K'Nex!

 

A lumber factory -notice all the saw blades (gears) in various places.

Mountain Climbing!

These were both taken with Declan's Xmas pressie - a kid's digital camera.

Sledding on campus

The good thing about sledding in 19 inches of snow is that the packed down tracks start to form bobsled runs!

Declan's song transcribed!

Greg Scheer, a friend of my Parents in GR transcribed a version of Declan's song! Here's the PDF. Unfortunately, neither Tara or I have even a modicum of musical talent, so I'm capable of playing it. But I know people who are.

Deer Park with Masha and Maxim

Declan, Maxim, Masha

Feeding the horse

All three kids with the horse

Halloween '09

 

Declan's 1st Song

Declan wanted to teach us a song tonight at dinner. When he started, I thought it was something he learned at school, but it turns out that he made it up during a 'timeout'. Anyway, here it is, in three movements:

Puddle Jumping!

 

 

'After' pictures to follow...

Puppet owl

This is puppet owl. And I love him. He is carrying my thumb. He flies high, flies low, and goes everywhere you can go by flying.

Ben Carrying Pickles

Here is Ben. Look at him. He is carrying pickles, and I love him. He goes fast, he goes slow. He goes everywhere you can go on tracks. Bye!

Weeee!

 

Declan admitted that he was a little scared the first time, but then he thought it was fun...

Modal Reasoning

An argument between Declan and Tara this evening:

Tara: It's time for a bath
Declan: I'm too tired. If I have a bath, I'll have to play with the letters, and I'm too tired to play with the letters.
Tara: Then don't play with the letters.
Declan: But I can't not play with the letters. I must play with the letters if I have a bath.
Tara (switching tactics): If you're so tired, why are you spending so much energy arguing?
Declan: (no comment).

Brilliant. Incidentally, the transition from ~M~P to LP is valid in S4 (if my memory serves, it is the summer...).

Freakin' Awesome, man

(note: this is not my fault. Blame Matt Bown of Extreme Trains on the History Channel. Declan also said something was 'wicked cool' earlier.)

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a wood chuck would chuck wood?

Now you know:

Head-Bonker

I forgot to add these from my twitter feed, so here they are:

And for the grandparents:

Inductive Skepticism in a 4 year old.

Tonight, as I was cutting up the pizza for dinner, my 4-year old Declan came up and asked me if he could have a piece of pepperoni. I said "wait for your dinner."

He said "but I need to make sure that it is spicy".
"It is the same pepperoni as always," said I.
"Yes, but how do I know that this is as spicy as the last?" he questioned.
"It comes from the same company," I explained.
"But I can't be sure that it is the same spiciness".
"Yes, but we can suspect that it has the same spiciness with a high degree of probability," I retorted, in a last, desperate attempt.

"But I cannot be sure. The only way to be sure is to taste a piece, and I need to be sure."

I gave him the damn piece of pepperoni.

All of this was followed up with a 15 minute conversation on how to distinguish a Diego episode featuring Dora from a Dora episode featuring Diego. This is, as you may suspect, crucially important, and Swiper the fox - who only appears on Dora episodes - is terrifying to Declan.

We have an odd and wonderful little boy.

The single most embarrassing thing in the world:

Not only is it a 1984 Mac box. Not only has it been preserved for 25 years in my parent's house. Not only did my heart skip a beat when I uncovered it this afternoon... But it actually contains....

Wait for it...

D&D characters. From when I was 10. (1984) Eeeeep.

So not only was I so geeky that I treasured everything Mac-related to such an extent that I saved the BOX that the manuals came in and squirreled it away somewhere to wait for 25 years, but I filled it with the most valuable thing I could think of: hand-created D&D characters, scenarios, maps, everything.

Declan just doesn't stand a chance, does he?

Declan's latest train line:

Our Karate Kid!

Declan went to an introductory Karate class tonight, and loved it!

Snow Play

Clearing snow with dump truck.

"Excuse me. Why is my hand is cold?" -Declan. "Because you took your glove off, you great pillock" -Mom

Our Grandchildren

Declan announced yesterday that when he has a kid (he was fairly disappointed to learn that he couldn't grow one in his tummy), he is going to name it 'fusspot'. Today, he added 'crankypants'.
We're looking forward to welcoming 'Crankypants Fusspot Bradley' to the family in, oh, 25-30 years.

Pickle Cake!

 

Yes, that is a pickle with candles in it. See:

 

Fall Fest '08

Levi, Declan and Masha on the fire truck

Declan and Daddy on the big slide

Levi and Declan on the lady Bugs

Bumper Cars!

These were actually from Fall Fest, but I forgot to post them - sorry!

Glen Rock Train Display

Declan and Levi at the Glen Rock Train Display. It was seriously impressive.