September 21

The last couple of days have been pretty quiet.
Tuesday we went to playgroup, were at the park for five hours, and had a super great time. The children took bikes and scooters. Trev is getting really good with his scooter. He's begining to be able to coast, on one leg, instead of sort of 'falling' on his foot, and pushing. He's become rather adept. There was a moment where some of the boys were sort of in a circle, talking, and checking out each others scooters. It just seemed so grown up. I got a picture of the tail-end of it...

Here's Maddie at the slide. She swiped Damek's tricycle, and drug it to where she wanted it. It made me laugh to see her climb up on top of it, and want to climb into the slide. That particular one she can and does climb into by herself, but I suppose she was adding to the excitement by climbing from one to another. She climbs up slides frequently. Has been for quite some time.
Yesterday we made some pinwheels, today is International Day of Peace, and last year there was a tradition started called "Pinwheels for Peace", loads of children in schools and families all across the country made pinwheels for whirled peace, and then you write things on your pinwheel, and the wind takes your good thoughts and intentions across the world.
We made some, but it's been rainy today, and I hadn't put them outside. But then I was inspired by a friend, Teri. She reported that her family made 30 of them, and displayed them proudly in her front yard, so I hurry up and put mine on the fence. It's not raining now, but there is a breeze, I hope my good wishes are spread far and wide.
I discussed the intention with Trev yesterday, and told him I thought we might go to the International Peace Gardens today, and he said "Oh, no, Mama, I don't want to be in 'peace and quiet', I want to run and shout and play!" I told him he didn't have to be quiet, but he didn't get it. I did try to convey to him that peace meant brotherly love, and not killing and fighting, but he's pretty far removed from it, and didn't understand, so I dropped it. This is his. the most beautiful one, of course. We discussed the purpose of the pinwheels again tonight after I hung them on the fence.

He's been giving a lot of direction lately. "First!", and holds up a finger, "we need to.... Second!..." and so on. Pretty amusing. Yesterday he played at uptoten.com for a while, on some pattern games.
Yesterday I also updated our exploring cabinet.
We have so many books in Trev's room, and so many toys downstairs, that we tend to overlook them, as they are stationery, so I bring up things that might inspire us to explore. I put them in the living room, in the entertainment center cabinet, then they're right there for us to see and grab.
I brought up a small tub of wooden beads and laces, a magnifying glass, two puzzles for Trev, a puzzle for Maddie, a music box thing for Maddie, a shape sorter, three puppets, a chinese jump rope (for stretching over things, maybe measuring, or stretching it so we can climb under, over, through it, etc), I put the dominoes in there, Pick Up Sticks, a felt board with felt shapes and letters (patterns, reading, designs, etc) a learning to tell time video, a telling time book, and some pipe cleaners.
Surely at least some of it will be inspiring! Maddie is thrilled with it, she keeps bringing me puppets, and keeps getting the music toy out, then puts it away.

Today he painted some dinosaurs that I got at the grocery store for him. He's been playing with dinos a lot the last couple of days. He has also been watching Star Wars. Now he's watching a dinosaur show on Animal Planet, and Maddie is in the bath, so I'm going to sign off.
G'night.