dishwasher

I've started giving Roen chores and an allowance. We had a good week but it's sort of faltered because of other things in my life. He does help around the house but I want it to be more structured responsibilities. He has three jobs which are to put away the silverware, clear the table after dinner, and put his clothes in the hamper and clip his socks together with a clothespin.

The other day, he was sitting at the table vigorously liking his fork and spoon. I looked at him quizzically and he said, " I'm just pretending to be a dishwasher!" and kept on liking. About 15 minutes later, I opened the silverware drawer and took out a spoon that was still sort of dirty -- and then a fork. I had to seek out Ro to explain to him no matter how much he licked, all utensils needed to go through the dishwasher before getting put back in the drawer. :)

Strawberry picking

Strawberry picking, originally uploaded by skweerell.

We went strawberry picking yesterday, which was also Sim's birthday. She's two years old now. The strawberries were so delicious this year. I think we'll be heading back for more. I've been growing some wild strawberries in my front garden, which are also yummy and quite different in flavor from the hybridized farm varieties. I'm thinking of putting in a patch next year as the kids enjoy picking them so much.

I also put in a sunflower forest this year. I'll photograph it soon. It's thriving except for squirrel predation. Those creatures will eat the plants as well as the seeds and I've been forced to cayenne the plants to deter them. We have more than our fair share of squirrels around here.

CARS

Lightning & Guido, originally uploaded by skweerell.

We took Ro to see Cars on it's opening weekend. He was entranced. He loved Lightning McQueen but he seems to have loved Guido, Luigi's forklift sidekick, even more. He's always talking about Guido and wanting to fix someone's flat tires. He draws pictures of cars with flat tires and pretends to be Guido fixing them up.

He even made Guido and Lightning out of Fimo. He's amazingly good with three dimensional stuff. He made many of the other cars too but as we were running low on Fimo, the cars got progressively smaller and more difficult to identify. He's also made two sets of the cars out of playdough,but they're all pastel as we only have Easter playdough on hand at the moment.

Strangely, Ro has no interest in seeing the movie again. I offered him the opportunity to see it again a few weeks later and he said, "I only need to see it once, Mommy." That seems to be true. His memory of the movie is really good even more than a month later. He also manages to work lines from the movie into everyday life. Obscure lines from the movie. It's kind of funny odd. It's clear it's on his mind a lot.

Another movie side effect, is that Ro enjoys pointing out rusty cars everywhere we go. It's suddenly like having a bit of rust is a badge of honor.

candlelight dinners

We went to a 1800 house sort of experience with the kids where they could do laundry in tub with a scrub board, play graces, and see butter churned. Ro and Sim also made rolled wax candles out of beeswax sheets. They both loved them. We've been burning them at dinner every night. Ro was a bit distraught when he saw the candle melting but he got over it after a bit. I'm always looking for things I can make with him for Xmas gifts and I realized a candle making kit like this one would really do the trick for him. I think it's important to find something interesting for them to make.