So the twins, Alex and Jon, spend much of their time these days refining the art of bickering. I didn’t know 3 year olds could be so good at quibbling - or at duping their mother.
A few days ago, they launched right into it after breakfast. The topic was shapes, I think, whether a particular shape was long enough to qualify as a rectangle or whether it remained a square.
Alex took the lead: “It’s a square!”
Then Jon: “No! It’s a rectangle!”
Alex: “It IS a square!”
“Is not!”
“Is!”
Alex then moved from the table to the couch, presumably so that he could shout his entrenched opinion across the room. Back and forth they went, getting more and more riled, until they were screaming and angry, or so it seemed.
I had intervened several times, though half-heartedly I admit, and they had ignored me. But when the yelling hit that pitch known to drive parents crazy, I was good and ready to sort out the offending shape.
Before I could, however, Alex jumped down from the couch, arms waving and tone changed completely: “Okay Jon,” he said authoritatively, “now you say ‘is’ and I say ‘is not.’” And he paced back to the couch like a movie director with a deadline.
They picked up their “argument” right where they’d left off. Same intensity; different roles.
I felt like the camera had panned back, revealing the set, crew and the unsuspecting audience - that is, me.
I’m feeling a bit of blogging fatigue these days which, I suppose, is good for getting other things done. I just planted more seedlings in our solid clay garden. It’s largely futile without a dump truck of compost but they do look nice for a while.
Reader’s Digest is a little more ambitious. Most of the projects are well beyond preschool crafts. Still, it’s intriguing in a retro sort of way (is 1977 retro already?). There are whole sections on tie-dying and weaving, of course, as well as sections on acrylics, cooking, photography, sewing and woodwork. All the patterns and designs are included at the back of the book.
Cranium Cariboo
Knickerbocker Glory
I read in a recent issue of
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