Dragon Eye Seedlings

My kids have been attending a morning playgroup at church and they've learned about seeds and how things grow. Here is theme poem (actions):

I plant a little seed in the cold cold ground.
Up comes the sun, warm and round.
Down comes the rain, soft and slow.
Up comes the seedling, grow, Grow, GROW!

Previously, Maggie also invented other verses and words, speaking in prose... something about snow on the ground, and the sun, and ice. I should really write these down. It doesn't make sense to me, but it must make perfect sense to her. Much like Lincoln when he goes on with his seemingly random chatter, and he's happy when we appear to understand.

But I do have a wonderful story about AJ and his knowledge of seeds, or rather, his knowledge of what happens to seeds when eaten.

Dragon Eyes
The kids were eating a giant bowl of the peeled dragon eye fruits; a translucent white flesh with single dark, chocolate brown stone-seed.  Resembles very much like a slippery, wet eyeball. Grandma kept warning them, don't eat the stone. AJ pipes up, "Mommy, what will happen to me if I eat the seed?" I warned him that if he swallowe the seed, a dragon-eye tree would sprout from his tummy.  He calmly corrected me right away, "No, mommy. I'm gonna be eat it and I will poo it out". What comes in, must go out. There's no fooling this guy!

The World According to Preschoolers

CHICKEN AND EGG
Brian asks Maggie, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
Maggie: "Egg"
Where does the egg come from
Maggie: "Hatch"
From what?
Maggie: "A hen"
Where does the hen come from?
Maggie: "A farm"

FOOD CHAIN
AJ and Maggie are often concerned about which animal eats what, as in a food chain sequence.
Who eats bugs? Spiders
Who eats spiders? Other spiders
WHo eats other spiders? Birds
Who eats birds? Cats
Who eats cats? No one. (really?)

Do sharks eat humans? Sometimes.
Who eats sharks? Humans.


Who eats squid-Ursula? Daddy
Who eats jellyfish? Daddy

What do gophers eat? Carrots, tomatoes, leaves
Who eats gophers? Fox, wolves
Who eats fox, wolves? Coyotes
Who eats coyotes? No one, but hunters shoot them.

Later we talk about vultures.
What do vultures eat? Dead animals on the street.
Do vultures eat humans? Well if they're dead in the street
Do vultures eat humans in a grave? No they can't; there's a box.



DINOSAURS
AJ: Do dinosaurs eat humans?
Mom: No, humans were not there at the same time as dinosaurs.
Maggie: Humans live far far away.
AJ: Who eats dinosaurs?
Maggie/ Mom:Other dinosaurs.
AJ:What do other dinosaurs eat?
Mom: Leaves, ferns.
Maggie: Yah dinosaurs hate kid-meat. Kids are yuck.

WHERE DO BABIES COME FROM?
Maggie: When I was a baby I busted out of your tummy right?
(Background: I used to affectionately refer to Lincoln as a belly-buster because of his excessive burps and belly busting spit up. She didn't quite understand that meant, so I said it was because he busted out of my tummy).
Another time, Maggie: When I was a small baby, I was at your wedding right?
Mom: No, you were just a small dot. Actually you were an egg.
(Background: She asks me this everytime we drive by the church on the army base where we got married)
Another time, Maggie: So I was a small egg at your wedding?
Mom: Well, just an egg part, but not like a real egg. Also part of you was in Daddy's pouch.
(Background: I hope that she won't ask where is Daddy's pouch, I guess I could say his pants, those would be still correct answers. I believe in telling the whole truth but in age appropriate language).


MAKING STUFF
The kids watch a show called Making Stuff on TVO kids, so they get a sense of what things are created by God, what is built by Bob the Builder, and what is made by robots.
They ask me all the time, who made this, who made that. Here are some model answers they know and now quiz each other.

Made by God - Rocks, bugs, spiders, animals, humans, skeletons, dinosaurs
Made by Bob the Builder - house, Vanessa's house, bridges, roads
Robots - Hot Wheels, cars, cups, plates, pianos, tools, glass

I try my best to offer the whole truth, but sometimes I have to simplify the lingo

God Made Me

So I have a funny story about Maggie... she asks alot of questions about who made this and that in this world. She confirms with me that God made trees, birds, animals, grass etc. She had thought that God made the plastic, glass and ceramic objects around the house too, but I told her those were made by robots in factories. And then the question about houses, well according to Maggie, Bob the Builder built our house (and yours too).

Maggie is very interested in skulls and skeletons, as see on the cover of a spring 2010 National Geographic magazine. She was explaining to AJ that she has a skeleton in her body. She said that Mommy has a bigger skeleton and Maggie has a baby one. She also told me that "God made skeletons because God made me."

She also started to draw people with faces (two eyes, a nose and a straight line for a mouth) with two arms and legs, or hair. She's been doodling on a Magna Doodle, otherwise I would love to keep all of these drawings. She draws the sun alot, and she was trying to draw the turtle toy and Buzz Lighyear. I drew Buzz and she added the details.

