The Hours

What we're doing this weekend is trading off the hours. One of us watches the children, while the other one "runs amok." During Jon's free time, he's been working on the greenhouse and the garden. I'm not sure of any specifics, since we haven't had much time to talk between shifts. I've been grading, hanging clothes on the line, taking clothes off the line (they've been drying in record time with the wind we've been having,) washing dishes, sorting through clothes and toys, and, the most exciting thing of all, tying shirts for my next big tie-dye extravaganza. I'm sure it sounds pretty dull, but it's been quite pleasant in a low-key, peaceful kind of way. Usually when I'm doing any of those things, there is the constant underlying knowledge that Jon would like to be working on his stuff, too, and I'm wondering if he's getting impatient. Not that he'd let me know if he was. Anyway, it's just nice to hum along through my hour, and I feel more relaxed playing with the kids when it's my turn with them, since I know I'll have time to myself again before long.

And the minutes tick by...

I usually like to have some sort of "theme" when I blog, but occasionally, there are just too many scraps of paper lying around with things Zephyr's said that I want to work into an entry somehow. Today I'm not even going to try to string them all together. They're just going to be listed, one after another. I hope you don't mind.

Zephyr has been really into the planets lately. If you show him a picture of them, he can tell you which is which. Back in January, we were talking about the days of the week. I was impressed when he said "Saturday sounds like Saturn!" Making connections!

Zephyr and Jubilee are really starting to play well together. I love it when Zephyr says loving things about her, which are always a little bit funny, revealing that his world view is quite a bit different from ours. Also in January, Zephyr said, "I like Jubi's smell and her baby noises. I want her to stay this way forever." A few weeks later, he said, "I even love Jubi's boogers. I like their golden color."

He isn't always full of brotherly love for her, though. He gets particularly irritated when she tries to take the trains he's playing with. "I'm playing with Thomas, Jubi. You can play with James," he compromised one day. She disappeared into the room with the train table, and startled us by toddling back, smiling with James in her grasp. Coincidence?

Zephyr is mostly over his bad guy fascination now, but in January, you could often glimpse him sitting with Jon at the table, drawing bad guys from their imaginations. Zephyr would spend long periods of time studying this large sheet of paper even when they weren't working on it. One day we were having a midmorning snack at the table. After a long silence, Zephyr narrated his activity, "I'm just sitting here, eating popcorn, reading the bad guy newspaper." (Last night, come to think of it, Zephyr was talking about bad guys again. He loves talking about Star Wars characters, although of course he's never seen any of the movies, and he doesn't have action figures. Anyway, as we were getting ready for bed, he said "Darth Maul is really bad. He said something mean to Obi Wan Kenobi. He hurt his feelings.")

If you're going to read a book to Zephyr, be forewarned that he will ask all kinds of questions about the language, the characters, their motivation, and the illustrations. The other day, I was in the kitchen when Jon came in to get some water. He had been sitting on the couch, reading books with Zephyr. "I'm halfway through The Lorax," Jon said. "I'm getting the third degree. I feel like I'm defending my dissertation or something."

For a few months, Zephyr was pretty sure "20" was the biggest number imaginable. One morning I woke up and said I was really hungry. "Are you 20 miles hungry?" he asked. Then he discovered the number "100." Yesterday, we were listening to a song whose lyrics included "ten thousand miles." "What did they say?!?!?" he shouted, running to the speaker for a better listen.

A few weeks ago, we got on the highway to go to the zoo. When Zephyr wondered, "Is this a racetrack?" I had to stop and think. Yes, it had been six months since we'd left city limits. No wonder it felt fast to him. "Slow down!" he implored, but I explained that I couldn't safely go any slower on that road. I'm glad we've managed to spare the children excessive car time.

At the zoo, I lifted him up so he could peer at the fish swimming under the bridge. This conversation followed:
Z: Where are the sharks?
N: There aren't any. They would eat the fish, and they want the fish to be safe.
Z: How do they keep the fish safe from hunters?
N: People aren't allowed to hunt at the zoo.
Z: Is there a sign that says that?

Also, we stood and listened to a trainer talking about elephants. There were several third grade classes there at the same time. During the Q&A, after answering several questions with information that had already been given during the presentation, the trainer finally noticed that Zephyr's little hand was up. I curiously awaited his query. "How do they turn the water into blood?" The trainer laughed a nervous laugh and said, "There's only one way I know of, and it takes a miracle." As we walked away, I explained to my perplexed little guy that she didn't understand that he was asking how an elephant's body utilizes water to maintain a good blood supply. Ah, well.

We're finally up to last night's scrap of paper. We were sitting at the table, having a bedtime snack, just talking and hanging out as usual. "Loving is funny," remarked Zephyr.

I'm a bit conflicted about this last one. I'm not sure where he heard the expression, and I don't want him to use it again, so although it was just perfect for the moment, we had to put on stern faces to disguise our amusement. We were on an extremely rare family outing to K-Mart, and it was dawning on us that they didn't have any of the three items that were on our shopping list. "Something sucks about this store," Zephyr proclaimed. Indeed.

I'll close with a bit about Jubi, who is really becoming more verbal each day. Here is an incomplete, but decently representative, list of words she has said: eat, doggie, nakie (for naked,) Dada, diaper, apple, ball, biffy, Bob (as in The Builder, as well as SpongeBob,) phone, slippers, truck, moo, book, read, happy, donkey, kitty, Baba (for brother,) this? (as in what's this?), Zephyr, gorilla, and either please, piece, or peas. We aren't really sure what the final word is, but it's what she says when she wants to eat what you have.