General Gunnar

Gunnar loves to play with Army Guys, though - having the tenderest heart of all in the family - is the least likely to ever join the military! Still he's very proud of the creative effort in setting this all up.

BTW, the boys call these set-ups their "Arranges". That particular bit of 'family language' undoubtedly came as a result of Tate's hearing loss, and not hearing the full word "arrangement". So, any assortment of things they set up is an "Arrange", in this case, an "Army Arrange".

This is a picture about my arrange. As you can see, it has lots of men and my fortress is made out of cars, boats, and one airplane. As you can see, my camp has two flags, and one palm tree. Also, you can see a few policemen. And I think that’s all about my camp. Soon, you will probably see Wyatt and Tate’s.

Germs

Gunnar asked me, "Mom, is there any empty space on your blog?" Which means, "Is there room for me?" So, here is another "Gunnar-ism".

We were out for a walk a while ago, and had this conversation:

"Mom, I saw a picture of a virus, and it was a deadly virus."

Hmm. I have no idea what he has seen or where, so I reminded him that not all viruses are deadly. Some are just annoying, like the common cold.

But Gunnar was not convinced.

"Mom, this was a germ. A very diseas-e-ly germ."

Smarty Pants

So I asked my littlest Little if he could tell me what are three of the four types of sentences. (Statement, question, exclamation, and command/request, in case you don't know.)

He thought for a minute and said, "Uhhh, standard, question, and astonishment."

Yep. I'll take that!

Oregon... 2002

Since the weather is still rather yucky here, (in the 50's and raining, last time I checked), we are really looking forward to summer! We have several fun activities planned, but the boys are especially looking forward to going to the Oregon coast with Grandpa and Grandma, Aunt Tami, Uncle Dave, and maybe Ann Marie? (If she's not worried the boys will clobber her, after the Mother's Day Incident!)

Tami dug up these pics of the last big family trip to Oregon in 2002. I thought I'd post a few OLD pics, because look how cute these boys are! (And how much they've grown!) Tate was sharing a treasure with Grandpa.

Wyatt enjoyed the beach, as much as the rest of us, but he REALLY loved swinging around in the stunted pine trees next to the rental house. He had just turned six, that summer, and had an endless supply of energy. Still does. You could light Seattle if you could harness that kid. The trees were perfect... sturdy and not very tall. I think that's where we came up with the rule that you could climb on any branch that was bigger around than your arm. So far so good.


Tate was three and a half, and had just gotten his brand new "Hearry Maids". He wasn't exactly used to them yet, and only wore them part of the day, but the effect was quite dramatic! He could hear the ocean! He could hear a whisper! Wow! Tate spent a great deal of time driving his truck around in the sand, making roads and - his specialty - sound effects.


Gunnar was just a little pickle, at (barely) one year old. He walked like a drunken sailor on dry land, so getting around in the sand was challenging. But he didn't care. He was just happy to have the people he loves all in one place, and would sit contentedly on the beach, occupying himself by sucking the salt off the rocks.

Gunnar-isms

Through the years Gunnar has had many unique ways of saying things... like "upsidewards" for upside-down, or "pot hippo" for hippopotamus. As a Big Boy now, his vocabulary is pretty good, but he still has a way with words...

We were beginning to believe that Spring would never come - especially when it snowed, two days in a row, late in April. The following day we were all in the school room when the skies darkened. The boys looked up from their math and watched hail come down so heavily that the street and yard began to be white. Gunnar put his hands on his hips as he stared out the window, and said, "Mom, we gotta pray about this!"

Then, a couple evenings ago I cooked dinner in my crockpot. I love cooking in the crockpot because all the work is done early in the day! I had beef, potatoes and carrots roasting. Tate loves to be my "kitchen servant" (his term!) and all by himself (with me supervising but not helping) he made cornbread to go with dinner. Gunnar is still getting over his 'tummy trouble' and not eating a lot, so I gave him a very small helping. Even at that he was not too enthusiastic. Kerry kept suggesting things like, "Mmmm! Have a bit of potato with your meat - it's good that way!" etc. Gunnar finally gave him stink-eye and said, "Dad, I'm not a mixer. And I'm not a dipper either, so quit giving me recipes I won't like!"

Gunnar and Gizzy

This is Gunnar, at bedtime tonight... not nearly a well child. He's trying to smile, and cuddling a toy elephant he has named "Gizzy".

