Grandchildren Play Piano--Mim, Zaya, and Blaze

I'm so glad my children are encouraging their children to practice their piano. I know. I know. I was the one who never practiced piano and can't really play today...but I'm thrilled that my grandchildren do. Here's Mim, then Zay, and last of all little Blaze--who does his best to introduce the song like his cousins do.

Mim is seven years old.

Zaya is nine

And Blaze is seven months old; he needed a little encouragement from Dad.

Missing the Grandchildren...

 So I thought I'd post a few pictures from Christmas week that I never got around to posting. (Hey, I only took the tree down and undecorated the house a week ago!)

Princess in a Box

 Once he gets a book, the rest of the world fades away.

 ...and he is left in another dimension...I think the reindeer, Moses, Frodo and the stuffed orc on the organ all contribute.

 I talked them into posing with their mom...Carina, of blog fame, although known to us by her real name.

 Zaya and his Dad. He's just a little skeptical.

 They both played solos for church.

 And sang "Away in a Manger"

And these two are my brother and his wife. She was playing a trick on him concerning his present. I know they aren't grandchildren, but I thought they were cute. So they made the list of cute Christmas Pictures.

Is That Scary Enough?

My daughter told me today that she is having trouble deciding how to make a Halloween costume for Zaya. He is determined to be something scary this year, but doesn't want any of the costumes they sell in stores, preferring to come up with his own ideas.

The first one was an ebola virus. Carina told him that was simply too scary and would stun anyone who answered their door.

So he thought a while longer and came up with another: A shigella bacteria. She told him that would just be too hard to explain without using the word diarrhea and might put people off, so why couldn't he choose something that wasn't disease causing?

He thought about it and said he'd be a black hole in space. She explained that, while the idea was creative without being repulsive, she didn't think she could make a costume out of negative space, so couldn't he think of something scary that was humanoid enough to fit a boy.

He did. Now he wants to be an IRS auditor. I voted for that one. He'll have to do some explaining, I know, but at least the costume will be easy.

Questions and Answers

I'm keeping the grandchildren for a few days while their mom and dad go search for a house in the city where they are moving. Our conversations have been quite interesting. I'm trying to catch them as they actually happen, so you can experience them as "off the cuff" as I have.

Zaya:  "Grandma, do you know what makes radiation?"
Me:  "Nope. Haven't a clue. Do you?"
Zaya: "Well it's caused by...um...well, take Uranium for instance, something triggers and it explodes and makes helium because of separating particles, two protons and two neutrons I think but I'm not sure."
Me: "It always produces helium?"
Zaya:"Well, if it's uranium. Anyway then it explodes and explodes and explodes and finally produces lead.
Me: "So is that why lead is poisonous?"
Zaya: "No, lead is not radioactive. Only all the molecules that exploded along the way are radioactive and their exploding makes radiation like in a nuclear power plant."
Grandma: "Where'd you learn all this?"
Zaya: "Library book."
(pause)
Zaya: "Do you know how rigor mortis sets in?"
Grandma: "Yikes. Was that from a library book as well?"
Zaya: "No. Garfield."

Kids and Sailboats= Tears and Trophies

Turtle and I went out this evening to watch our grandchildren participate in the award ceremony for their AWANA Wednesday night classes. The main event was a sailboat competition. This was followed by presentation of T-shirts for those who had memorized at least 45 verses and a special "pie-throwing" prize for those who had memorized the most in each class.

Mim is a cubbie and doesn't handle people screaming very well. She managed the boat well until about midway down the canal, when the roar of the crowd got loud. Then, as she said: "You can't blow hard when you're crying."

For a little while Mim seemed to be devastated by the incident, but in three or four minutes she was running around the gym acting crazy with another little girl her age and had forgotten all about coming in last with her nicely crafted little boat.I don't think it scarred her for life anyway.



























Zaya fared somewhat better. He bounced all over the gym with great glee, but managed to settle down enough to furnish a strong sailing wind for his ship and sail it through several races into first place.



After all the other awards were given, Zaya was allowed to throw a pie into the face of one AWANA leader. He chose the event emcee...who reacted as he did to everything--with cheerful melodrama. I'm pretty sure I would have felt let down to receive that prize instead of something of substance...like a book or a game...but Zaya seemed to think it a wonderful reward. Ah well. I'm just glad we didn't try something like that at our AWANA fun fair. I'm trying to go without sugar.

Little Boys Need Their Dads

I don't really have to say much about this one, do I?
Do you have a son? Why don't you go talk to him?

Wordless Wednesday

Warning: Cute Videos of Grandchildren

What I wonder is: How's his kindergarten teacher going to handle him this year?

Here's a conversation between Zaya, who is five, and Mim, who will turn four this month.