Pythons - the whole story

Each week, we pick an animal to study. Kostya has to help me research it, look at pictures, color a picture of one and then tell me some stories about it.

This week, it was pythons. Here are the most important points, as per Kostya.

Pythons come in green, black/brown/white, albino, and yellow/brown/white/gray.

They have a forked tongue, two eyes and can be up to 35 feet (longer than TWO of our Suburbans together).

They live in jungles of Asia, Africa and Australia

They eat pigs, deer and sheep.

Here's Kostya's rendition of the python's color. Below the picture are his stories about pythons. Before I sat down to write what he would say, I could hear him in the other room practicing what his story would be about.

It starts with a python snake driving a monster truck. He runs over another snake that wants to eat him. Then a superhero comes in and cuts up the python. And the snake is the superhero's pet. And the superhero unlocked the cave he was in.

And then the next story:

A big rhinoceros and the superhero shoved out his big monster gun and shot the rhinoceros's' eye, like, "BOOOSH". And then the next day, he heard a "Voom, Voom, Voosh" and it was a monster truck and another superhero shoved out his gun and shot it. A lion was driving a monster truck and the motor went driving over a big huge monster python who was THIS big and THIS high.

Out of doors

It was really hard moving here. The boys were used to being outside ALL day and moving here, we were suddenly stuck inside an apartment. We've looked and looked for a place to get outdoors and explore. SIX months of looking. And here it is!

Husband and the boys have been taking drives to give me a break with the baby. We recently moved our old horse to a new pasture. They went to check on her and took a new road to explore. Four miles into it, along a ridge, they came across miles and miles of logging roads, open to the public for foot traffic. With trees in various stages of growth, it's a perfect place to explore. It gets bonus points for being "paved" in rock so rain hikes are not out of the question, even for the littles.

I can't wait until I'm healed to go exploring with them.

Click on the picture for a full large view. All the hill in the background and the trees beyond that are ours for the exploring!

What's the weather?

Twelve branches. Twelve months. Each day, we wake up, throw open the window blinds and check the skies. Then it's to the Weather Tree we go.

Cloudy days get red leaves
Rainy days get blue leaves
Sunny days get yellow leaves
Snowy days get white leaves
Foggy days get green leaves

Whatever it is when we get up is what we put. Some days, we have three or four weather types, but still, it's what the sky is when the sun comes up.

We're in Oregon. It's January. Surprisingly, our January branch isn't covered in blue leaves. This is proof to my mom who is convinced there's nothing but rain here. See? There's FOUR yellow leaves!

Puzzled?

Puzzles. Kostya has liked puzzles since he was only 18 months old. He was a pro at the little Melissa and Doug puzzles during that age. During a Thomas the Train obsession, the puzzles were put away. They were just reintroduced when my mom was visiting and thought Ivan would like them. She then went out and bought TONS of puzzles from thrift shops for Kostya. This one was very exciting for him because it had a racecar on it. He does about 50% of the work and is SO proud when he's done.

I wish I had more hours in my day to just sit and do puzzles with him all day. I do think when we move, we're going to have a special puzzle "table" that we can put in a safe place when we're not working on it.

Fish Tanks and Peanut Road Apples

We're celebrating Hanukkah as a family this year. Today, we brought home a little 2 gallon or so beta tank for Kostya. He was thrilled.

This is his first nature study. We went to the dollar store and bought a small set of notebooks and he chose a blue one to record his information about the fish. Here's what he and I decided to put in the first entry:
December 13, 2009
Name: "Monster Truck Water Fish" (nickname "Monster")
Breed: beta
Color: blue body and top fin with red bottom fin
Gender: male
Fed today: Yes

Tomorrow, we're going to talk about habitat and the things that Monster lives with.

For Christmas, the kids' grandparents bought Kostya a small set of plastic horses with saddles and bridles. They came in a box with a background resembling a stable. Also came with bucket, brush and pooper-scooper. Ivan has been thrilled to have access to peanuts to put in the "stable" and scoop up to put in the bucket and eat.


Note the wires sticking out of the box. Those were put there by Kostya to be "Holiday Lights" for the barn celebrations.

Cats, Cacti, Quacks, Cars and Crossings

What an interesting walk today. We were treated to the sight of our friend, Lucky walking towards us. He's the grey kitty that looks like our cat, Zippy, who's still in California. We also met this very friendly calico kitty that tried to follow us as we were heading home.



While Kostya was petting Lucky, I looked across the street and swore I saw some ducks in a front yard. I knew we had to investigate and after spending a few more minutes with Lucky, we crossed the street, but the ducks were gone. A man was sitting on the front porch. I asked him if he'd seen some ducks around and he laughed and said they were his. When he was a kid, his dad worked the mill and was always bringing home baby ducks. So, as he's gotten older, he ran across a duck baby that was injured and raised her. We met her (name escapes me) and her other duck buddies.



There was an amazing row of blooming cactus along the right-of-way. LOOK at those colorful flowers and long sharp spines.



We cross the railroad tracks twice on our walks and wanted to take a picture of the switching track this time.



The blackberry bushes are FULL of blooms along the creek and Kostya and I have been talking a lot about picking a lot of blackberries on our walks once they show up. Kostya liked looking at the little green baby berries.



This car struck his fancy and he thought it would be a good picture as well.



And lastly, a dancer flower and a worm we saved from being squished.



We are going on a car trip tomorrow. I'll be sure to post pictures. Not sure where we'll end up.

Thanks for reading.

Three years old and the great outdoors

It broke my heart. He came to me crying after a particularly difficult morning where his brother had been tormented, knocked over, pushed, hit a few times, among other things. I'd raised my voice several times.

And through great big tears, he said, "But Mommy, I've got to get out of this apartment. I hate this house. I want to go back to Californi-i-a-a." And the sobbing started. I realized that this little three year old, who'd had free reign, was suddenly cooped up in a little apartment with no freedom and was aching to run, to explore, to imagine. And he was stuck here, prisoner to my allergies, 1st trimester exhaustion, and stress of moving.

So, we're starting small, trying to eat one meal outside each day, get out for a meaningful activity each day, whether it be sand-play, walking, playground, or all three. But it still breaks my heart, that we moved here, that he is trapped inside when all his little body wants is to get out.

Jen D.