Uwff. And some Spring Break

Yesterday Dexter was making a book about World Records - essentially the first person in space, the first shuttle in space, etc.  I haven't seen it - it's not done yet.  But it sounds cool.  So Erin wanted to make a book, too.  But she gets frustrated with drawing because she knows what she wants to draw, but she can't make her little hands actually do it yet.  So she asked John for help.

Erin:  Daddy?  Can you make Uwff for me?

Daddy:  Puzzled look

Erin:  Daddy?  Can you do it?  Can you draw Uwff?

Daddy:  Uwff???

Me:  EARTH.  She means Earth.

Daddy:  Oh!  Earth!  Sure, honey, I can draw that.

Earth, man.  That's a tricky one.  Her r's sound like w's, and her th's sound like f's.  So Earth is a double whammy.

Dex went back to school on Friday, for a snow make-up day, but only about half the kids in his class were there.  They spent some time writing about April Fool's Day, and worked on telling time and reading clocks.  Which - it FLOORS me that first graders don't already kind of know how to do this?  But apparently not.  It's tricky, for most.  I forget that Mr. Brilliant is pretty smart.

But today was the first real day back at school after Spring Break.  And we had a pretty nice break.  It went by fast.  Dexter spent afternoons during Erin's nap sitting on the sofa reading books.  We had plenty to do in the mornings before nap time.  And most of our evening activities were either cancelled, or didn't happen because our therapist was sick last week.  So it was a nice relaxing week.

Hadn't done Dexter's seven year picture for the wall yet, and he didn't want to go to the picture studio.  So we went to Longwood instead, and have like 50 excellent shots of the cute one.  It's going to be tough to pick one.

Short Stuff came along, copying her brother left and right.

I made them do some pictures together.  Which is fairly well impossible.

See?  Cute.  CUTE.  CUUUUUTTTTEEE.  How to choose?

After nap we finally got around top opening the Easter gifts from Grandma and Aunt Marcie.  We did it on Grandma's birthday.  To help her celebrate.  ;-)

John fixed the lawn mower and mowed the back yard.  The kids helped.

Erin went to a birthday party on Saturday, and since we were already late to nap we decided to skip it altogether and go watch Dexter's basketball game instead.  It was...  entertaining.  There's Dex, Number 8.

Erin's party was a super hero party, so she came home with this cool mask.

Sunday was WINDY and cold, so Erin and I stayed home and did nothing.  This is Erin, winning at Connect 4.  She has no idea how to play.  I did get her started with Zingo, though - she really likes it.  And she's pretty good.  She won't play Uno with me - she only plays that with Daddy and Dexter.

And now it's Monday and Dex gets off the bus soon and we're back to normal.  Normal-ish.  As normal as we get here on Uwff.

Franklin Institute

This morning we ate a quick breakfast, tossed the kids in the car, and headed to Philly to visit the Franklin Institute.  It was "Sensory Sunday" there, where they turn down the sounds and the lights on some of their exhibits for kids who may have some sensory issues.  I have no idea how it is on a "normal" day, and if they could have turned the down the volume of the pack of Boy Scouts that would have been GREAT - but we got to go early to beat the crowds, and it was at a discounted price, so we were cool with it.  The kids had a BLAST and would like to go back tomorrow.  The grown-ups would like to go to bed right this instant, and have re-discovered how much they dislike other people's kids.

We spent a whole lot of time in the space exhibit - SURPRISE!

Checking out astronaut suits

Building a Mars rover, the old-fashioned way

Building a Mars rover on the computer - this game has been declared "The Most Fun Game EVER."  John spent a lot of time here.  Fortunately he had a smart phone and free wi-fi.

Erin and I checked out the HUGE train while the boys built more Mars rovers:

There was a pay phone in the train room.  "Mama, how do you hang this up?"  Excellent question, sweetie.  You've never seen a phone with a cord, have you...

Testing out different kinds of train wheels

Blowing the train whistle

All Aboard!  Erin drove.  I got to ride... in the tender.

We had a fun time in the Maze of Mirrors, which was part of a younger-kid oriented room with some water play, bubbles, fog horns, and air tubes:

And then we went and checked out THE BRAIN.  Climbed in the brain.  Made neuron connections.  Put together a brain puzzle.  We liked watching the kids turn a wheel to watch the neural pathway light up, and have ping pong balls POP out of the end when the message got there.  Erin giggled like mad, although it scared the bejezus out of her a few times.

Brain climby thing

Both kids inside the neural pathways of the brain.  They did a nice job of staying together.  Erin, being little, actually had an easier time getting through some places than Dexter.

Say BRAIN!

Very cool screen where you could move neurons around and get them to make pathways.

This is the neuron with the ping pong balls at the end.  Erin was giggling, but then got too scared to actually turn the wheel the whole way.

Dex tried it out, too

I have no idea what this thing is actually supposed to DO, but the kids had a wonderful time dancing around in front of the screen.

Here's Dex, doing something like what the directions said to do.

We spent LOTS and LOTS of time in the Amazing Machines room, which made Dexter and John very happy.  Erin and I did ok for a little while, but Erin was tired and grumpy and I can only watch gears and pulleys for just so long.  So we went and played with rocks in the gift shop.

Erin built a cool domino line

The kids worked together to move the crane and move some pieces of foam.

Dexter spent so much time playing with gears.  He LOVED it.

This was his crowning achievement - with gears and four pulleys.  He was very proud of it.

