame. I am not exaggerating when I say he has spent hours a day doing these cartoons. Basically he takes one piece of paper and draws a figure and then takes another piece of paper and draws the next scene etc. We have gone through a lot of paper. He then tries to flip through them really quickly to give the 'effect' of a moving picture. It works in his mind (only).

He has improved but he has a long way to go still! His drawings definitely feels six-year-old-ish, but his creative side is to be admired. This weekend we saw friends in Oxford. Their teenage daughters very kindly helped Jack re-enact his Boston Tea Party Cartoon and were clever enough to video it with their iphones.

Here is Jack's first taped cartoon. Note that Jack also changes his voice at one point to match with a new character.

S