A bit more snow and some math lessons

While the snow season is winding down, we'll continue to get a few more rounds before we begin to thaw.  I am thinking I might have to mow the grass sometime in June.  Overnight we got a few more inches, as seen in the image below.  I should go move some of it ... yawn.

As with most humans, Stone likes certain things.  He likes new things, and he is continually reminding me of things he does not have.  I remind him he has too many things, and typically I'll get a hearty "daddy, I don't like your words".

We had discussed having him start to earn some money for things, and so it began recently.  Over the holiday break down south, he was introduced to the board game Candyland.  So as it remained all the way in TX, and we are all the way in NH he has made the game his first priority for spending his hardly earned at all money.

By the end of the first nearly halfway complete cleaning of the TV room he had earned $5, a generous sum.  He has to get all the way to $13 before he has enough money.  So as he earns more we are tracking it on the dry erase board.  In the image below you can also see one of his works in green, I caught him mid cough as he is day three into the latest head cold.  

I am sure by next year he'll be asking about credit and investment accounts ... so long as he is doing laundry and maybe using a vacuum I'll be a happy account manager.

A few thoughts

During our recent return trip home Sora's mantra and general comment for everything was "mahmahhhh" in varying levels of decibel and tone.  Mahmah would occasionally turn and "ssshhhh" her with a finger over her lips.  This was fun.  Sora picked it up quickly and surprisingly responded (sometimes) when you wanted her to quiet down a little, so as not to shatter a truck window.

Yesterday the kids and I were in a playroom.  Stone building lego things, and asking "why" consistently the moment I would take a breath in order to keep explaining things to answer his latest "why?".  Sora would play in an area, get up and move to another, play, and repeat the process around the room.  Rarely trying to get directly into her brother's space.  During her third or fourth lap Stone and I were discussing something and he didn't quite accept my answer, so he raised his voice gently:

him: "wwhhyy dahdeee?"

me:  "because words words explination and more words some of them are words, others are words; blah blah, more words ..." in a sort of also louder kinda voice

her: "sssshhhhh", this as she walks by putting her finger over her mouth, making eye contact with me, smiling and then jumping onto a pillow on the floor ...

I was just ssshh'd, appropriately, by my one year and two month old, ouch.

-

In the just over two years in being in NH, he has grown 8.5 inches (at just over 4 years 42 inches).  In her year plus two months of being here she has grown over 12 inches (now just over 32 inches).

-

Head colds have a surprisingly positive side effect: diaper changing is not nearly as terrible when changing those terrible diapers.

-

As earlier noted, he is now over 42" tall, and if I recall correctly (someone please fact check if bored at work) he is now tall enough to get on some "big roller coasters" that we were able to see during the road trip.  Don't tell him, as I'll have to explain you have to have a driver's license before riding as well ...

-

He will be excited as the snow currently falling is "wet-ish" snow, good for snow balls and sledding.

-

Road trips are still one of the best ways to appreciate the land we live on and the people that make up that landscape.  Yes, multiple days of mostly driving with this age group was not always so great.  Really good practice for them though.

-

He got to see an actual crop duster moving (taxiing).  There were two of them near the hanger as we passed.  He is a fan of the planes movies (featuring a crop duster as the lead).  He was surprised by how larger they were, and yellow, not orange like in the movie ... 

-

She is too fast for her age.  That is, I don't want her to be this fast yet.