A Wild Thing

Troy isn't home this Father's Day.  Boo!  We sure did miss him.  Maybe that's the best part about him being gone on Father's Day.  We really got a taste of life without him (sort of) and now we really know that life with him is way better.  But not to worry, we will still celebrate when he comes home!

So, instead of dwelling on the fact that my better half is missing, I'll tell you a little ditty about my own dad.

I have a lot of fond memories of my father.  My dear, kind, patient, generous father.  Let's see.  There's the time that he took me fishing and I refused to used the bathroom off the side of the boat.  He had to take me back to shore and I don't remember him once yelling at me or even rolling his eyes.  Another fond memory is riding bikes with him.  This was back in the day when safety concerns weren't as high as they are today.  No helmets.  No fancy schmancy padded bike seat with a reclining feature that's been crash tested.  It was a plastic seat attached to the back of the bike with a nylon strap across the lap.  But boy, did I sure love to get placed in there and go for a ride with the wind in my hair and my daddy's back in my face.  I also remember having "fight nights" with my dad.  He would get out a big blanket and roll us up like burritos and then, you guessed it, pull the blanket really fast thus sending us rolling across the carpet, laughing until it felt like our sides would burst.  Another favorite of "fight night" was when my dad would get on all fours and drape the blanket over his back.  He made one very ominous tunnel that he would then coax us to crawl through.  He would let us get through a couple of time, unscathed.  Then he would collapse on us and tickle us, again, until we laughed so hard we thought our sides would burst.

But my favorite memory has to be when he would read Where the Wild Things Are.  He was great at reading that book.  Maybe it was because he had it memorized for 4 years before I even came along.  I was watching and participating in a mastered work of art.  That book just lends itself to audience participation.  Oh, the terrible roars!  And I'm sure you would have thought us rabid if you were witness to the gnashing of terrible teeth.  With the rolling of terrible eyes and the showing of terrible claws, there would be no doubt in your mind where the wild things really were.  The most satisfying part of the book, in my opinion, is the last page.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the extreme surprise and pleasure of watching my father read Where the Wild Things Are to my children.  He pulled out a copy that was falling apart.  Its once crisp white pages were yellowed.  Needless to say, it had seen better days; the days of my youth.  He read them the story, of Max and his wolf suit, and their attention was rapt.  You should have heard the wild rumpus!  It sounded the same as when I was a wee one.  Much like a scene from a John Wayne movie with cowboys and Indians, I imagine.  The following morning Isaac came down the stairs wanting to hear the story again.  He was hooked.  So with a new copy in hand, my dad read to them, again, the story of the Wild Things.  Oh, joy of joys!

I'm so thankful, on this Father's Day, for my father.  Jeffery, king of all wild things.

The Graphic Novel

Remember when your box of cereal used to come with cool stuff inside?  Well, I do.  And it turns out that it still happens, just not so frequently.  A while back Orry got a few comic books from some boxes of cereal.  They were the Justice League.  He loved them.  He probably read them 2, 3,10 times.  So at our next visit to the library, I asked the librarian where we could find more comic books.  Silly mom.  Now they are called graphic novels she tells me.  Oh, my bad.

So we checked out the small "Graphic Novel" section that they have and we found a few to try.  I am just amazed at how they hold his attention.  Wait, no I'm not.  There are tons of cool pictures and loads of those fun speech bubbles.  Here's how I found him this morning.

Whenever I just need some quiet time, I just suggest to him that he head to his room to read a comic book (what can I say, old habits die hard) for 30 minutes.  And it works.  They're like magic.  

I'm just glad that he loves to read.  He's a read-in-the-car kid.  He's a read-all-the-words-in-the-grocery-store kid.  (Yes, I can see that Lucky Charms are "magically" delicious.)  He's a read-your-emails-over-your-shoulder kid.  And now he's officially a graphic-novel-reading-fool.  I know Orry, you are not really a fool.

Here are some of the ones he's been enjoying.  The series that he enjoys are Billy Blaster and Benny and Penny.  He also liked reading Journey to the Center of the Earth (in graphic novel form), as well as Perseus and Medusa (both boys really like looking at this one and I'm almost positive that it has something to do with the slightly scary pictures).  

Like I said earlier, I'm just thrilled that he loves reading.  And don't worry, it's not all comic books.  He also really loves books from the non-fiction section.  Some of his favorite subjects are dinosaurs (of course), rocks, and insects.  But to the list we've added the graphic novel and that's alright with me.  

Let us know what your kids like to read (Or what you like to read.  I'm always in need of a good recommendation).  And tell us if you have a summer reading list!  I think we'll have to make one of those for Orry.  

The Smell of Love

Ahh, Valentine's Day.  Can you smell it?  Smells like love.  Or maybe that smell is donuts...

This morning we left the house a little early in order to stop by the donut shop on the way to Isaac's school.  The kids loved the donut shop.  What kid wouldn't?  Chocolate milk, pink donuts with sprinkles, and donut holes.  That's what love is all about, right?

