It’s been a rather gray and gloomy day, but the minute we found the train, the sun started peeking out!

And a bubble kiss!

Dylan Reads His First Book

It was a very exciting moment around here. He did it all by himself while in bed last night (after he ran out of creative bedtime excuses) and we ran up – and he read it to us again! The book is called Mac, and it’s book 4 of the Bob Books set. (We’re not sure where book 1 and 2 went to, and he decided to skip book 3 and go straight to book 4).

He is very pleased with himself. Rightly so! (We took the picture today.)

(Note: please just add a handful of exclamation marks at the end of each request, and imagine a childish voice yelling each request (command?) at the top of robust five-year-old lungs)

1. “Mommy, I want water.” (Yes. Classic. I know. But it gets better than this. Much, much better.)

2. “Mommy, I want to go get my own water.”

3. “Mommy, I want the blue cup, not the Boston Pizza cup.”

4. “Mommy, I want the Boston Pizza cup, not the blue cup.”

5. “Mommy, I need you.” Mommy comes up. “I just wanted to tell you what I’m going to dream about.”

6. “Mommy, I need you.” Mommy comes upstairs. “I just wanted to tell you what I’m going to play with when I get up in the morning.”

7. “Mommy, I need you.” Mommy comes upstairs. “I just wanted to tell you what I want us to do tomorrow.”

8. “Mommy, I have to go to the bathroom.”

9. “Mommy, I’m IN THE BATHROOM and making brown tinky butt.” (Yes, we say that around here. It started out as a kind of cute saying and now, uh, has stuck. So to speak.)

10. “Mommy, I want new music.” (The CD player is there, within his reach. Yes, he knows how to turn it on. Yes, he knows how to change CDs.)

11. “Mommy, I want you to turn on the music again.” (See no. 10 above.)

12. “Mommy, I want to sleep on the other side of the bed.”

13. “Mommy, I want to sleep in the middle of the bed.”

14. “Mommy, I need you.” Mommy comes upstairs. “Can you help me pick up my covers? They dropped on the floor.”

15. “Mommy, I need you.” Mommy comes upstairs. “I don’t want to dream about Swiper [the fox, from Dora the Explorer].”

16. “Mommy, my back is itchy.”

17. “Mommy, I want you to put cream on my back.”

18. “Mommy, I need more water. I drank up all of it already.”

19. “Mommy, the curtains fell down.” (Because he was pulling on them while looking out his window.)

20. “Mommy, I need you.” Mommy comes upstairs. “Look at this mosaic piece that came off my mosaic picture. Can you put it back?”

There’s more but someone’s calling, “Mommy, I need you” and Mommy needs to go upstairs …

It was a nice afternoon despite the short waiting time between teachers. It’s always nice to hear teachers talk about your kids, kind of like getting another perspective and as a parent, it can be very lovely seeing your children through another’s eyes (usually!). Most of the teachers we met with today were genuinely interested in our kids, and there were a few that I certainly would have liked to have had as teachers way back when!

The Big Draw

I’ve been reading your comments to Dylan and he’s quite thrilled with it all, although he’s still not quite certain exactly who you all are He calls everyone “other people’s websites” (Until I got busy with deadlines, I’ve been showing him your blogs and all your lovely artwork.)

Today Dylan chose to post the gas station he drew:

Gas Station. Crayola markers.

And I had some spare time to draw, so attempted a few more faces:

Faces. Pen.

Things are a little less hectic the next few days, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to get around to seeing everyone’s blogs and drawings again soon. I’ve really missed that part of my day, reading your thoughts on Google Reader and clicking through to see beautiful artwork.

Which unfortunately left me very little time for other things, like drawing! So The Big Draw will be on hold until tomorrow. (Dylan, on the other hand, did his drawings both yesterday and today!)

Both dinners were a lot of fun; we took a ton of pictures so I’ll be sorting through those. Sitting down today, both Ward and I talked about how much we have in our lives to appreciate, how blessed we are.

And most of all, today I’ve been thinking about a quote that my friend Bethie sent me:

“… you do live in an environment of absolute grace. And the more you practice thoughts of that and watch for evidence of that and speak it, you beat the drum of it whenever you see it.”

- Abraham-Hicks

And that’s my intention – Absolute Grace. And as I sit here reflecting on all that’s good in my life, and my gratitude and appreciation of all of it, it does indeed feel like I’m surrounded by absolute grace.

1. After dinner conversation with my oldest son, loving so much who he is, how he’s growing and thinking, the person he’s becoming.

2. A gourmet meal on a Monday night, lovingly prepared by my darling husband.

3. Laughing and joking with my daughter, adoring who she is.

It turned out wonderfully. After eating, he decided to draw, and now he’s got the first few pages of a book about fruits. Being a child who doesn’t eat any fruit except apples, I was surprised at his depth of knowledge about so many fruits! And I got to finish my lunch leisurely, including vanilla ice cream on a waffle for dessert.

Lemon, Pear & Banana so far

Need another colour …

Drawing the Watermelon

Of course, being Dylan, there had to be a train in there somewhere. This one delivers all the fruits to the stores, but not, as I had suggested, in Canada, because “Canada doesn’t have steam engines”. Oh, yes, that’s right. So we decided it was probably the Island of Sodor:

The Requisite Train Picture

And this one is for Daddy (if he can get wireless today!) Yes, that’s a chocolate smudge on Dylan’s nose (he wiped it off all by himself when we got our hot towels with the bill):

This One's For Daddy

I promised I would upload the pictures from his book when he’s finished (right now he’s got a cover page – of an apple, of course (which might end up being today’s Big Draw) – and two inside pages). And since we talked about various fruits, and will end up writing down all the names as well as putting together the book, I think this counts as homeschooling, for sure!

We read a few books every night, and lately he’s been coming out of his “Brand Name” phase (ie “I want the Backyardigans book” or “I want the Dora book”) so I’ve been taking full advantage.

The book I picked up today is called My Many Colored Days, by Dr. Seuss.

It’s a beautiful book, about colors and feelings. I ended up reading it to Dylan three times. He didn’t want any other book.

So now I’m having one of those “when you pick just the right book for your child” moments.