My Silly Boys

A Great Bubble Formula

Another great recipe from The Ultimate Book of Kid Concoctions. 

• 2 1/2 qts. water
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 cup liquid dish detergent

Mix water and syrup together until completely blended, stir in dish detergent. 

Beau's First Birthday

In my 15 month blog break there were a few things that happened. Beau turned one, for example. I realized that if I keep waiting until I have time to correct the white balance on these they will never get posted, so up they go! Thanks for being such a delightful and entertaining part of our family, Beau! We love you sooooooooo much! 

Magic Muck

This was a hoot! It's incredibly simple and easy to do.  Start with 1/3 cup of water, add a few drops of food coloring, and then slowly shake in 3/4 cup of corn starch.  Let it stand for a couple of minutes so that the starch absorbs as much water as it can. Don't stir the mixture. Now pour it into your hand and start to play with it. When you apply pressure the goop sets into a hard form but when you release the pressure it reverts to liquid.  Just make sure to put down paper before you begin because this concoction is bound to make a mess! 

Beau is 18 Months

I feel so bad that the last Beau post was 15 months ago! The joke about all the pictures in the family album being of the first born applies to the family blog as well. Beau, if you've grown up and you are looking for your baby pictures go to Instagram, you are there, I swear!

• Beau has a blanky! For the first year of his life he was Mr. Independent, but being a toddler isn't easy so Beau chose the fuzzy (now more nubby) brown blanket that Anita gave him to be his companion and his comfort. He especially likes chewing on the corners. 
• Beau is well over the 99% in height and weight. And probably head circumference but they failed to record it on our last visit. 
• He loves to make a mess. It isn't just that he is so intent on what he is doing that he doesn't notice he is making a mess - he actually, deliberately, wreaks havoc for a good time. He squirts milk on the couch, pees in the back yard, rips up paper, squeezes tubed yogurt onto the kitchen floor, shatters coffee cups, etc. 
• Beau still loves water. He spent a lot of time this summer either in the swimming pool or splashing in his water play table. Now that it is too cool for that he is taking a lot more baths. 
• Beau is a late talker with some of the other quirks that we saw with Remy so he is getting therapy through Nevada Early Intervention.  He failed his Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers so we will be following up on that. 
• Beau has the best laugh in the world.  Between his beautiful eyes and his infectious laughter he charms everyone into forgetting all about the mess. 
• Beau's farvorite rhymes are Ride A Pony Into Town and Row, Row, Row Your Boat.  
• Beau's favorite shows are Bubble Guppies, Backyardigans, Team Umizoomi, and Paw Patrol.
• Beau's favorite book is The Ultimate Book of Vehicles. 
• Beau LOVES to make Mommo laugh by jumping up and down. He puts on a show for her whenever she comes over.  
• Beau is followed around a good portion of the day by his adoring older brother, who loves to make him laugh and tries to snuggle with him, though Beau is usually too busy for snuggling.  
• He is sort of like a cat. He will snuggle, but it has to be on his terms.  

The Moon

One of the most memorable things about this autumn of 2015 has been the moon. In September there was the much anticipated (but mostly cloud-obscured) Supermoon, Blood Moon eclipse. Maybe that is what initially got our attention on the moon, but the moon has been glorious all fall. We've had a lot of clear nights for moon gazing and in October we had some really fantastic, blazing bright moonsets. For the moment I'm limited to my camera's telescopic lens if I want to get a closer look at the moon but I hope to buy a telescope some time in the next couple of years!

Feeding Birds

We are homeschooling Remy now (that's a story for another post) and I'm constantly looking for ways to make our home environment a wonderful one for learning. As the brilliant educator Charlotte Mason wrote, "Education is an atmosphere." I have found that bird feeders are an excellent and inexpensive way to teach children to observe and appreciate the creatures that live in our neighborhood but which we might not otherwise notice.  And it's been a lot of fun for me as well! Here are some of our recent visitors: 

Halloween