The bowl next to his head? Well, if you come to dinner at my house, you will never be served food out of that bowl. That bowl is reserved for things like mixing plaster-of-paris to make a volcano, or embalming "King Cluck", or for the purpose it's serving now.

Not that it always works as intended... Since all the boys have been sick, we've been doing a lot of reading aloud (now on book 5 of the Chronicles of Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader). Gunnar was resting on the couch this morning, with Gizzy and The Bowl, when he announced that he needed to pee. He decided to use the bathroom off the family room, (wouldn't you know it, one of the only carpeted rooms in the house.) And, of course, en route to the bathroom the agenda changed. He stood there, helpless as a deer in the headlights, and downloaded breakfast.... on the carpet.

Once I got him wiped off, loved up, and resettled on the couch, I had the mess to deal with. I'll spare you the details, except to say that - to make matters worse - I think Tate is allergic to my carpet cleaner. As if he wasn't sick enough already, when the fumes from the foamy 'Resolve' wafted from from the family room, through the kitchen and the dining room, and into the living room, his eyes filled with 'tears' and turned red, and he began sniffing and coughing and sneezing! Wyatt and I ran around opening doors and windows to air out the house. And it's not like it's a warm day either! We had fresh snow just above us in all the hills again, and more hail today!

Gunnar, Minilla and Mothra

This is a picture of Mothra’s larva, webbing up (since they're silk worms) Minilla, the son of Godzilla! Mothra is a huge moth, that’s why she’s called Mothra. We know she’s a girl because there’s a movie called “Godzilla vs. Queen Mothra”. In the movie “Tokyo S.O.S.” on an island where there is two fairies they were singing a song, which I think was the Mothra song. There is an egg, above, as they singed, the egg started to hatch. Out of the egg, came two Mothra larva.

Minilla is Godzilla’s son. (Japanese people call Minilla “Minya” because they don’t like to say “L”. And they call Godzilla “Gojira”.)

This is why the larva are mad at Godzilla and Minilla: In “Tokyo S.O.S.”, Godzilla killed Mothra, so now, for the rest of their lives probably, the larva has been longing for revenge. That’s why the Mothra larva is webbing up Minilla.

That’s the end of my story.

U7 Gunnar

Gunnar is really enjoying soccer this spring, in spite of getting bumped up from the U6 to the U7 league. He seems tiny next to some of the other players (!) and he's not particularly competitive. Still, he's gaining confidence and going after the ball more. He even managed to score in one or two of the games! More importantly - to Gunnar - he's been to three team-mates' birthday parties, and one boy is coming home from practice with us this week to play.

The team is developing more skills too, and that is fun to watch. The 1st grade and Kinder teams actually split in half and play on two fields, just 3 on 3, or 4 on 4. It makes sense really, because why would you want more than 8 kids mobbing the ball at a time? They don't exactly play positions yet! But they're getting the idea, more and more. Last season, what looked like passing was really just poor ball control. This season there is actually some strategy developing. It's fun to watch. :0)

L-L-L Elk

I am really proud of Gunnar. Not so very long ago he couldn’t say L. He said W. As in, “Mama, I wuv you.” Not that I minded so much in that context (!) but things did get confusing sometimes. Especially since his R is also problematic. If you told Gunnar to say “right, light, white”, you would hear, “white, white, white”.

Or sometimes the L turned into an O. Like “cereal”, or “cere-oh”. “Spell” became “speh-oh”.

So he’s been working really hard and can say wonderful L’s. Lollipop, lily, log and lodge. But sometimes there’s still a little W in there… like “spell” is now “speh-oh-L”, which can make him sound a bit like an immigrant, with an accent you can’t quite place.

We visited the school this week to participate in the Pacific Science Center’s program. Gunnar loved the “Creature Feature” class he got to attend. The kids got to listen to heartbeats of different animals, hold teeth from other animals, and feel skin samples from still other animals.

Trying to identify the animals from the skin samples was harder than it sounds. All the kinders recognized the snake skin. Nobody could guess that two of the samples were from an elephant and a seal.

But when it came to the last sample, Gunnar piped up, “It lives in a cold climate because it has longer hair.” The presenter showed a picture of the animal and all the kids said, “Deer.” Nope. A couple said, “Moose”. Nope. Only Gunnar identified it: “ELK!” With a perfect L to boot.