Bethy's hat 

One evening as we walked back to our apartment at Rockbridge, Elizabeth told us, "My favorite thing about summer is swimming. But my favorite thing about Rockbridge is worship."

I finally took Wil back to the pediatrician for his hearing retest. We had tried once before but they were not available for lab work at the time. He got 10 out of 10 correct in both ears. Even though we continued to think his hearning was fine, we are thankful and relieved to know nothing is wrong. Wil was pleased too. "I got them all!" he announced when the test was over even before the nurse said anything. And again in the parking lot he said to me, "Momma, I heard everything!" We called Sean from the car, "Daddy, Momma said I did a very good job."

Just to show how smart Wil is, (not that you all need more proof,) I want to share something about the test. The test consists of 12
pictures. I forget the word for it, but all the pictures are of things that are made up of two words like sailboat, bathtub, ice cream, airplane, etc. Before the test began the nurse reviewed the pictures with Wil to make sure he knew the full name, e.g. sailboat instead of boat. She didn't do them in any particular order and when she was done, Wil pointed to the baseball and said, "What about the baseball? You didn't ask about the baseball." 12 random objects on a page and he knew which one she had missed.

I feel certain now that Wil is ready for Kindergarten. The question remains is Kindergarten ready for Wil?

Yesterday in the car the twins were singing along with their favorite tape of Sunday School songs. "No power or king, can do anything, to take (God's) love away...." When the song was over, Wil went on to ennumerate the powers that can't take God's love away - monsters, bad people, wizards.... Finally he ended with "God is the MOST powerful!" Amen.

The other day Elizabeth told me, "I love you and Daddy 1000. But I love Jesus 1001." We didn't teach her that, so I'm inclined to believe she really does love Jesus more than Momma and Daddy. Later I'll get Sean to post about yesterday's playground evangelism, something else we didn't teach her. She's a natural.

Yesterday the twins played in the water sprinkler for the first time this year. I took a couple pictures, but I wished I could have captured the sound! They were squealing with delight. Elizabeth ran up to me and said, "This is already like Walt Disney World!" Then later, "Momma, did you have this much fun at Walt Disney World?"

Wil has a new favorite computer game, "Detective In A Jar," on DisneyBlast.com. Tonight he was playing his version of the game with his Rescue Heroes. "Detective In A Jar's first question," he says to them. "House of Robbers. Who are the robbers?" If you've been around our house during Lent, then you know the answer is "moneychangers" and refers to when Jesus cleaned out the temple. I love how Wil combines the stories and things that interest him most.

The twins have been reading and looking at Usborne's Flip Flap Body Book. It's a really neat book about things like exercise and healthy eating and answers questions like "what happens to your food?" It also has a section about how babies are made. They were looking over the pictures and Elizabeth asked what sperm is. Wil said, "I know. Tadpoles."

Overheard: "It's 100 o'clock and that's enough time."

"I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart...." Wil has been singing it off and on since breakfast. It makes me so happy.

I love it when the twins say "I love you one hundred." For awhile that was the biggest number they knew. Then one day Elizabeth asked, "What number is bigger than 100?" I started with 101. Now they work to outdue each other "I love Momma 101." "I love Momma 102." "Momma, what's bigger than 102?"

On the way to the ballet yesterday we drove by a billboard that said, "Introduce your children to a real superhero: Jesus Christ." I will spare any readers my thoughts on billboards, but I did pause to think about whether or not my kids thought of Jesus as a superhero. How does Jesus compare in Wil's mind to LarryBoy or the Rescue Heroes? What would Elizabeth say is the difference between Gandalf and God? Then last night we were reading Disney's version of The Black Cauldron and Elizabeth asked "What does 'rule the world' mean?" I said that it means the owner of the Black Cauldron would be in charge of everyone and everything. She answered, "But he wouldn't, because God is."

Another ballet: yesterday Elizabeth and I went to The Sleeping Beauty also performed by the Columbia City Ballet, but it was the entire thing not just a preschoolers version. She loved most of it. However, the third act would have been too much for both of us had there not been the promise of meeting the dancers afterwards. She had her picture taken with three of the fairies including the Lilac Fairy, the Queen and one of the attendants all dressed in lavendar. Alas Princess Aurora was no where to be found. But I still got a lot of good shots for the scrapbook.

Columbia City Ballet has been performing an original version of The Lion King this week. It's 45 minutes long with some narration. Perfect for preschoolers. We went this afternoon and had a lot of fun. The twins favorite scenes were Simba's and Scar's fight, Scar's defeat, and Mufasa's death. Wil says, "It was my teeny tiny favorite because it was sad too." Yes, there is something a little disturbing about fighting and death being "favorites," but I totally agreed with the kids. Those scenes were the most dramatic, most exciting and most emotional. Elizabeth later amended her favorites to include baby Simba's entrance, (they used a real baby,) and Nala's and Simba's wedding. Wil and Elizabeth played a lot of "pinned ya" as we were attempting to leave the theater and they're still playing Lion King now.