Sounds of the Night

Last week, we were reading a book from the Baby Einstein series, The ABC's of Art. There are a series of famous paintings of certain objects that would correspond to subjects beginning with the letters A to M in this book. Also included are a few thought provoking questions. We got to the page about E for Elephants. They were splashing in the water at sunset. One of the questions was, what time of day is this, and what sounds would you hear? Maggie responded with the na-na-na song, that is na-na-na to the tune of Brahm's Lullaby, their favorite lullaby for naptime/ goodnight time. So cute!

Also wanted to record some of AJ's words that start or contain L.

Mommy, can I sit on your wap? (lap)
I wuv you (love)
I yike you (like)
My hair is bwrown.
Maggie's hair is bwack.

Dreams

I know that Maggie and AJ dream cuz I've seen them giggle in their sleep. Even when Maggie was 4 months old and she was sleeping on her tummy, I saw her giggle and laugh like she was watersliding, with her eyes closed in the crib. At the waking hours of dawn, I've seen AJ clap his hands and let out a really cute chuckle or two.

This morning Brian asked Maggie what she dreamed about, and she said  "In my dreams, I can wish for puppies and lots of birds." Very interesting!

In my recent dreams, I dreamt of trying to photograph some Snowbirds passing overhead with my cell phone camera. So elusive.

Mother's Day Poem

Here is another poem that came with a Mother's Day gift.

My mommy cuddles me
kisses me, hugs me and misses me
pampers me, praises me, always amazes me.

Washes my clothes for me,
tickles my toes for me,
giggles and talks with me,
and also goes on walks with me,
Says "sweet dreams" to me,
Sings sweet songs to me,
I am glad she belongs to me.
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Mulan, AJ's favorite "hero"

My kids love to watch Mulan (Disney adaptation) for our Friday/ Saturday "movie night" in nine minute segments on youtube. It's great because we can watch the movie from any point of entry, or go to a specific music sequence and watch only clips of the movie to finish early. However, apparently they watch this during the daytime too with their nanny, by special request. I guess that's ok too.

Summary: Girl pretends to be a boy and joins the Chinese army to fight the Huns in order to save her aging father from mandatory conscription. Of course Disney adds various embellishments and catchy musical tunes, but there are underlying themes of free choice in marriage, girl power, comraderie, friendship, true honor, national pride, clever strategies, stuff blowing up, and even a bit of romantic possibility between Mulan and Captain Shang after her true identity is revealed and he is no longer her commanding officer.

We also have all the disney princess stories in a pink Storybook Treasury in short story format.  Of all the princess stories, Mulan is the only story that AJ will sit straight through and listen to without being distracted. He always wants to "watch Mu-lan?" (in a very cute and earnest voice) but fortunately if I offer to "read Mulan?" when it's not movie night, he's just as happy. She's definitely his hero (for now). Maggie and AJ also love to sing the various themes such as "A girl worth fighting for..." and "I'll make a man out of you.... MYSTERIOUS as the dark side of the moon..." and they'll grab a broomstick, hockey stick, or long tube and pretend to fight and sing "Hut hut hut hut.... unafraid..." from Mulan 2. (maybe not so good). Or Maggie will go into a long lyrical diva-like sequence... "Who is that girl I see? Staring back right at me. When will my reflection show, who I am inside..."

But I love this story on many levels. It helped to explain a very complex situation such as "war" to Maggie. As far as she knows, war is about fighting the bad guyz and "kicking butt" in her words. During Brian's long deployment to Afghanistan, Maggie was always aware that he was in "KandaHAR".  I was able to explain that there was a war there. Why? To fight bad guyz and kick butt.  Fortunately that was a good enough answer at the time.

What did Daddy do in Afghanistan?


The effects of separation are still evident because she knows that Brian goes to work during the daytime, but if he leaves for soccer or shopping after dinner without really explaining where he's going, she used to think that he was leaving for Kandahar. In the past few days, he's been in Petawawa for a military excercise. The kids get a kick out of saying "PETa wawawa!"

This morning she asked me, "Why he's in Petawawa not Kandahar? (sic)" I answered that there was an excercise there, for training. "Why?" It's a pretend-war.  She also noticed that his ranger blanket was missing. This is a camo print army blanket that has been everywhere around the world with him. Funny that she noticed that was missing. All I could really say was that he took his "blankie" with him to PETa wawa! I added, haha. Great, now they always say "haha!" for each cynical situation too.

The wierdest question she asked him was, "Daddy would you die for honor?" (That's a quote from the movie) Now that's deep, how can you explain about that to a child? And the best question she's asked me is, "Where's her mommy?" Actually if you notice in all or most of the disney stories - Cinderella, Ariel, Nemo, Jasmine etc.... the mom is noticably absent (or MIA for various reasons). Well sometimes I just give a simple answer like, mommy's at work.

Anywayz I thought of this today because Mulan is always on AJ's mind.  We were reading a story about "The Princess Knight" and there's a princess who grew up training to be a knight with her brothers. So in all the illustrations of her dressed in armor, fighting with a sword or riding a horse, AJ kept saying "ITs Mulan." So cute.