Gage hasn't had school in what seems like two weeks. He missed one day because we stayed an extra day out of town while our drywall was being sanded at home and he missed one day because he's had a virus, but honestly, I think there has been a 2-hour delay every other day. A 2-hour delay means no morning preschool. He's ecstatic to get to stay home, but spring will be rough on him!
We've had no shortage of ways to entertain ourselves. It took a week to get all of Gage's Valentine's finished (and the party was postponed). We used video game time for our leverage to convince Gage to get his work finished. After completing five Valentine's, he got one game of Paper Boy on the Sega Genesis. (I just think it's hysterical that Gage knows no difference between cool factor of the Wii and the cool factor of the Sega Genesis.) We've also learned that Gage does homework for me much better than for anyone else. I don't know how to convince him to treat all authority like he treats his momma.
Leila tags right along--and for six days straight she has worn and slept in her pink tutu... no other color of tutu will do. There may not be anything cuter than a little girl in a tutu, pajamas, and bed head, but that's how she's begun each day this week. Gage and Leila seem to play GeoTrax really well together, but it's such a fight to put both of them on the Thomas track together. Gage is very territorial of his engineered work and has little patience that his sister doesn't always want to play exactly as instructed. Big on-going lesson this week on the sharing front: Big Brothers must be Big Role Models. Maybe we could write a children's book on that one.
Last night, I got home from grad school right at bed time. Gage wanted to read a John Deere book. He has several nonfiction books, period, but his John Deere books are the best. Leila wanted to join us and right before my eyes, Gage took over and just started in 'reading' this 300-page book on tractors. Austin is still figuring out the IPod that I got for him and I asked him to record the 'show' but all he found quickly enough was just the audio recording... but even so, we have 16 minutes of Gage totally making up a story about all the John Deere Tractors. His story included references to 'when humans first existed' and to how John Deere's were smashed up at the junk yard and turned into bedsheets. He talked about recycling John Deere's to make Airport Fire Trucks (because they are also green). And, even how some John Deere's were scrapped and then re-used by the military to shoot some bad guys. These are all pretty direct quotes from our stage reader last night.
During all of this, Leila decided to pick off most of Gage's wall decals and rearrange them in ways that resemble faces. (Some of the decals are simply geometrical shapes.) She was impressive. Once she was finished with the decals, she took it upon herself to be Gage's back-up reader, adding sound effects that she thought went along with the pictures. On the recording, you can hear Leila mimicking the tractors on Lighting McQueen that moooo and then tip over with a poof. She laughed at herself after every one of 'her tractors' pooofed. I haven't laughed so hard with my kids. It's been a great winter--and cabin fever hasn't struck us at all!
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