the food pyramid, according to Thomas

"apoo" = any fruit
"krakra" = cracker/bread product
"keekee" = anything in the cookie/pastry family
"pup" = a drink
"chsss" = cheese
"puhbmmm" = peanut butter (He has rather a hard time saying it, but anytime he so much as overhears the word in conversation he rushes into the pantry and emerges, beaming, bearing the sacred plastic jar aloft.)

Note the lack of word for vegetables... with these words he can pretty much "order up" anything he is really interested in eating.

George is 5

And the same day, he was pestering us about when he gets to start school... slow down, kid!

He's mostly just really excited about riding the school bus. Me, I'm excited for someone else to answer some of his intense crazy questions about how things work. All this googling of electromagnetic fields in the pre-coffee hours of morning is getting to be a bit much! His latest thing is the energy crisis. He is quite concerned about what we will do when we run out of oil... but he has two solutions in mind (1) just use batteries, and (2) tie together a WHOLE LOT of fireflies.

2012 kid update

George, George, George. I have many, many pictures like this. This particular shot is on Christmas. He opened this book first and then all but refused to open any more presents. We were shaking enticing wrapped boxes under his nose and he really just wanted to be left alone to read. In the end he opened presents sort of to the side without taking his eyes off the book. We're already sincerely praying for his kindergarten teacher... the questions he asks! He sort of never grew out of the why? stage. Recently he got a couple of stitches after a nasty fall. Even while being poked and prodded he was asking through his tears "but why does the stinging medicine make it not hurt? how does it work? how do you make that kind of medicine?"

And here's our second born- 3 years old going on 15. In her Dr. Jekyll moments, she loves to be a helper, to clean and organize things, to make sure everyone has what they need. She has been often known to share her cookies and other treats with her little brother. But then Mr. Hyde pops up... eek. When that happens every sentence starts with "but I don't WANT to etc. etc. etc." This ranges from I don't want to get dressed to I don't want to eat a snack to I just want everybody to leave me alone, I don't want ANYTHING *door slam*. People had told me 3 was tougher than 2 and I never understood that with my easygoing oldest boy. Now I get it.

And last but certainly not least, Thomas! This picture sort of epitomizes him at this age. Constant, constant motion. Huge, huge smile. He fights all day long to stay in the scrum with the big kids. He wants to eat what they eat, play what they play, be where they are. Thomas has a whole lot of words already, more than the other two had by this age. I think he just knows he'll have to be able to talk to get what he wants in this crowd! He has some cute and funny little quirks- he LOVES his toothbrush, and he often walks around the house carrying it and has even slept with it a few times. He insists on eating with a fork, for everything, including toast and peanut butter sandwiches. And right now his absolute favorite thing is something he calls daddEEEEE...

Christmas 2012

We had a lovely relaxing trip to Wisconsin for Christmas. Not very eventful because most of us (except, miraculously, Tim) had a terrible, terrible cold. But we did make cookies...

Open a few gifts...

Eat a big Christmas breakfast...

And just generally savor the moments.

Christmas concert!

George is going to St. Luke's preschool now and just loves it. Last week they had a little Christmas concert and we all had a great time! Here's a little sample:

It cracks me up that he is SO left handed, he even plays a cardboard guitar backwards! He did a great job at the concert- I thought he might be nervous but he was cool as a cucumber and even sang with his hands in his pockets most of the time.

halloween!

The sheer geeky awesomeness... the only little hitch was that Helen did NOT like Daddy wearing a Darth Vader mask so I think he only got to wear it for the two secs it took to get this picture. "Too scawy," she said.

Thomas, on the other hand, made a delightfully impish little Yoda.

this is why I could never live in the other Manhattan

Just a few miles behind our house is a large area of prairie that is a sort of nature preserve/ecology research tract. All the new KSU faculty and their families were invited on a special tour of the Konza Prairie to see it and especially the herds of bison that live there.

You think Kansas and you think flat- but not the part where we live, in the Flint Hills.

It's incredibly lovely. I'm tempted to go on and on about it but I don't want the whole world wanting to move over here. So you are welcome to your big cities and fabulous snooty restaurants and cultural events which I go to bed too early to attend anyway. I'm thrilled to live up on a hill in a neighborhood with trees everywhere and a jaw dropping view for miles and miles over the city and even beyond it.