Started this morning by pulling a Child’s History of the World from the shelf.  Chapters 14 to 17 were on the docket.  A nursing baby allowed us to make it through the first two and we might have made it further except Sister called a halt to everything for a lengthy discussion on Spartan vs Athenian society. (She much prefers Athenian ways and I am inclined to agree.)

With history attempted for the day, we moved on to science.  By combining wire, a straw and a large battery we manufactured a solenoid. 

With our creation we were then able to create a train signal that actually moved. 

And if your going to have a train signal then you must have a train

which of course will need a track.

It’s possible that your train set will have a duck crossing sign. 

If it does you will be obligated to have ducks. 

Your ducks will, of course, need a pond 

and people to feed them fake bits of bread.

Your pond will probably be near some trees

and what are trees without birds in them.

I love it when class schedules are determined by imagination and clocks are for timing trains.

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Planning on Sunday

for a busy week ahead.

Also, I do bills.

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Baths around here are a much looked forward to affair.  There are toys and often bubbles.  The smiles abound right up until the dread phrase ~ “It’s time to wash your hair.”  Then the protests begin.  They don’t like the water in their eyes and I understand that.  To combat this problem I’ve employed a number of methods but all have failed in some way or other and even those that succeeded in keeping actual water out of the eyes couldn’t succeed against the fear of water in the eyes.  The problem is that the whole situation lacks control.  That is to say they are not in control and so the situation seems unsafe.  But a couple of nights ago I hit upon a little gem of an idea.

Fill the tub with two maybe three inches of water. (I usually fill the tub about half full.)  Have the child lay flat in the water looking up at the ceiling.  If the water comes to close to the eyes (or ears) let some out.  Let the child make this determination. … remember we’re going for control here.

Once the proper water level was reached Brother almost immediately calmed.  He could feel the solid tub underneath him.  He wasn’t going to suddenly get dropped or dunked.  There was no spray to accidentally find his face.  I used a small (very small) cup to carefully wet his hair all over.  Then I let him sit up to help with the shampoo and finally lay back down and again with the cup to rinse.  The whole process took about 5 minutes and there was not a tear one.  Afterwards I filled the tub to it’s normal level and let him play to his heart’s content.

Why this never occurred to me before is a mystery but there it is.

**The word “eureka” originated during a bath of the great mathematician Archimedes and so methinks there is no better title for this bath time discovery.

Due to a slight paranoia, for the longest time on this blog my eldest daughter has been known as Sister and my son as Brother and that seemed oh so sufficient and clever back in the day when we were NEVER going to have any more children.  Never?  Ha!

So finding a bloggy name for our littlest has presented a bit of a conundrum.  She’s been “Baby” up to now but how will that go over when she’s not a baby or what about when another comes along?  (Yes, we are planning on having more)  Calling her “Littlest” presents the same problem.  She needs a moniker that won’t get usurped by another.  She needs a name she can keep.  But what?  Soon after the birth Brother declared he did not care for Baby’s given name.  He would call her “Dora” instead.  Not wanting to jump on the Nick Jr bandwagon I resisted using his choice here.  Now however I’ve convinced myself that “Dora” can easily be explained as short for “Adorable”.  Since she’s all that and more … Internets, meet Dora.

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Consuming baby love

like the intoxicating beverage it is.

Can’t get enough.

Drunk all the time.

*Brother opens the mailbox to find his much anticipated Lego magazine and comments in a deadpan way, “Now there’s something you don’t see everyday.”

*At the museum looking at a room re-created from the Old West Sister exclaims, “Oh look, they had a hidden air vent … *pause* … well, they probably didn’t have those.