In keeping with our Valentine's Day traditions, we got the kids some books about love.  And here is where I will add that it's a little bit of a chore finding books that are about love and not about Valentine's Day on Valentine's Day.  But I managed.  Here's this year's picks:

For my Annie-cakes.

For Isaac.

For Orry.  And of course, it's a little bit about Valentine's Day, but it was just too cute to pass up!

Otherwise, it was quite the boring day.  Since I got my one and only wisdom tooth extracted (sounds so much better than yanked out) yesterday, I've been taking the prescribed pain medication today.  I've been a bit loopy and I've only wanted to sit on the couch and watch my kids play.  All day.  I did manage to stay awake and not just sleep all day.  That's what love is all about, right?  

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day, filled with love and laughter.  Maybe a hug and a kiss, too.   Now I'll leave you with a great quote from Helen Keller:

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart."

(Psst!  Down here.  If you would like, leave your favorite quote about love in the comments.  I'll pick the one I like the most (or maybe one at random) and send that commenter something lovely.)

Everyday Dinosaur

Like our blog title suggests, we do talk dinosaur.  Everyday in fact.  I know that my posts sometimes have nothing to do with the once plentiful animals that are now extinct (or are they?).  Rest assured though, everyday of our exciting lives is filled with dinosaurs in one way or another.

The "jet pack"

Take the mornings, for example, we wake up and eat breakfast.  Okay, nothing really dinosaur-like about that.  We get dressed and out comes the first dinosaur.  Today Isaac donned a stegosaurus tee.  He sure loves those dino tees.  I've pretty much given up trying to get him to wear non-dino tees with the exception being on Sundays.  Other dino things we do in the morning: watch The Dinosaur Train on PBS and put on our dinosaur "jet pack".

After taking Isaac to school, you would think that us two girls would put all that dinosaur stuff behind us.  Not so.  We frequent the local library and just because we love our boys so much, we make sure that we hunt down a few good books about dinosaurs.  Finding dinosaur books in the picture book section can be tricky.  Here are the last names of some authors that write books about dinosaurs: Barton, Most, Strickland, and Yolen.  The non-fiction section is also a great and easy place to find books about dinosaurs since they are typically all lumped together.

On to lunch.  We eat dinosaur shaped sandwiches!  Now, I should say that I'm really baffled by the power of the DinoBytes sandwich crust cutter.  If you give one of my kids a regular sandwich that's been cut neatly down the middle chances are they will pull it apart and leave at least one element untouched, typically the bread.  But if you cut that same sandwich with the DinoBytes cutter, the sandwich will be completely devoured.  I should also give you fair warning, this is a crust cutter.  You will have crusts left over, which, if you are like me, you will not want to go to waste.  Therefore you will end up eating crust sandwiches for your own lunch.

Our afternoons are also filled with dinosaurs.  Isaac really loves putting together dinosaur puzzles and he is quickly amassing a large collection of them.  I've found that Melissa & Doug make some nice quality wooden and cardboard dinosaur puzzles.  But the toy snob in me should tell you that they aren't very scientifically accurate.  Some of the dinos pictured together in the puzzles weren't alive at the same time.  But the mom in me will tell you that they satisfy the need to see all the famous dinosaurs together on one puzzle.

Our evenings are filled with books about dinosaurs.  And the boys' dreams (and maybe Annie's too) just might be filled with dinosaurs as well.  And I know that some of you might be thinking that a lot of the dinosaur loving is coming from Isaac.  But I assure you all that Orry is on that bandwagon as well.  He's got a class assignment due in about 5 weeks where he will have to give a small presentation about what he wants to be when he grows up.  His answer, a paleontologist.  He will dress the part and give a speech about what a paleontologist is, what kind of education he has to have, what kind of tools he uses, and what contributions he makes to the community.  This really has the potential for being a life-making lesson.  We'll see how it goes and we'll be sure to post some photos.

In the meantime, I hope your days are filled with the things that you love!  Life is too short to not be doing the things that you enjoy.

TMI

You've been warned.

Poop talk is common in our house.  I guess that's what I can say about our journey thus far with ulcerative colitis. Orry is quite familiar with the Bristol Stool Chart.  Every once in a while I'll hear a little voice shout out "2!" or "3!" from the bathroom.

At the zoo before our doctor's appointment

There are other things to say about our journey thus far, like how high and how low you can get.  Seeing solid, bloodless poops can make you feel pretty good, especially if you haven't seen them for a long while.  Seeing loose, bloody poops can make you feel really lousy, especially if you just saw them a few months ago and really thought that this time you got it right and that things were on the up and up.

Isaac is in flare mode again.  He's breaking for the bathroom a couple of times a day (not too bad) and having long bouts of diarrhea.  Unfortunately, we are coming to the end of the list of things we can try.  At the beginning of this journey we had what seemed like a long list of options and medications that we could try.  Maybe it seemed long because we were so hopeful that we would never reach the bottom of that list.

Chicken running around the house at 6am...

