Farewell Internet

Well, I may have it at my motel stops the next couple days, but not when I get to my Dad's. Between two sick kids and getting ready for this trip, there has been no time to post, but I thought I would do a quick catch up before I leave.

I bought this chair on Craigslist, and Orion is quite taken with it. He picked out this very specific shirt and asked for sunglasses to stage this photo. Funny boy!
Akasha checking out a drum at Tessi's new place.
With cousin Amma.
And deciding plastic dishes and a basket are more interesting!
Ron and I both think she is beyond cute in this blue sleeper. I tossed this hat on her thinking it would make the perfect outfit, but she was apparently not about to be modelized. She is still cute in her annoyance!
One of Akasha's favorite places lately. I liked this shot as the look on Kona's face about sums up what Kona thinks of this arrangement. Akasha often gets the "rawrrawr" sound from her if she catches her fur against the ground.
She was laughing at me blowing raspberries in this one!
Akasha and The Rawrer. Notice how Kona has her paw possessively over the lovey!
In a quick recap of the boy child's exploding mind, some recent topics....

Math, math and more math.

He asked Ron the other day, "When the world first began, who took care of the babies?" !!! This started a discussion about evolution vs creationism. Orion has declared he is a believer in deities. When Ron was telling me about it and said "gods", Orion piped up and said, "And the Goddess!" That's my boy!

The other day as we were driving someplace on the Eastside, I mentioned something about King street, and somehow we got to talking about MLK and civil rights. That is a hard subject for a 5 year old, who thankfully has NO concept of people being told they can't do something based on the way they look. I found myself somewhat sugar coating history, but not totally. I mean, I wasn't going to jump into lynchings at his age! But deciding what to tell him was surprisingly tough. I think I didn't want to tell him about the buses and drinking fountains, etc. because I didn't even want him to have it in his head that a world like existed. I kindof settled on voting as my example, so I could include the issue that at one point women couldn't vote either. He was pretty cute about it and said something about how he was going to tell everybody you can do whatever you want no matter how you look. :)

If there are any unschoolers with older children out there that happen to read this post, I would love to hear about how you discussed the more "unsavory" bits of history with your kids, and at what ages.

OK, now off to bed. Three days of driving ahead of me!

The Face of Sick :(

Akasha is sick. Not sure if it is the start of the flu, but we shall see. This picture does not do her weepy eyes justice, but you get the idea.

Minibooks!

Orion asked to make some books the other day! I think this was inspired by my friend Rachele on our Seattle trip. They made a couple books together, and Orion really enjoyed it.

He tells me what to write, and then he draws the pictures. I love how the octopi all have only 4 or 6 arms lol. Does that make them quadropi or hexapi?





Looks like a full and happy life for this armless boy. :)

16 month comp

Hey, at least I got it up before she was 17 months.

Leafy Happenings

Somebody discovered the water table full of leaves.

And looks like possibly some dirt on her chin?
Meanwhile, Orion prefers the comforts of the couch.
Modeling the split lip he got at Papa's last night (lower right).
I love the way our tree makes gradients from green leaves to the colors on the ends of the branches.
Later that night, Akasha in her favorite new spot while mama is "cooking". In quotes since I was actually making raw dishes. :)

Practicing

Orion really wanted me to take this picture for some reason. Akasha loves her potties and often sits on them with or without clothes, so not sure why he took special notice of this occasion, but here ya go.

In Praise of Nursing Cats

So this post idea started because Orion and I are working on an alphabet book and have been finding pictures of various nursing animals to include in it. I have never had a cat or a dog that had puppies, so I never really thought about how long various animals might nurse if left to their own choice. I always pictured them being done when they were still small as I guess that is what human intervention does in their hurry to send the babies off to new homes. :( So I was quite surprised when this was one of the first pictures I stumbled on:
My goodness, that nursling looks almost full grown! Turns out the internet is full of pictures of big kitties nursing! How does this mama do it?!
But the caption on it was the best part!
"This was taken several years ago when Mini Harina forgot to use birth control, got pregnant, and had about a billion black kittens. They all found good homes and were weaned and eating food by this point but she was such a good mother that she always let them nurse no matter how big they were and how much it inconvenienced her. Now that's a good mother cat." Hmmm, that's a good mother period in my book. :)

Would ya look at all these beautiful colors!

This brood is not quite as big, but that mama belly looks pretty crowded!
Nursing while grooming as only a cat could.
And this one had to be included for the sheer abandon!
There were lots more, but you get the idea. :)