Poetry Thursday III

The Tiger

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forest of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And What shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

William Blake

A Quick Observation

It is absolutely adorable when your toddler picks up the broom and starts sweeping the floor or when he picks up the phone, holds it to his ear and says, "Hello?". It is not so adorable when he picks up the hammer and starts banging it on the wall.

Tales from Ethan's Birthday

Being totally clothed and covered in pudding is okay....




but nothing beats being shirtless and covered in pudding!

A little mess

Levi was very impish tonight and gave me a much needed laugh. Dad gave him a piece of chocolate, which he was carrying around sucking on. (I guess he will eat some things). He came to visit me at the computer and I said, "Where's your chocolate?" Dad said, "He doesn't have it? Uh-Oh, that means it's on the floor somewhere." He went searching for the elusive piece of chocolate and found it--on his tie. Levi had pulled the tie down from where it was hanging and deposited his chocolate on it. I'm not really sure what Levi's motivation was, but it we sure laughed.
-Mom

Poetry Thursday II

Here is another poem for Daddy's Poetry Thursday from my book, Poems for Little Ones:

My feet took a walk in the heavenly grass.
All day while the sky shone clear as glass.
My feet took a walk in the heavenly grass,
All night while the lonesome stars rolled past.

From "Heavenly Grass"
Tennessee Williams

Rocking Out!

Night Kisses

Levi has been feeling sick for the last couple days (Deanna, Sam, Ryan, Becky, we're really sorry if Ethan or Sophie get sick. We didn't know until it was too late!) so he hasn't been sleeping very well. On Sunday night, Mom and I stayed up quite late reading the new Harry Potter book. When we went to bed Levi was fine. He didn't wake up or anything. About two hours later he wakes up and starts tapping me saying "Daddy, daddy, daddy." Eventually I wake up and he says "tiss?" and leans forward so I can give him a kiss. I do. Then he says "tank ooo" and lays down and goes right back to sleep. I love being a dad.

-Dad

Poetry Thursday

Here is a poem for Daddy's poetry Thursday from my book, Poems for Little Ones:

I love to see the big white moon,
A-shining in the sky;
I love to see the little stars,
When shadow clouds go by.

I love the raindrops falling
On my rooftop in the night;
I love the soft wind's sighing,
Before the dawn's gray light.

From "My Loves"
By Langston Hughes

OT Today

So Levi had his third session of occupational therapy today. It had been awhile and the therapist was pleased with his progress. He played with some balls and a swing and a whistle. We are going to be working with him at home and going to therapy every two weeks to discuss his progress. We will be encouraging him to try different flavours of food and to play with different textures. We are also going to be working on his balance judgement by tipping him sideways. We will continue to brush him every two hours with a soft brush and run our thumb across the roof of his mouth (I'm not kidding about those things). We will let you know how it goes. Hopefully we will have a more interesting cute story next time.
-Mom

Don't Cry Levi, You're at DISNEYLAND!!!

So, we have a lot of catching up to do. Let's get it started.

Back in March, the three of us took a trip out to Southern California. The main reason we went out there was not a happy one; Maggie's uncle Chuck passed away last winter and his "Celebration of Life" took place over Easter Weekend. But since it's not every day we get to go to the OC, we decided to take advantage of it and visit DISNEYLAND!!! while we were there.

Levi really loved Disneyland, though I think it completely wore him out. He slept for about three days straight when we got back home. His favorite rides were It's a Small World and The Adventures of Pooh. He did not like Splash Mountain. Ha ha, just kidding. He loved it. Levi really liked seeing all the big characters in person, too. But, by far, his favorite thing was the fountain. The Bug's Life fountain. He would have stayed there all day if we let him.

Now from our point of view, Disneyland was a lot different. This was the first time we had been there with a toddler, and it definitely changes things. We were there for four days, and we still didn't get to do everything! Now don't get us wrong, it was still fun, maybe even more fun, it was just different. It's a good thing we had Aunties Leah and Rachel along for the ride, too, since that gave us a chance to get away by ourselves a little.

So, to recap: Disneyland is fun. We hope to make a trip there an annual event, though we'll see if it actually works out that way. As Levi gets older it's probably only going to get more and more fun, so I can't wait!


P.S. If you want a copy of any of the picture in this, or any, post, just right click (control-click for you Mac users) and select "save picture to computer."

Writing on the Wall

Levi knows now that he is not allowed to color on the wall. Today, he was drawing with markers on a sheet of paper, (a lovely picture) and I said, "This is great, we'll have to hang it on the wall."
Levi misunderstood me. He thought I said we should color on the wall. His eyes lit up, he said "yeah," laughed and ran towards the wall, marker in hand. I said, "No, sweetie, we can't color on the wall, that's not what I meant."
He looked visibly disappointed, but resignedly went back to coloring without complaint. Such a sweet boy.
-Mom

Bus?

Rock? Car?

Grass?

Nurse? Nap?