Did you know? ...

Identical twins have the same DNA. That means that if one commits a crime, and their DNA is found at the crime scene, they cannot use it against them because they can't be sure that it was theirs and not the twin's.

So I'm on my way to work this morning. And as I turn the corner, the sun shines in on my windshield and reveals numerous foot prints on the glass. Oh, my. Is that on the inside or the outside? I rub my finger across the glass. Nope, it's on the outside. I didn't even bother to hit the wipers and clean it off, I just admired the artwork for a while. Hmm, that looks like a size, oh, boys 12, I would guess.
Then I thought, there's no way to identify the culprit. It's doubtful I'm going to get a signed confession. "Is it not true, mam, that there are not one, but two persons in the house that wear a boys size 12 shoe? So can you say, without any doubt, that these foot prints in exhibit A do, in fact, belong to the defendant? Or could it be, that they just might belong to..." (dramatic pause) "... his twin brother?!"

I'm writing a book

(Well, I started writing a book. Then I asked the boys to help me.)

The title of my book was Jacob's Bear. It begins with a young boy who goes to bed and while lying in the dark, he hears a growling in his closet. He goes into his closet to investigate and slowly his closet turns into a forest...

I never said it was original. At the time, Jacob was afraid of bears, so much so that he was anxious about camping several months away. My goal was to write a story to educate him about bears and ease his worries.

Crack!

      ...he held himself perfectly still. There are many frightening creatures hidden in these trees. Tigers, snakes,

gasp! ba-ba-bears!

Any one of them could have heard the twigs snapping under his feet. Any one of them could pounce at any moment. With a deep breath, he whispered, "I...am...brave." and he trudged on. Bravely. But quietly- just to be on the safe side.

Then one night while putting the boys to bed, I said "Let's make up a story." I thought it was a mistake, but it turned out to be quite an adventure. The story has the same beginning, but now the boy is named James, and he has a pet mouse (that he met inside the volcano) whose name is Wilsom. He has many adventures that I could never dream up on my own.

Here is a sample- James travels to a clearing where he came across a lake. Boom! Boom! What could it be? Cannons? Maybe it's a ... crash! A pirate ship crashes onto the shore.

Jacob "If it crashes onto the shore, how do they get it back into the water?"

Me "They don't. It's too heavy to push back into the water."

Joe "Then how to they get boats into the water after they build it? Oh, I know, they build the bottom part, then they push it in the water, then build the rest in the water."

"How does something so heavy not sink?"

"Can we get back to the story? Ugly, mean pirates crawled off the ship, and they were so hungry..."

"They bended down at an ant pile and started eating ants."

"Were they red ants, or black ants, or yellow ants?"

"Which ones are worser? Red, black, or yellow, which ones do you think?"

As you can see, James doesn't get very far. But I am asked often, "Hey remember that thing we did with the story we made up, remember? Can we do that tonight?" 

One night, James was in a pyramid. They knew that pyramids were in Egypt, so they jumped up and found Egypt on their map. "There! He's right there!" So after he escaped from the mummies, he found himself at the Red Sea. Now he's on his way to Madagascar. We have turned our story hour into a geography lesson. James currently is trapped in a Baobab tree in deep in the forest of Madagascar, with his friend, Tojo the cannibal, that he picked up on his way. Hyenas surround the tree. Oh, no! What will he do?

As I tell the boys at the end of our story, "to be continued..."

Hangin around

The boys got some more Lego's for Christmas. Like they needed any more. You can't take two steps in our house without lodging one of those tiny little pieces into your foot. They never get completely picked up because there is always a house, or car, or monster creation that they are "saving".
But it's OK with me, they love playing with them and Lego's are so constructive.



So I got hem some pretty large kits and then Papa Choo Choo (the boys named him that- can you guess why?) got them an awesome Lego train kit. They couldn't wait to rip open the boxes and get to work. I had a nice long talk with them about how these kits are not like anything they'd put together before and that it would take them a long time, maybe weeks to get it all done. And they need to be patient and do a little at at time. I just wanted them to be prepared and not frustrated when they saw how complicated and involved these new kits were.

So Saturday morning, they woke up first. We listened to them excitingly get dressed and sneak downstairs, whispering the whole time about what they were going to work on first. When I came down, the you couldn't even see the kitchen table.
So much for my talk... by noon, both kits were completed.



I wouldn't let them open them train yet, though. We're saving it for New Years day.
"Is it Friday yet?"... "How many days until Friday?"... "Can we pretend today is Friday?"..."How about we open the train on Tuesday instead of Friday?"...
It's driving them nuts, they can't wait. I think Papa Choo Choo should come over and help. ;)

Silly boy

Paige drew my attention to Joe as he ran through the house. "See how nice he looks? He always picks out the best outfits." (Joseph is her buddy.)
So I went out to get some nice pictures of him and all I got were 20 shots of this...





And only one "nice" one.