Ben's view of the world

Ben has figured out a lot of stuff! Doors should be shut, at all times, and he is committed to maintaining that order even if your hand or body might be in the way. (Not his hand, though, he only did that once.) All water is for drinking - as say his siblings, puddle-drinkers as they are. And categorizing and organizing are his constant tasks.

A new approach to the play sink

Sorting v.1. So many decisions to make! Can't tell yet if he's a lumper or splitter.

Sorting v.2. Just look at him go!

He devotes his whole attention to his work, but I could not tell you exactly what that work is. I do appreciate that he just gets down to business on his own!

 

sledding!

Yesterday we went on a neighborhood walk with everyone taking turns pulling Ben on his sled. And when we got home the big kids did some sledding down our driveway! It is still snowing but now Edie has a fever and it's probably covid, so we'll see how much more sledding happens. But I do have some videos from our previous adventures to share.

First, though, a well-loved poem:Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, by Wallace Stevens.

I

Among twenty snowy mountains,   

The only moving thing   

Was the eye of the blackbird.   

II

I was of three minds,   

Like a tree   

In which there are three blackbirds.   

III

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.   

It was a small part of the pantomime.   

IV

A man and a woman   

Are one.   

A man and a woman and a blackbird   

Are one.   

V

I do not know which to prefer,   

The beauty of inflections   

Or the beauty of innuendoes,   

The blackbird whistling   

Or just after.   

VI

Icicles filled the long window   

With barbaric glass.   

The shadow of the blackbird   

Crossed it, to and fro.   

The mood   

Traced in the shadow   

An indecipherable cause.   

VII

O thin men of Haddam,   

Why do you imagine golden birds?   

Do you not see how the blackbird   

Walks around the feet   

Of the women about you?   

VIII

I know noble accents   

And lucid, inescapable rhythms;   

But I know, too,   

That the blackbird is involved   

In what I know.   

IX

When the blackbird flew out of sight,   

It marked the edge   

Of one of many circles.   

X

At the sight of blackbirds   

Flying in a green light,   

Even the bawds of euphony   

Would cry out sharply.   

XI

He rode over Connecticut   

In a glass coach.   

Once, a fear pierced him,   

In that he mistook   

The shadow of his equipage   

For blackbirds.   

XII

The river is moving.   

The blackbird must be flying.   

XIII

It was evening all afternoon.   

It was snowing   

And it was going to snow.   

The blackbird sat   

In the cedar-limbs.

snow and more

The past few weeks - well, they have passed. Eric and I submitted our grant applications on time and all schooling has started again. And we even did a few fun things!

Friends!

Edie and I tested out a new sledding hill, it was the best. Empty. Milk run.

Weaving Step one: sort your loops

This poor dude trapped himself in his dad's underpants when I wasn't looking

Verbascum thapsus is blooming, Verbascum blattaria doesn't seem interested. These are the plants that germinated from 142-year-old seeds! They don't seem to care!

Success!

Of course, it's Baby's new blanket!

MOARRRR

And then, while Ben was napping, Snowy the elf rogue princess was rescued from the goblins by Forest Killer the tiefling ranger and Moon Brook the elf druid. They joined forces with the red dragon-born warrior Bizzrigg who they met at the inn...now the intrepid band is deep in a cavern below a mausoleum, hunting down the necromancer who's been terrorizing the town. Roll on!

More sledding at the teeny hill at the school. Eric and Oscar took turns dragging Ben around. That boy is born to be a polar explorer!

Guilty, guilty, guilty.

NBD, just a little tea party. Turns out the brown in the teapot wasn't a stain, just some old dirt. I learned this once all the 'tea' had been drunk. At least it's clean now!

Oscar watched a movie about a robot and this prompted him to speak only in code the rest of the evening. He used complete if...then clauses, remembered closing parentheses, assigned appropriate variable names - it was a tour de force. Fortunately it seems to have lasted just the one night. This bit of code says (if.penis=hare,mess);

Hare meaning hair, naturally.

Friends!

John's playdough panda

Even Ben figured out the deal! He tasted one piece and that was enough. Edie still was sneaking crumbs here and there.

Good health to you all!