We spent a little time in the Sports Zone, but it was super crowded and hot by the time we got there.  The kids ran a race, jumped for height, and had an arm-pedaled bicycle race:

Our final stop was the Franklin Air Show, all about airplanes.  We floated balls in mid-air, banged drums and watched the wall opposite shimmer, sat in an airplane, and tried on some wings.  There was lots of air blowing in here, which made Erin happy.  She likes it when things blow her hair:

Dex, pretty close to flying away.

And then we drove an hour home, and Erin single-handedly ate an entire sleeve of Girl Scout peanut butter sandwich cookies.  And now it's 9PM, and I need to go to bed.  Science, man.  It's EXHAUSTING.

100. And 7.

Dear Dexter,

A couple weeks ago it was the 100th Day of School.  Your fantastic, amazing, awesome teacher, Mrs Meute, had all kinds of special activities planned for the day to celebrate 100 days of school.  Every student brought in 100 pieces of something snack-like (you did Fruity Cheerios) and mixed them together in to a special 100 Day snack.  You did math games incorporating 100.  Pictures and puzzles about the number 100 (you declined the puzzle bit, claiming you "ran out of time."  Ran out of time, my ass, child - I know you hate puzzles.)  And you brought home this excellent little paper about all things 100.  It makes me giggle.  I don't imagine you'd ever eat 100 brussels sprouts.  And I agree, having 100 babies would DEFINITELY be a problem.

We maybe need to go to the store to look at the cost of things a bit more.  Because I don't think you'd get a very big rocket ship with $100.

A few weeks ago you turned seven.  SEVEN!  You are 52 inches and 60 pounds huge - you've gained 10 pounds since Kindergarten, and it is mostly solid muscle.  And brains.  Lots and lots of brains.

You have continued to love space.  All things space.  We own, I believe, every single space book known to man.  Our shelves are overflowing with space books.  You know about the phases of the moon (you are currently learning about them in school, so we've been paying closer attention to the moon every night.  I think you could likely teach this section of your science lesson.), all the planets, all the moons of every planet, different kinds of stars, black holes.  We name it, you know it if it's about space.  You got a new bus driver a few weeks ago named Mr. Armstrong.  You were excited because "maybe he's an astronaut!"  I'm not sure you realize that there are LOTS of people with the last name of Armstrong.  They are not all Neil Armstrong.

You love love love school.  It took a trimester or so, but finally your teacher is realizing that you LIKE doing extra stuff at school.  You love math word problems.  You love research projects.  You HATE writing, especially "making connections" in fictional books.  I get it.  I like to read just to enjoy it.  I don't, personally, care one bit about WHY the author chose to write about a topic.  I'm just happy he did.  So I get it, kiddo.  But sorry.  Making connections is something you're going to have to do for a long long time at school.

Bedtime Math.  Best.  Book. Ever.

Your favorite part of school is lunch and recess.  Which - AWESOME!  Lunch was something Daddy and I were a little worried about this year - it's loud, there's lots of kids, you have to stand in line to wait for your food.  All things you kind of hate.  But apparently you are having a grand old time, striking up conversations with other kids, and you're actually playing with kids during recess.  It's huge.  HUGE remarkable progress for you and I am delighted to see it happening.

This fall you've been part of the swim team at the YMCA, which really deserves a post all its own.  It's been so fun to see your swimming improve (you are FAST!) and, even more importantly, to see you so excited about something.  I love watching you jump up and down and get all flappy during practice and during swim meets because you're so excited about the upcoming event.  And I love seeing you actually make friends, and want to hang out with them.  Tomorrow is the last day of swim team for a couple months, and while it will be nice to have those evenings back I am really going to miss having you swim.

Daddy and you just started playing basketball at the YMCA.  Daddy is the coach of your team.  You LOVE basketball, and you get so so excited to play.  Daddy is exhausted after practice and games - coaching a bunch of seven year olds is a bit like herding cats, I think.

You've been super busy with all your activities, but I think what you enjoy most is hanging out at home.  You still love playing with trains - we've got a train track gracing the floor of the living room right now, and I don't even know how many tracks are set up in the basement.  I try not to go down to look very often.  You love LEGO's, and Snap Circuits, and MagnaTiles.  You read a billion books a day.  And I am quite sure you would play Mine Craft on your iPad all day, every day if we would allow it.  You currently have to earn iPad time with good behavior, and Mine Craft has really been pretty good at encouraging good behavior.  Want to argue and talk back and be rude?  Guess you don't want to play Mine Craft tomorrow.

You are pretty good to your sister.  She ADORES you and would love nothing more than to hang out with you all the time.  You tolerate playing with her to a point, and eventually find a way to tell her to get lost.  You like teaching her about space, and helping her with puzzles (amazing), and listening to music and dancing with her.  You play silly silly games together.  Every now and then you give her a real honest to goodness hug, and that just melts my heart.

You are still, and always will be, a bit of a quirky boy.  It takes a little while to figure you out, break through and find the real Dexter, and figure out what makes you tick (and what makes you explode).  But man, when you get it figured out and get a real smile out of you...  It's totally worth the effort.

Happy, happy Birthday Dexter.  We love you to the edge of the universe and back (and, of course, as you know the universe has no edge.  So we love you forever, to infinity.  Which, by the way, IS NOT A NUMBER.  It's an idea.  It's not a number.  Can we please stop having that discussion?)