Factoids

Yesterday I came down for breakfast and grabbed a glass of water.  Seeing this, Sam said to me, "Did you know that H2O is the scientific name for water?"

I told him he was pretty smart, and he replied, "I know.  That's because I got glasses."

He often tells me factoids that he learns on his favorite TV show (Zoboomafoo) like: "Did you know that a hippopotamus can open its mouth 3 feet wide?" or "Did you know that dogs are hunters by nature?"

My recent favorite was when he said to me, "Mom, you always need to be sure to give big-horned animals their space....or they will butthead you."

Merry Christmas from all of us!

Look who else got glasses!

"Now the whole family is smart because we all have glasses."

That's what Sam said when he got his glasses. I don't know where he got that idea. It's amazing how automatic it seems to be for glasses to give the impression of intelligence, even to a 4 year old. 

I guess when you can't spell, it's hard to understand the concept of a homonym....or is it a homophome? Either way, Seth and I got a pretty good kick out of the following conversation.

Elena: I want to wear my pink dress.

Me: I think that dress is a little too small for you.

Elena: It's not two small....It's not even one small.

Looks like we're getting a White Christmas!

We took the kids to the cities this weekend to go to the Mall of America, visit friends and swim in the hotel. It's a good think we hit the mall fairly early Saturday morning; by the time we left, we could hardly walk through the mall because there were so many people.

 

We had a good time, but the snow slowed us down a bit - especially considering our tires have terrible traction - and we had to spend an extra night at a hotel in Glencoe. 

 

Unfortunately, there was no pool, but Elena went outside and played in the snow in the parking lot for about 45 minutes.  Sam was too cold...it would help if he would let us put proper clothes on him.  He still dresses himself in a tank top and shorts everyday, and no amount of reasoning will convince him to do otherwise.  He tried going out with his snowsuit today, but every step he took went up to his thighs and before long, he fell over and couldn't get up so I had to come out and rescue him.  It reminded me a lot of the little brother walking to school in A Christmas Story. 

 

Back to our trip home from Glencoe: it was a long ride home and we saw a lot of cars in the ditch, but we made it. 

Now we can hunker down and enjoy the snow. And buy new tires.

Smarty Pants

It's amazing to see the clever things kids come up with at very young ages.  Sam surprised me tonight while we were reading a story about a camel.  On the first page, the camel is described as being a small camel with skinny legs and large feet.  

As we got to the middle of the book and the camel was going on a journey through the desert, Sam said to me, "I bet camels have large feet so they won't sink in the sand." Not only did he think of something that hadn't even crossed my mind, but he was right.  That is why camels have big feet.

Seth said he must have made the connection from an episode of Zoboomafoo that talked about how a lynx's feet help them walk across snow.  It's good to see he at least learns something when he watches TV :)

Also, the other day Sam was helping me cook when he suddenly told me to wait while he went to get something.  He came back with his safety goggles. I'll let him explain why:

 

By the way, Happy 30th Birthday today, Seth!