awfully sweet brothers

Who would have thought that playing XBox 360 could be so cute and loving? I came downstairs the other day and had to take a picture.

I took this one the night after we went to a first grade Dr. Seuss celebration. Sebastian made his hat and got the Cat in the Hat and this book as a gift from his teachers.


It's not just video games that make them snuggle up so nicely! I had been upstairs and wondered why they were so quiet...

??????

I have a feeling that pretty soon I'm gonna run out of answers.

A couple of days ago, Sebastian and I were reading a book about Mars. He kept stopping me to ask questions like, "How did they originally figure out that the earth was rotating around the sun?" In the course of that conversation, he also made his own mental leap to figure out that we have time zones because the earth spins on its axis.

Just now, Dante called me up to his bedroom so he could ask me this one: "You know how people are always talking about time as the fourth dimension? Does that mean fourth dimension in relation to the three dimensions of height, width and depth?" This was after a dinner conversation in which he pondered how gravity affects time, and tried to figure out if time is different on Jupiter, and if so, if it's enough of a difference to be perceptible.

I know that everyone thinks their kids are amazing, but my kids really are amazing!

gotta love this kid

Tonight was the first night I had a chance for a quiet minute with Dante (age 11, the oldest of the four kids) since the engagement was official. Sebastian is still (!) sick and Will was upstairs taking a shower. Here is a transcript of the conversation Dante and I had while loading the dishwasher:

Me: So, how are you feeling about this whole wedding thing?
D: A little weird.
Me: Why?
D: You. In a white dress. Doesn't compute. Why don't you wear red velvet or something? I think you will look cuckoo in a white dress!
Me: So it's the wedding that weirds you out, not the idea of me and Will getting married?
D: Yeah. I always knew you guys would get married eventually.
Me: And really, your life isn't going to change once we're married. For you, nothing will really be different than it is now.
D: Yeah, except I'll have healthcare.

OMG, I love him so much! I didn't know whether to laugh because he was so matter of fact and grown-up about it, or cry, because he's obviously been listening to way too many adult conversations!

four things

On Saturday, I was teaching Sebastian to ride a two wheeler. I told him the same thing that I told Dante when he was learning: "You have to do three things to be able to ride by yourself. Pedal, balance, steer." Sebastian said, "And imagine. So that's four things. Pedal, balance, steer, imagine."

I guess it worked! On Saturday, he couldn't ride at all without help, but on Sunday he could!

And I know this sideways video thing is lame, but my computer can't read the file, so I can't get it to rotate before I upload it. I'll have to either hold the phone differently when I record video or get some technical help. In the meantime, just be glad it's short so your neck won't hurt too much! Or you could pretend that not only can he ride a bike, he can also defy gravity and ride on a street that's perpendicular to the earth!

maybe I should change the name of this blog

to awfullysweetbrothers

lather, rinse, repeat

This week, I was standing in the yard talking to my mom and watching the boys (aka Darth Tyranno and Snake Eyes) fighting again. Each came running to me with tears and tales of the woe inflicted by the other (evil) brother. Then they ran off to start the cycle again -- Sebastian jumps on Dante, or pinches him, or kisses him on the lips. In retaliation, Dante -- twice his brother's size -- swings out a leg to trip Sebastian, or elbows him, or pushes him to the ground... Feeling helpless to do much else, I took out my cell phone and started filming it. "I'm going to start a blog," I threatened, "and call it awfulbrothers.blogspot.com and it's going to be nothing but videos of you guys fighting." They liked the idea.