Leaf bugs

Abbi and I had quite the time the other day, Abbi watched a movie that had leaf bugs in it, and she was talking about them, and then she said something that made me think that she was under the impression that they weren't real. Sure enough, when I made note that she had seen a leaf bug before, she thought I was crazy, heehee.

Summer 2011

I assured her that she really had, and pulled up my blog to prove it to her with the picture. She still didn't believe me. That wasn't a leaf bug. She didn't know what it was, but it surely was not a leaf bug.

So, I tried looking them up online to see if I could find her a better picture then I had taken. I found this, but she didn't buy it. Okay, so I agree, it didn't look like any of the animated leaf bugs she had seen. 

I found this. Well, that was closer. At least it look like a leaf to her. Now we had a new problem, though. It looked too much like a leaf. She still didn't believe me. Mommy tried to back me up, and we eventually learned that she thought that we were saying that every leaf was a bug. Well, we were able to fix that, but I'm still not sure that she gets it yet, because I showed her that last picture one more time, and she gasped, and said "It has LEGS!!!"

But since she couldn't tell that the head was a head, I don't think realizing that helped much...

It was so funny! But, hey, I learned that leaf bugs and katydids are the exact same thing, not two different things in the same family (yes, it took me this long...), so maybe it was worth it... the laugh sure was ;).

Little snippets...

Just a few little things the last few days that have made me smile :)..
Emmi has developed this habit of asking me to read her "just one page of the bible" every night. It is sooo sweet. Most of the time, I answer "Yes, as soon as I set my alarm." Last night, I didn't set my alarm, so I read her "one chapter of the bible" right away. She said "Bri, I am so glad that you didn't have you alarm, because I wanted you to read the bible instead, and you always set your alarm". I thought it was sweet :).  
She was counting on her fingers this morning, and I asked me how many this two and this two made. After some prompting, she found that it was four, and I congratulated her, "Good job! You just did some math!" And she answered "Yes! And now I can watch my school movie and do my paper!" :). (We use Math-U-See.)
She was also reading a book this afternoon, all sprawled and chillin' on the couch, and I said "You need a hammock." She looked at me, and said"I do not! I already have a handbook! See?" As she shows me the board book in her little hands :).
Mommy made a chocolate smoothie about a week ago, and Abbi thought the taste she got was delicious. When Mommy was making it again this morning, Abbi got very excited. "Are you making that for me?" sh asked. Mommy decided that she was ;). We think, though, that Abbi just like the coffee that Mommy put in it the first time ;). Abbi is so funny... loved the drink only for the coffee, but she won't eat her cinnamon sugar-topped muffins with the sugar on them. I believe she has to also be the only four year old who cares whether she watches a movie full screen or wide screen, heehee ;)...
Oh, and Peter has an adorable new accomplishment :)... He has found a very ingenious idea for walking all over the house...
I also have a little bit about leaf bugs to share sometime soon :)... Curious?

*For those who saw the title (spelled wrong... haha!) posted earlier, I'm sorry :). I pressed the wrong button at some time while I was trying to save it, and didn't even notice until I went to save it again and saw that, instead of "Save", the button was "Revert to draft". I promise this is that former post that is now missing... I'm sure that snippet was too small to even see ;).

As the sloth...

For Christmas, Daddy and Mommy gave us a set of Moody Science Classic videos.
We watched a couple of them today, "Voice of the Deep" and "Of Books and Sloths."
The science they share is really interesting, and they do a great job explaining why they dispel the "conclusions" that they address. At the end, they also include a lesson with the word of God that ties into their topic. I think they are, on average, close to thirty minutes each.
I especially enjoyed the sloth one... I'll admit, I thought that the little sloth that they used as a model for most of it was cute :). But, they took a quote from a book that stated that the "sloth only needed one more "imperfection" in it's (God created!) form to make it unable to survive". They then carefully went through and showed how the examples used to show this were not true... for one thing, it is obvious that the sloth has teeth ;). And as to having no defenses- being able to look like termite nest in the trees when curled up, and having strong skin, along with thick, wiry hair to protect them, sounds like a defense to me! If you ask me, the sloth is just another special creature that points to the fact that we have a creator!

I pray that I may be used to show others that we do have a creator, just as the sloth does!

Of icebergs and fevers

Great news first: Peter is feeling MUCH better today! He no longer has a fever, and seems to be breathing much better! He is his regular, smile-y self, although a bit shaky and less busy than usual ;). He s sitting here so snug'y :)... We are so glad that he was only that bad fr one day!!!
And as to the icebergs, Bethi and I had a great time earlier looking up icebergs in the encyclopedia :). She asked about them this morning, and so I took her back to the library and looked it up with her. I learned a bit, too :). We saw Greenland on the map (Aunt Tessa, can you tell Grandma that Bethi definitely remembered that from our history study with her :)?), we talked about how to use an encyclopedia :), we learned how many feet a mile is (yes, I got off on "rabbit trails", but hey, they were all related!), what ratio of the iceberg can be seen above versus below the water line, among other things that she thought were just as interesting :). But not how cold they are, at least we learned that while at the Titanic exhibit. It may be wrong of me, but I had to wonder what kind of encyclopedia we had that didn't tell you how cold the thing that is famous for being cold is :)? Anyway, we had fun....

A school time story

So, today, when I reached my literature study, I called for the assistance of Tori. Tori, who was sewing at that moment, asked if I could wait while she tied off her current project. I agreed, and sat down on the couch next to her. Emmi, who has been in a book-mood all day, came to me with the sixth book of the day (I'd read the first five, but at this point I had already told Tori that I could use her help, so Emmi just had to wait this time!). I don't think she quite got the concept of waiting for her book to be read, as all I was doing was sitting on the couch with pieces of paper in my hand :), but she finally agreed. Abbi, who also wanted attention (although I've already forgotten what she wanted it for, haha) was told that she had to wait, Tori was going to help Bri with her cards. To which Abbi said "I'll help!" I kind of giggled, and told her that if she could read the front of the first card, she could help me. She promptly took the card, which was "Alliteration" (the repetition of initial consonant sounds) and said "A! I read it!". I wasn't sure how to answer this, so thankfully I didn't have to, because immediately Emmi grabbed the card Abbi had, and announced, "I can read, too! Ox, I read it!!!" Abbi is sitting there, "No, it says "A", you can't read", as if she was patiently repeating this  lesson for the fourth time. Emmi stares at Abbi, and reminds her, "I can too read- look (points to her lips) I have lips!!!"
Finally Tori and I stopped laughing, and got to work. As we came to the last word in the stack of cards (onomatopoeia), Tori asked me how to pronounce it. I told her, she repeated, and I gave the definition (words that sound like what they mean), and then we heard Abbi chanting "Emmiapockasia! Emmiapockasia! Emmiapockasia!" Emmi joined in the chant; "Emmiapockasia! Emmiapockasia! Emmia- Abbi!!! I am not a emmiapockasia!!!"
It was sooo funny!

Why my school books and papers are kept in a case that little hands can not open...

...Imagine if that school had not been contained when she carried all of it across the house to use it as a stool ;)! Sweet baby girl turns two tomorrow... birthday post WILL be coming! I love her so much :)...

We have a new writer!

Not reader- writer. Haha, we know that the little ones are ready to read when they are constantly asking how to spell this and that.
Andrew was told by Daddy when he turned five that Daddy would take him fishing when he learned to read. The next day, Andrew did this:




Mommy is now working on teaching him to read :).