Building and Growing

I took the kids to Lowe's this morning. Every other Saturday they have their "Build and Grow" workshops for kids. This is one of my favorite things to do with the boys. It's really a fantastic thing that Lowe's does for the community. They have little tables set up and they have pre packaged projects. In the bag they have all the pieces with pre drilled holes for the nails. They have a set of plans to follow and hammers for all the kids. They also give the kids aprons and safety goggles to keep. Each time you complete a project, they give you a patch to sew on your apron. Best of all, you get a snack and a juice box when you're done. And most importantly, it's free! There are all kinds of projects they've made: a squirrel feeder, a valentine mailbox, a few kinds of trucks, a measuring tape, a few different games, and today they made a firetruck. Some of the projects are pretty difficult for the carpentry challenged, like myself. But most of the time, they are pretty simple.
My boys really look forward to "Lowe's day" as they call it. Usually, I do Corban's first. On days I'm feeling really brave, I let him try to hammer a few of the nails. I do Corban's as a kind of a practice, because I usually mess it up a little, but learn how to do it right by the time I do Calvin's. So, while Corban is watching, and "helping" me, Calvin is talking to any other kid nearby who will listen. When I finish with Corban's, he then has a new toy that will keep him busy while I work with Calvin. Calvin has gotten pretty good with the hammer. He does all his own hammering. The only problem is that he gets distracted fairly easily. Sometimes he gets so caught up in what's going on around him, he forgets what he's doing. Unfortunately, he does not stop hammering. That generally makes for some sore fingers on my part! But when he keeps focused, he is pretty good. I really think it is a great thing to get kids interested in building. Even if they don't do a whole lot, they really feel like they've built it themselves. They are so proud of their creations. They love to get the patches and have me sew them on the aprons. Calvin has a box that he keeps all his Lowe's projects in, to keep them safe. They really get into it.

Child's Play

One of my favorite things is to watch my kids playing. I like to play with them too, but it is so much more fun to just observe, especially when they don't realize you are watching. That's how I get a lot of quotable Calvin material. I am always amazed with what, and how they play. I know that cliche, if you give a kid a fancy toy they play with the toy for ten minutes, then play with box for a week. Well, it is so true. While my kids enjoy their fancy toys, they find fun in the simplest of things. I could not even begin to count the number of hours they have spent playing with rocks in the creek. It really is one of their favorite activities. Sometimes they just like to throw them and watch the splash. Other times, they like to find different shapes and turn them into things. They like to find the really flat ones and pretend it's a blackboard, then find a pencil-like one to draw with. They've had many conversations on rock "cell phones" as well. The last time we were at the creek they each found one that looked (in their eyes) like a guitar. So, I took a "pencil" and drew strings and a sound hole and such. They sang and played guitar for a long time. Then we had a full day of puns about them being a "rock" band and such. Most boys have an uncanny ability to turn any object into a firearm. My boys do their share of that. But even more often they turn every object into a guitar. And in the event there is no object, they have both perfected their "air-guitar.". They like to have concerts and sing songs. Calvin has become pretty good at songwriting. A few weeks ago he was sitting around with his harmonica singing the blues. He spontaneously wrote a blues song for an attorney friend, Mr. Dan. He would sing a line something like this: "stuck in court all day long, don't got no way out". Then he would blow on the harmonica. I laughed so hard that I cried.

Now that Corban is talking more, his play is getting more fun too. He has a game where he will say, "Eat bugs?". He will pretend to eat like Cookie Monster. Then he will make his word for dirty which is mostly un-spellable, but would look something like this: "Cccchhhhhkkkk". He will then say, "Spit out". He can play that game all day.
The sad thing is, I feel I have missed so many opportunities to see them play. There have been so many times I felt too busy, like the dishes or laundry or whatever chore was so urgent or overwhelming. I know this stage of play won't last forever, so I'm trying hard to enjoy it as often as I can.