The twins have been watching the movie Sinbad with our next door neighbor's little girl. It's rated PG and I had some objections to them watching it. So yesterday Wil wanted to borrow it, they say he could, and we watched it together last night. It's actually very good. The ending is terrific. Sinbad is a hero because he does the right thing which is the harder thing to do instead of more flashy stuff. The parts that rate it PG are mostly innuendo and some language, (which in one case we had to tell Elizabeth she could not say and give her an alternative. She obviously didn't know what was meant.) As 4-year-olds they miss most of the inappropriate remarks. I'm not sure I'd let my 9-year-old see it, and I don't really want the twins to watch it much more. All that to say, we've had a lot of Sinbad play around here today. When Wil plays by himself he uses his Veggies, a truck and his pirate ship. Junior Asparagus is Sinbad. When he plays with Elizabeth, he is Sinbad, Elizabeth is Merina, and Freckles the Dalmatian puppy is Spike. It's entertaining to say the least.

A follow-up to the "amounts experiment": Elizabeth counted her carrots at lunch and said "Five. That's the same as when I'm going to Walt Disney World." But she thought about it for a minute and added, "Five carrots, not five weeks (years). It's not the same. Momma how many weeks until we go to Walt Disney World?"

Elizabeth picked The Nutcracker in place of her 2 TV shows yesterday. She watched the entire thing. I couldn't believe it. More surprisingly, Wil watched most of the last half with her. They were entranced. "There's the prince again," one of them would say, or "Here comes Clara." And even though it was a different company than the one Elizabeth watched over Christmas, she knew exactly which parts she'd seen in Iowa. "This is the same as the one at Granma Sue's house!"

The twins are experimenting with amounts. For example, "It'll take twenty-hundred to give it to you." I didn't realize how confusing this was to other people until we were at my parents' house last week. Wil wanted more milk. GiJi told him there was still milk in his cup. "But I want 80," he said. GiJi and GrampAl both looked confused. "He's experimenting with amounts," I said. "Like 80%?" GiJi asked. "No, just 80," I explained, "80 is a lot of milk."

We're attempting to cut back on our TV watching now that we're all starting to feel better and the holidays are over. The twins get to pick 2 PBS shows to watch during the day and then, if they're not too tired, we watch a "movie" at night. Mostly we've been watching parts of the Harry Potter movies which I got for my birthday. Therefore, they've been playing "Harry Potter" during the day. Elizabeth is always Hermoine. She knows lots of Hermoine's lines and is trying to learn the "spells" like "lumos," "occulus repairo" and "finite incantatum." That's a mouthful for a 4-year-old. Wil has been wearing an enormous pair of black sunglasses with the lenses popped out and flying around on his Nimbus 2000 mop. His favorite scenes to reenact are when Harry catches the snitch in his mouth; when Harry is chased by the bludger, gets his arm broken, but still catches the snitch; and when Ron throws up slugs. He also drew an amazing (and kind of scary) picture of Fawkes and Harry defeating the Basilisk. The most gruesome feature is the snakes' bloody eyes. (Honestly, I haven't let him watch any of that! I did tell him what happened though and I guess he figured out the snake's eyes would be bloody if Fawkes pecked them out.)

This morning, however, they watched Barney. Now they want to make smores like when Barney went camping. I tried to explain we don't have any marshmellows or chocolate in the house, but Wil thinks we can use York Peppermint Patties left over from Christmas instead.

Wil took a nap yesterday and then fell asleep relatively early (say around 11). Predictably, he didn't sleep well last night and woke up at the crack of dawn. He tormented me between 4 and 5, asking me to come sleep with him in his bed. Christine was already sleeping with Elizabeth, so he and I had my bed to ourselves. Therefore, I was not about to leave my warm, snuggly-sheeted (flannel) bed for his cold, lumpy bed with lots of kid-sized covers. Christine heard us fighting and came in to check on him and said she'd lay down with him in his bed, which made me feel like the worst dad in the world. I was still able to fall back asleep, though.

When I woke up Wil had been up for a while, followed by Christine and Elizabeth. Christine said Wil had been all over the house and that every light was on. He'd already cut some tissue paper into pieces. We had two gallons of drinking water in grocery sacks (don't ask) that he even took out to the garage, thinking they were trash! He has certainly never taken the trash out before, nor shown any interest in such an activity. I didn't know he could even open the door to the garage. Christine asked him where the blue bags were and he said 'I put the trash out there.' Then she said 'You've been busy this morning.' and he said 'Yes I have.' Later he offered to take the bowls and spoons to the table for breakfast unprompted. What's more, this is not something we even ask him to do, usually, since it's so far beyond his ken.

Of course, all of his sweet industry only makes me feel like an even worse dad.

Still, I wonder 'Who are you, and what have you done with Wil?'