Shower math

In the shower this morning, Eli asked Ewan, "What's 1 + 1, Ewan?"
Ewan: "Hmm....2?"
Eli: "That's right! Nice work. Now, what's 5 + 5?"
Ewan: "Hmmm....6!"
Eli: "No. But good guess. Try again."
Ewan: "Hmmm....3?"
Eli: "No. It is the number after 9."
Ewan: "Hmmm... horse?"
Eli: "No, horse is not a number. Try again."
Ewan: "This?"
Eli: "No, this is not a number. It's 10. Here let me give you another problem."

Magic for Christmas

Eli knows exactly what he wants Santa to bring him: a little of his magic.

What does he plan to do with it?

Travel to the dinosaur time.

And the next day, Ewan told me he is going to tell Santa that what he wants for Christmas is to climb up a fire truck ladder and fight a fire.

Oh dear, Santa has a tough crowd at the Casper household!

Stuff

Random stuff about the boys:

Eli picked out a few joke books at the library. Wow, this mama had NO idea how difficult it would be to explain a joke--especially ones involving word plays. Jeez. Anyway, Eli finds all of this fascinating. And he tries his hand at making up jokes all the time. Here are two jokes he made up about a week ago:

Eli: "Why can salt be colored?"
Mama: "Why?"
Eli: "When it's a banana!"
Insert laughter here.

Eli: "When is cereal the freshest?"
Mama: "When?"
Eli: "When it's a sink!"
Insert laughter here.

When talking about stars the other night, Eli says "Stars are just like numbers, they go on forever."

Tonight when Daddy got home from work, Ewan was in the tub. Daddy said "hi" to Ewan and asked him if he loved him. Ewan teased, "I love....hmmm...Mama!" Daddy said, "You don't love your Daddy?" And Ewan, with a very serious face and very clear, deliberate words, said, "I love my Daddy so much."

Conversations with Eli

I still love watching Eli's brain develop and work. He picks up nuances in language very quickly. But then he doesn't always apply it properly. Tonight, in a bathtub filled with thick suds, he said, "WOW! It is pitch suds in here!"
And his understanding of numbers is a little off. When talking to me on some play phones at the library last night, he told me that he killed 6 giraffes. In the next sentence, he told me that he ate nine of them.
And while he is gaining an understanding of geography, he confuses many places. Like when he explained that he is in South America hunting giraffes. Or when we are driving to another city nearby, he asks if it is still in Oregon or if we've left North America.

Special cover

Ewan has a special blankie except he calls it "special cover." Mama left it at Marlene's on Monday (yeah yeah I know, terrible Mama!). Ewan went down OK for his nap without it. I meant to get it in the afternoon but the time got away from me. As Daddy was putting the kids to bed, I ran to Marlene's to get it.
When I gave special cover to Ewan, Ewan gave me a huge smile and snuggled under it in Daddy's arms. Later, he asked Daddy, "Why special cover at Marlene's....without Ewan?"

Fall work

Eli and Ewan worked quite hard raking and sweeping leaves into a huge pile ("a mountain!" Eli called it). Then they jumped in it over and over. Eli is anxious to get out there again tomorrow to make the mountain even bigger.

Conversations with the boys

Early humans versus wooly mammoth is the new cops and robbers:
The games at our house are sure getting complicated. Whatever happened to cops and robbers? Check this out:
Eli: "Can we play a game before bedtime?"
Mama: "Sure, what do you want to play?"
Eli: "OK, so Ewan and I are early humans and you are the wooly mammoth and we disturb you and you chase us to where we were eating dinner!"
Mama: "Then what?"
Eli: "Then we spear you to make clothes of your skin."

Pronunciation and phonics collide:
Daddy mentions to Mama that Eli is getting better at sounding out his letters.
Eli: "Rain starts with R, Train starts with T and Firty starts with F!"
Mama: "Firty?"
Eli: "Yeah, firty...firty-one...firty-two...firty-three..."
Ah yes, remember how the "th" sounds like "f"?!? That's why all little kids call me Beff.

Good thing that are nice tools in the world:
Ewan, pointing to a tool on Daddy's tool bench: "That sharp. That pinch you."
Daddy: "Yes, that could pinch you."
Ewan, pointing to a different tool: "That not pinch you. That nice."

Harvest Fest

Last weekend we took the boys to Harvest Fest at A.C. Gilbert's. The boys always love to pet the animals, jump in hay, drive tractors and listen to music. Remarkable this year: Eli got his face painted. Only after Ewan did.

One fine October day

One day last week the sun came out and we rushed outside to...be a bag monster! OK OK, clearly we started out walking to the park in our hunter-orange caps (because you never know when a hunter might be out on the streets of Salem) but Ewan quickly found the snack bag was a better disguise (and the sounds of muffled roaring was perfect). Of course, the day would not have been as much fun without pjs and rainboots.    We love this warm fall!

Toddler Time Halloween

On Tuesday mornings, Ewan and Mama go to Toddler Time. It's like pre-preschool. The day before Halloween, Ewan got to wear his fire truck costume, go trick-or-treating and watch a cool dry ice demonstration. I didn't realize how intently Ewan was listening to the dry ice demo--but later when I asked him what he thought of all that smoke flowing out over the table, he said, "No, no Mama. Not smoke. Gas!" Amazing! He loved it when they poured dishwashing liquid into the dry ice container and then scooped up the bubbles. All of the kids got a chance to pop the bubbles and watch the smoke, er gas, pour out!

Trick-or-treating

Eli's pachycephalosaurus head was too hot and heavy to wear for too long and Ewan's fire truck costume knocked him over a few times, but they still had fabulous costumes! Oh, and they got lots of candy trick-or-treating! Some of the best fun, though, was handing out candy to other trick-or-treaters. Last night after giving out candy to a gang of kids, Ewan sees another group walking down the block. Ewan holds up two handfuls of chocolate and yells, "I TREAT YOU! I TREAT YOU!"