And we're halfway through January already. As my father likes to say, time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana. Last time I posted, Ben and I were sick. Neil succumbed a few days later. We then drove to Wisconsin, germs and all, and proceeded to swap germs with my family there. Despite the perpetual sickness, we had a good time. Here are a few pictures from the trip.
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| My handsome guys |
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| Ben and his Grammy |
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| Recreating the Beatles' rooftop concert |
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We took it easy on the drive back and stopped at a hotel in Ohio.
Ben works the tablet while Neil relaxes with the paper. |
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| Israel, v.2. This will take some explaining. See below. |
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| He never naps any more, unless he's sick. Here he is with Bucky Badger. |
As soon as he finally managed to kick the long string of colds and pink-eye, Ben got socked by some mysterious stomach bug for about 24 hours. The nap with Bucky is about halfway between two nasty regurgitative episodes. Nuff said.
As part of her annual holiday decorating, my mother sets out an elaborate miniature Bethlehem -- little buildings and tents and manger, etc. It's quite the spread. This year Ben helped, and they both had a great time "setting up Israel" on an empty bookcase shelf. When we got back home, he recreated this in Legos on a shelf in his bedroom. Complete with Beatles figurines.
Ben has really gotten into miniatures and ... yes, dollhouses ... lately. I think I'll devote another post to the question of gender-typed toys, and the malleability of those boundaries. Something to ponder in the meantime.
4 comments:
lots of little comments - : )
We spent some of the holiday sick in Wisconsin too; glad you all are feeling better and hopefully that will be it for the season! Ben's love of the Beatles always makes me smile. As sick as he was, that picture of him sleeping is adorable, I love sleeping kid pictures. Can't wait to read your thoughts on gender-typed toys. Aiden loves his dollhouse (well, actually it's a little people house, but he loves playing house with his sister with it), but he (and I) love his InnoTAB even more!
Oh, I am glad the germy days are behind you. It is NO fun when kids are sick.. especially with the stomach flu!
Nolan loves pretend play with any little people/action figures/dollhouses. Matt was never much into that sort of play - he is more "action" based (he'll play with sports toys, marbles, and Legos - that's it). We love Imaginext because they have a ton of really sturdy pretend-play toys. Nolan used to love our toy kitchen, too, but he lost interest about six months ago so I gave it away - he still loves playing with miniature people/animals, though!
Bucky Badger is cute and Ben is even cuter. Sorry to hear about the tummy bug. No fun at all. I love Israel 2.0!!! For some odd reason, it reminds me of my sojourn on Aunt Island. Great picture of the rooftop concert and as always, your handsome gentlemen are indeed - handsome!
One of the great things about our childhoods was playing with toys free of gender discrimination. Sure, we had dolls, but one of yours was the infamous Stretch Armstrong! Dad always made sure we each had a drawer with real tools in his incredible tool benches. We learned to solder and build electronic kits. We learned to sew. We worked on cars and we cooked. And somehow, we turned out mostly... harmless!
Yeah, schwester, that's what I'm getting at. I used to make furniture for my Barbies out of that great Erector set. Maybe not the best use for it, but the point is that we were allowed to play with all kinds of toys in all kinds of ways. The thing is that it's somehow a lot more acceptable and even laudable to raise girls this way, but definitely *not* acceptable with boys. Somehow we're terrified of "girling" up our boys, so we put a lot more restrictions on them than we do on girls these days. Ironic. I'll get into this more in a blog post soon. For now, those geometry handouts aren't preparing themselves....
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