What's in store for Isaac?  Currently we have increased his meds since he has gained weight.  No new meds. Not yet.  No steroids because clearly they don't do what they are supposed to do.  We are trying a high-potency probiotic called VSL 3.  We are reading up on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) and trying to pump ourselves up for such a drastic change.  And we have another colonoscopy scheduled for September 27th.  We are hoping to get a better diagnosis which will help us more effectively treat his disease.  We will also see if the flare is throughout his colon or if, fingers crossed, it is just in his lower colon, in which case we could try a medicated enema.

Don't feel too bad for Isaac, though.  He feels "great" and still has plenty of energy and is quite playful.

Now let's lighten the mood and talk a little bit about dinosaur poop.  The boys had a fun time reading, and re-reading, the book, Jurassic Poop: What Dinosaurs (and Others) Left Behind by Jacob Berkowitz.  We learned about coprolites and pretty much all things dino doo doo.  It's a really fun and informative read with some hilarious illustrations by Steve Mack.  I recommend checking it out from your local library.  It makes excellent bathroom reading.

Please keep Isaac in your thoughts and prayers as we get closer to the scope date.  Especially think about us on Monday, as we struggle with a 24 hour clear liquid diet.  No fun.  No fun at all.  We'll keep you posted!

Storytellers

This week Annie and I tried something that we have never tried before.  Story time at the local public library.

Scrunch face!

We arrived a little late but didn't miss out on the fun.  There were plenty of parents there and lots of toddlers.  They were reading stories about dogs.  Dancing and singing seemed to be on the docket more than actual stories and the kids were encouraged to get up and move their bodies.  Get out their wiggles, if you will.

Annie wasn't too keen on letting her guard down in front of all those people.  She eventually moved off of my lap and onto the floor, but no singing or clapping happened.  She's a shy girl.

After reading our stories about dogs and singing songs about smashed bananas, we checked out our own books.  Of course we got the necessary non-fiction books about dinosaurs, but we also found some good ones about monsters, dogs, cats, and airplanes.

I love reading stories to my kids, but I'm no storyteller.  To me, a storyteller is someone who can tell you a story without a book and with so much emotion and detail that you feel as if you were there in the story all along.  I can't even remember how the Three Billy Goats Gruff ends.  Heck, I can't even get the punchlines to jokes right...

But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't try.  And it doesn't mean that I shouldn't encourage my kids to do their best to tell their own stories.

So that is what I will work on for next time (or just some time in the future).  I'll try to have Orry tell you the story about his "black eye".

I doubt Annie is going to be telling too many stories just yet, but maybe I can challenge Orry to tell this story from Annie's point of view.

And Isaac...well...

Maybe we'll just have to settle for stories from Orry...

Down Days

Let's face it.  We can't go to the museum every day.  It's just not possible.  And our backyard isn't exactly a fossil bed (or is it?).  So what do we do with all these "down days"?  We read.

We are fortunate to live pretty close to a nice library.  And we again are fortunate to live in times where accessing information is relatively easy.  What with online catalogs and holding features.  So we pass the time reading about dinosaurs (amongst other things) and imagining a world in which they exist.

Some of our favorite books about dinosaurs are written by Jane Yolen.  She has written quite the little collection of "How Do Dinosaurs ..." books.  We love these not only because they are a great read, full of honest truths about our little dinosaurs, but because the illustrations are so accurate yet stylized.  We can thank Mark Teague for those great pictures that have taught me the difference between the Triceratops and the Chasmosaurus.

More dinosaur books that we really enjoy are written by Bernard Most.  His imaginative approach is what appeals to me.  Allowing your mind to freely wander over questions and scenarios, such as "Whatever Happened to the Dinosaurs?" and "If the Dinosaurs Came Back", is one thing that I really want to allow my children to do.  To develop their own hypotheses about the world around them, past and present.  The bright illustrations are also attractive in their simplicity.

And here and  there we have run into books about dinosaurs that have really won over our hearts.  The most recent is called "Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones", written by Judy Schachner.  I can't even begin to go into how great this book is!  If you like to read to your kids and really get into the characters of the book, this one is right up your alley!  A terrific read for parents and kids alike.  We like them so much that we will probably continue on with this series, dinos or not!

Reference books can also make good reads, especially for kids.  The one we are currently working on is an illustrated encyclopedia of sorts, all about dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures.  Isaac really enjoys learning the names of different and distinct dinosaurs.  And it's a great way to quickly find out the name of that stuffed dino that you saw at the museum gift shop (Parasaurolophus).  The fact that these books are enjoyable for the adults makes them enjoyable for the kiddos.

Reading about your interests is an affordable way to further your knowledge about them.  It can be done in the comfort of your own bed or on the go.  It can be a catalyst.  Reading can even be a life long love!

I look forward to our "down days".  These are the days where we live in our imagination.  The days where a big mommy T. Rex chases the smallest of the small dinosaurs, trying to catch them with her two claws.  The days where we romp and stomp around the forest.  Dinosaur tickles have never felt so good.