Category: children

Lights withstanding the wind (Martinmas)

A guest post by my wife, Sarah K-J:

For the third time, I handed my two-year-old son his homemade lantern and hoped the wind would allow a few minutes more of light. We were on our first “lantern walk.”

Guided by another young family with experience in this ancient tradition honoring St. Martin of Tours, we stepped out into the dark. Each young child bore a homemade lantern and eagerly watched the wind catch and play with the flame. We periodically stopped to relight each one. In the darkening dusk we walked along the beach, flickering orbs bobbing in front of young, expectant faces.

I was amazed at how gentle the wind was, how perfect the setting. The stars began to gain strength, and distantly echoed the scattered constellation of lanterned children. The waves stood back and gave us firm ground to walk on.

Our lights were small and inconsistent in the north Atlantic wind, but their hope a meaningful tribute to St. Martin. A Roman solider, Martin met a starving beggar at the city gates of Amiens. Moved with compassion, he tore his cloak in two, giving half to the beggar. That night in his sleep, Christ appeared to him dressed in the half-cloak. He was soon baptized and later became a bishop in the Church.

I’m unsure how much of the beauty and meaning the children were able to absorb, but the excitement and courage with which they carried their fragile paper lanterns in the wind of the North Atlantic gives me hope.

Their small lights were extinguished several times, but they kept asking for their lanterns to be lit again. Whenever their light withstood the wind, they joyfully announced it to all around, and fixed their eyes upon its hopeful, persistent light.

PlasmaCar, a.k.a., Rocketship, a.k.a. “A COOL, COOL CAR!!!”

This is the family car of choice. In our house it’s called “cool, cool car,” so named by our 2-year-old. We got him one for his birthday. (Its real name: PlasmaCar.)

My wife got it for our 2-year-old after telling me she had scouted it out and that it was “toy of the year.” I’m generally skeptical of toys of the year, but this one has been a hit.

The only challenge was getting our two boys to share the one cool, cool car.

Side note: there was and is an accompanying song. It goes like this:

(loudly) A COOL, COOL CAR!

(softly) a cool, cool car.

(loudly) A COOL, COOL CAR!

(softly) a cool, cool car.

(loudly) A COOL, COOL CAR!

(monotone) CAR.

As I was saying, the sharing was not working out too well…until Grandma came to town and got the 5-year-old one of his very own! (Thanks, Grandma!) It’s now being called a “rocketship.”

The 5-year-old now knows how to do donuts on our back deck. The 2-year-old is not far behind. It’s hours of endless entertainment for us all.

And, yes, that’s the 2-year-old in the picture above on (you guessed it) his older brother’s cool, cool car.

Photo credit: Ian Drummond

Family Friday: Annisquam Lighthouse and a long walk on the beach

Yesterday I came home from work and, not even taking the time to change out of my dress clothes, strapped on our baby girl and walked with her and my two boys to the beach.

“Look out for the poop on top of the hill,” our now 5-year-old son reminded us. “Watch out… poop on hill!” echoed his 2-year-old brother.

We went down the poop-topped hill and onto the beach in sub-50 degree weather. The 5-year-old (he of “my 4-year-old son” fame) scrambled up and down the rocks. The 2-year-old sang happy songs and found a bird feather with which he stooped down to draw a “choo-choo” in the sand. Baby girl slept, warm against my chest.

The setting sun bounced off the houses on the opposite shore. One of the houses, reflecting the sun, looked like it had windows made of pure gold.

At 5:56, the Annisquam Lighthouse turned on.

It was a moment–a long moment, since we walked for about an hour–that I’ll savor for years to come. God has indeed been good to his people.

The liquor(ice) store

If you’re planning a move any time soon, may I suggest that you go to your local packie for free boxes? The boxes often available at the package store are great for moving books and packing up kitchen items.

Our family is making a local move tomorrow, and today I’ve made three runs for boxes. I brought my 4-year-old son with me today for one box run, forgetting the preference of my local dialect (“packie”) and telling him instead that we were going to the liquor store to get some boxes.

As we got into the car, he asked, “Why are we going to the licorice store?”

I decided to let it go uncorrected.

Another interview with Honest Toddler, who, I hear, has a book deal?

(Alex Motrenko/Thinkstock, via The Globe and Mail)

Looks like Honest Toddler has a book deal. A recent HT Facebook post from this week:

Mama’s drinking celebration wine during daylight hours. Said something about a book deal and name brand cereal from now on.

That will be a good book to read. Maybe HT will send my 4-year-old son a review copy! (Not counting on it, but that won’t stop us from asking.)

I also just found another interview with the Honest Toddler who, sadly, has not made himself available as of yet to Words on the Word for interview. We still hold out hope.

My 4-year-old son reviews Field of Peace by Joyce Meyer

This book is about baseball. Buh-buh-buh-buh baseball!

Some of the characters’ names are Boyd, Arnold, Coach Pouch. Boyd is trying to win the baseball game.

Arnold the Armadillo turns into a big ball, because he’s hiding. That means he’s scared. He curls up. The team stops and loses, but the giraffe tries to win.

When they lose, the giraffe feels bad.

The skunk has a rake. He sprays, and then the giraffe has a hat on his nose because it’s stinky!

Boyd [the giraffe] thinks that Arnold wouldn’t win the Wilds’ championship. Then Arnold was by himself in the field because they were gone. But then everyone misses him.

Boyd feels bad because he misses Arnold. So he tries to get Arnold.

And he [Arnold] did this–he batted the ball even though he was a little ball.

At the end of the book, Boyd is feeling peaceful inside. That means you’re feeling happy!

My favorite part is when Arnold shook his hands down and up, down and up, because he was scared. This book made me feel good. I’ll show you what I really like: it has “peaceful” inside the book.

My 4-year-old son received an Advanced Review Copy of Field of Peace from Zonderkidz. Find more about Field of Peace on Amazon or at Zondervan. It’s slated to release September 4. Read the rest of my 4-year-old son’s reviews here.

My 4-year-old son reviews a Duncan Butterfly yo-yo

Not long after my 4-year-old son began doing book reviews on my blog (the best part of this blog, according to some), he had an idea.

“I know, Dad. We could review a toy! We could review a yo-yo!”

I emailed the folks at Duncan, not sure if there even is such a thing as a “review copy” of a toy, but, lo and behold, we got a yo-yo in the mail this week. Below, my 4-year-old son reviews it. Before we could profitably use it, we shortened the string, using this video to guide us, although the packaging did include instructions for that. Here’s my 4-year-old son now, in order of his observations as he played with it:

I’m not really good at using a yo-yo because I just learned.

In response to his two-year-old brother’s “Is it mine?”  “Nope, not yours. It’s mine.  So don’t play with it.”

I don’t think I can do it, Daddy. This is too hard for me. It’s good! But I don’t really know how to use it yet.

It’s a good knocker. It’s a good yo-yo.

I’ll tell you how it works. You roll it up, once you already use it first, and all we have to do is just get it up to your hands and pull it down and then bring it back up. That’s the end. That’s it.

(Later) It’s really easy to use.

(Later later) I can’t really do it! This knocker’s not very easy. I got to go to bed. Good night!

The folks who gave us a yo-yo for review (thanks!) emphasized that it’s for ages six and up. I see the wisdom in their age recommendation. Perhaps when “my 4-year-old son” becomes “my 6-year-old son,” we can have another go. For now, he’s finding other ways of having fun with the yo-yo, racing through the house and dragging it behind him.

UPDATE, three days later: See his original artwork (a yo-yo) here.