A Very Short Post about Pirates

Ezra and Ottar go through pirate phases. I regret that I do not have photos of the three-day phase Ezra was in last week, where he drew bloody bullet holes all over his and his brother's body.

But here's a photo of several weeks ago when they were out playing in the hall of our apartment building.

Indoor Gym

I think I mentioned a long time ago that my kids spend a lot of time doing gymnasium and circus activities in our loft apartment. This winter they did this for hours a day. As you can see from the photos, we have plenty of space! Unfortunately the fast-action setting on my film camera did not work, but I guess now at least you can see how *fast* they go. Ezra's favorite thing is to jump off the couch and swing across the apartment to the wall. Ottar here is pictured with one leg each through a ring. Then I push him really high, like he's on a swing at the playground, except his feet almost touch the ceiling lamp. Fun!!

By the way, that strange thing lying on the futon underneath the kids is a shark. Oh, and the rope ladder and rings are from IKEA.

A YouTube Education

Okay, I admit it - somewhere along the line, to keep myself from going insane, I introduced Ezra to YouTube. Or actually, maybe my husband did it? Anyway, it was probably about a year ago and we were just discovering it ourselves. How much fun we all had looking up our favorite segments of Sesame Street and The Muppets!

Anyway, that's how Ezra got into rockets and space shuttles - one of us decided to show him a launch. I think it was me, and that I did it to keep him quiet while I tried to get his brother down for a nap.

Let me please explain that I am pretty much against children using computers. Oops! Well, never mind my values. . .

So, Ezra is a YouTube junkie, sort of. He got a little carried away, in our opinion, so we went down to one day a week (he chose Sundays) where he can watch YouTube on his own. It is of course tricky because there is some creepy stuff on there - porn mixed with children's content, swearing and incest inserted into Ezra's favorite Christmas video, etc. etc. But for the most part it's been a huge learning tool.

The cool thing is, when he is interested in something, he can obsess over it via youtube for months! Watching the same launch over and over again, for example. Or more recently, watching everything about The Wizard of Oz that is on there - his recent favorite was a school play from the 90's. The songs were unbearable to listen to from the kitchen, but he and his brother couldn't get enough. Yes, that's right, I admit that, too - sometimes Ottar sits around watching YouTube also. Because he usually doesn't nap! And we live in a huge open loft apartment. Oh well.

But the cool thing is, when he was asking me about kilns, I found him some footage. Then we watched a video about welding, and one about blacksmithing. Now he is really interested in all those things (FIRE).

When people tell me their kids aren't interested in anything specific, I wonder if it's just because they aren't let loose on YouTube.

Raising Hikers

Ottar loves to do everything without pants!




















I am a little bit obsessed with making sure my kids bond with their Earth Matrix*, I will admit. And I am proud to say that in the past month they have often spent up to nine hours straight running around the Minneapolis or St. Paul parks or nature areas. Usually it's more like 5 or 6, but still - that's pretty crazy, I think.

Anyway, we also went up north over Memorial Day weekend - to Naniboujou Lodge where we have been going since I was about 14 years old. My dad planned a couple of hikes - one to Devil's Kettle, which is kind of like a waterfall but is maybe officially a gorge?? Hmmm. . . need to find that out. Anyway, the next day we did one of my favorite hikes, which is to Eagle Mountain, south of Grand Marais. All in all the kids (and their same-aged cousins) hiked seven miles over two days. I say, that is pretty impressive! I actually had to talk Ottar out of taking a fork in the path that would have led him another 12 miles on the Superior Hiking Trail (but oh, we do have big plans to hike that someday!).

Both of my kids are very at home in the woods or on a beach, etc., but especially Ottar, either because of his age or his temperament (or his proximity to the ground?) loves to stop and observe various things along the trail before moving on.

I guess maybe all that running around the parks during the day, and all the crazy, crazy biking they've also been doing (soon to be the subject of another post) has paid off because I think they now both have Legs of Steel.

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*Bonding with the Earth Matrix is a concept I learned about in Joseph Chilton Pearce's Magical Child, one of my favorite books. He says first the child must bond with the Mother Matrix in the first year of life - or else! The second year is for bonding with the Earth Matrix - or else again! Very compelling, but too much to explain here. Interestingly he says it is often traditionally the father's job to help the child bond with the earth in the second year of life. :)

The New Favorite Baby!

My kids love babies - especially Ottar, who thinks and talks about his favorite babies all the time. But lately Ottar met a new baby who is his all-time favorite. And that is saying a lot! He's baby Shamore, who our friends Mark and Josie just adopted from Ethiopia. He is so cute, it hurts my heart to even look at him. And it's not just his looks - he is one amazing baby. Anyway, he has some kind of amazing karmic energy or something. Even Ezra begged to hold him and Ezra never asks to hold babies. Then the next day after we met him, Ezra said, "Shamore is the cutest baby in the whole world!" as soon as he woke up!

We are also getting some serious mileage out of this boy. Now I can say, "Ottar, don't you want to use the tray on your highchair, just like Baby Shamore?" (He hadn't accepted his high chair tray in over a year. But now he loves to use it!) And also I say, "How about if you ride in the grocery cart - I bet Baby Shamore rides in the grocery cart!" And now Ottar will ride in it for the first time in his life! Hooray! I guess this little 7-month-old is Ottar's idol.

This weekend we'll see Baby Shamore again, and hopefully this will result in more of this type of manipulative inspiration on my part. But better than that, we'll be able to hang with this darling little man. We'll feel so honored.

The Messy House Excuse.

Please let the record show that I have an excellent reason for having an unbelievably out-of-control house.

Here's a perfect example. Today, we got home from an unschooler gathering a couple of hours ago. Ottar is overtired but I don't want him to nap because when he naps he stays up until 11 or 12 at night and I refuse to stay up with him! So, he walked right in the door and knocked a plastic cup of water on the floor, and emptied the recyling all over my office. Then he was calm for about 40 minutes, but then announced that he'd swallowed a penny. Then I gave him sardines to eat (they're slippery) and had him help me make a banana "licuado." After this meal he poured water all over the floor from a water bottle, threw markers all over the floor from two different containers, and stuck his hand in the Chili Mac that was out on the table (something I'd tried to get him to eat earlier) and threw it all over the floor, and then dipped his hand again and threw more before I had a chance to stop him. He immediately ran off to jump on the beds with chili mac all over both hands, and when he came back, his hands were mysteriously clean.

Did I mention that I already had to take the kitchen broom away from him because he was trying to clobber his brother over the head with it? And I just stopped him from knocking the 10' tall, 15' long bedroom screen over onto the beds. I am sure I forgot something.

I just had to write that all down so I wouldn't forget. Now I have to go see what is going on in there while I type. Tomorrow I will post the inspirational story from John Holt - or a story I used to find inspirational from John Holt - about how kids in other countries don't do any of this stuff.

The Wicked Witch

I finally have the technology for uploading Ezra's pictures, but my attempts to upload some rocket pictures failed. So for now, here is a picture of the Wicked Witch of the West he drew two days ago.