Yesterday, as we were driving home, I was wondering if James had fallen asleep, so I asked Sara, "Is James still...

Yesterday, as we were driving home, I was wondering if James had fallen asleep, so I asked Sara, "Is James still with us?" Of course Nate pipes up from the back and goes, "Yes, James right here." So, I attempted to explain that what I really was asking was whether James was conscious of what was going on around him. Obviously I didn't do a good job explaining myself because the next thing Nate says in a very serious voice is, "We shouldn't put James on the street. He might get broke... and cheerios come out."

Thought this was neat.

Thought this was neat.

From Robbie Melvin:
http://blog.robbiemelvin.com/2011/12/my-grandmothers-piano/

Nate installed a Duplo tower in our upstairs bathroom at some point today.

Nate installed a Duplo tower in our upstairs bathroom at some point today. I thought nothing of it until this evening when he explained it. Apparently it was a "men's toilet for peeing standing up".

As the boys were eating cheerios this morning, I was reminded of how when Nate was the age Jame is now he used to...

As the boys were eating cheerios this morning, I was reminded of how when Nate was the age Jame is now he used to purposefully press on the cheerios with his index finger and make them go flying across the room like tiddlywinks. Thankfully James appears to have avoided learning that trick by virtue of the ferocity with which he attacks his food. Cheerios still get everywhere, but in more of a cookie monster crumble kind of way.

Most things Nate pretends to be, I can sort of understand the logic to.

Most things Nate pretends to be, I can sort of understand the logic to. Even, if he's pretending to be non-living thing, usually it's the moving sort that would fun to be, like a dump truck or excavator. On rarer occasions he might be something inanimate, like a bridge or a road, but at least those are sort of exciting, because moving things drive across them. I didn't have any answers though as to why, when I was getting him ready for bed the other day, he exclaimed, "I a pile of dirt!" Seriously?

Anyways, I went a long with it, claimed to be a front-end loader, and scooped him up with my arms, made beeping sounds as I backed out of the bathroom, and dumped him (literally) into his bed. This of course was met with great delight. As I tucked him in for bed, he added, "This is a dump truck (pointing at his bed), the blanket keeps the dirt from flying out."

Then, as he has done every subsequent night that he's pretended to be a pile of dirt, he insists that I pray for "this dirt" instead, whenever I get to the part in the prayer where I thank God for Nate.

Nate's pretending generally follows a standard rule.

Nate's pretending generally follows a standard rule. Picking a recent example, if he's pretending to be a baby pig, then Dad is the daddy pig, Mum is the mummy pig, and James is the "James pig". Lately however, it's gotten a little harder to keep track of, because he's been pretending that James is "Nate". So, James would then be the "Nate pig". (Sometimes it's just easier to go along with things rather than ask questions.) Yesterday, he took it a step further by trying to convince me that James (a.k.a "Nate") was supposed to do what I had just asked Nate to...

For advent we've been giving Nate characters and pieces of the Nativity story one day at a time, with the idea that...

For advent we've been giving Nate characters and pieces of the Nativity story one day at a time, with the idea that everything builds up and culminates for Christmas when he gets the baby Jesus figure and we can tell the complete story.

Except what we didn't count on, and I'm not sure why we didn't, it how irrepressible Nate is once he gets an idea in his head. He already knows baby Jesus is part of the story, so he's always finding creative ways to include him as part of the story with the available pieces he has. Yesterday, he took a crumpled piece of chocolate wrapper and announced happily, "This baby Jesus!" After putting him with Mary and Joseph and the donkey, he decided that wasn't good enough, he needed a manager too. No problem, the sort of prickly looking plant outside of the stable will do. "This a manager!", as he stuffs the candy wrapper down into the plant.

Yes please.

Yes please.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-7RlL3YtiQ

I installed the Google+ plugin for Chrome, it allows you to +1 any page, but it also shows you how many other people...

I installed the Google+ plugin for Chrome, it allows you to +1 any page, but it also shows you how many other people +1ed the page you were on.

58,000 people have +1ed the Google Plus homepage.