Some thoughts from Theo

Theo is the king in our family of the non sequiter, the seemingly random comment or question or assertion that gives us a glimpse into his wonderful and fabulously nonsensical mind. A few of Theo's thoughts recently:

At lunch this past weekend, Theo was talking about college and wondering aloud what it would be like. He asked what you can learn about at college. We said that you can choose what you want to learn about, and we asked what he thought he would like to learn about at college. He said he thought tigers, and also rainbows. We got a kick thinking about his college diploma, reading "Major-Tigers; Minor-Rainbows.''

Then a couple of nights ago before bed, Theo was talking about marriage. This is a common subject for Theo. He is very interested in knowing how he will find someone to marry and how he will obtain a baby. He has for at least a year been adamant that he wants to have a child, and he has had some anxiety at times about how to make sure he can have a baby. So a couple of nights ago both boys are in bed, tucked in, when Theo says, "Mama? How do you get someone to marry you?" He then asked whether, when you are ready to get married and are looking for someone to marry you, if you put a sign up in your yard that you are looking for someone to marry. I suppose this seems like a semi-normal thing to do since when Daddy was looking for a new job, he put up signs in his and many other people's yards, asking them to vote for Daddy to get a new job. I said no, you won't put a sign up, you'll I said something pithy like, you have friends, and you will like being with your friends, and someday you might like one of your friends more than all the rest, and you want to be with that person more than anyone else, and you will decide to get married. He mulled that over for a moment, and then said, "Maybe I'll marry Jasmine from my class." I asked him what he liked about Jasmine, and he said "She sits next to me at my desk, and sits next to me on the carpet sometimes. She has cool hair and she doesn't like to raise her hand." He then asked more about the mechanics about how you get a baby. He said, "There can be a mommy and a daddy, or two daddies or two mommies, or one mommy" (I stopped him here and said that there could also be one daddy and no mommies, though we don't have any friends like that). "But how do two daddies have a baby? If you marry a boy, how do you make a baby?" I briefed the issues of adoption and surrogacy. These mechanics and practicalities fascinate Theo, and the questions always come at the end of the day when he's just getting settled into bed.

More travels

Last weekend we took a trip to Jersey, where my old friend Nitsan has recently moved to from Israel. We had another relaxed and lovely weekend together, hanging out in their beautiful house. The kids continued to get along swimmingly and had a great time watching Moana, drawing, playing with Legos, dressing up in costumes, and EATING. Lots and lots of eating wonderful food. Also lots of all of us being in the same room, since that's apparently what we like. It was especially amazing to see how much markedly better their kids' English was than it was six weeks ago when we last got together. Ma'ayan was even reading books to the younger kids.

Candlepin Bowling

While visiting family in Massachusetts, my Uncle Rich and I decided to take Theo & Beckett candlepin bowling. It's a version of bowling popular primarily in New England that involves much smaller (and lighter) bowling balls, differently shaped pins, and three rolls on every turn. I was the only one out of the four of us not to close a frame, and Beckett was the only one to get a strike.

"Homework"

When his brothers get on the big yellow school bus of mercy in the morning, Reed is often sad to not be going with them. On this morning he decided he should do some homework just like his big brothers. He's getting pretty good with markers and pencils.

Boston trip

This past weekend we celebrated President's Day (well, we celebrated 44 out of 45 presidents) by visiting Aunt Debby and Uncle Rich in Worcester, MA. As always we loved our time there. The boys love playing with the many toys and games at the house. This time we enjoyed using all three extra bedrooms so Theo and Beckett could share a room by themselves, Reed could have a room to himself, and Mama and Daddy could have a room to themselves. Very luxurious!

We were looking forward to visiting Aunt Deb and Uncle David nearby as well but we were not in good enough health, so we will have to visit on a future trip. Reed and Theo had coughs and sniffles and snots, and Beckett developed a recurrence of his flu-like illness he had had two weeks prior (though it seems to have only lasted two days this time).

Sunday Jeff and Beckett stayed home while Debby and I took Reed and Theo to the Boston Children's Museum. We have been incredibly lucky other visits to have the museum nearly empty, but Sunday it was PACKED. We waited about 45 minutes just to get into the museum. Thankfully there is LOTS to do and not much that we had to wait to do. The kids had a fantastic time. The above picture is the photo I took of Reed when we arrived at the museum, to document what he was wearing that day in case he went missing (a fun tradition whenever we go somewhere crowded).

Reed loved the PlaySpace for 0-3 year olds. He especially enjoyed pushing his grocery cart and loading it up with toys and items from all over the space. For most of the time he had a baby in the front of the cart, but here someone had temporarily nabbed it.

Reed also loved the giant train table.

The last time we came to the museum we had this entire room of trucks and building equipment to ourselves. This time we shared it with about fifty other parents and kids.

Theo building an imagined dinosaur out of foam skeleton pieces.

An animatronic dinosaur that kids could control with buttons.

Reed LOVES Reed-sized chairs and other furniture.