Sunday, March 7, 2021

Elliot Blood and the Sneekcy Scelatins

 Elliot has written a series of books about himself. Each installment is written on 4 index cards taped together. The latest addition is "Elliot Blood with the Sneaky Skeletons."


A translation: Once upon a time there was a boy, yep you guessed ok I will keep doing it [editors note, the earlier 3 books all start with "Once upon a time there was a boy named Elliot. One day he was sitting on his bed...] named Elliot Blood... and he was sitting somewhere, right, you know where, yep you guessed it, it was his bed again. But just then he heard footsteps right outside his door!!! Elliot Blood was scared!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then the creature tip-toed into the room. Elliot hid under the covers. He peeked out of the covers to see what it was. It was a Skeleton! Elliot ran out of his room dodging the skeleton wherever it went. Finaly he made it out of his room. 
He asked his mom if she sees any skeletons. "I see a huge group of skeletons in the kitchen" said his mom. "You're just kidding, Mom.""Ok, fine, a group of 5.1 skeletons." Elliot looked out of the window. it was white. he looked a different window. It was fine and something was odd. Elliot went up the stairs and into his room and there he saw it hiding in the curtains. Elliot ran out of his room to tell his mom. He went upstairs again. Maybe it wasn't there? He creeped into the hallway. It was there.


What an ominous ending. My favorite part is the group of 5.1 skeletons. I'm proud of how well my fictitious self kept my cool as our house was invaded by skeletons. 

Elliot got this snap circuit kit from his cousin Avery for Christmas. It was love at first site. Aaron showed Elliot the basics while lamenting that his childhood circuit kit was less cool than this deluxe one. A few days later, Elliot got it out and followed the instruction book to make a circuit with buttons and lights. He walked it upstairs to show Aaron (love this work from home life). Aaron took a break to come down and the two of them modified it to make this huge thing. It was awesome. Elliot has SO much in common with his dad and it warms my heart to no end. 

One day Annie was throwing a temper tantrum. I can't remember what it was about, but I had her in time out and just could not get her to calm down. Elliot strode into the room and handed Annie this picture he drew of her as a fairy. She immediately calmed down. Elliot is a great brother. 

Our couch cushions get played with more than any toy in our house. Here they are in a very effective wall, which was cool until they were blocking my way to the bathroom. 

Elliot is going through a phase where he loves playing with board games. He takes out all the pieces and makes up his own games with us. He doesn't want anyone to play with him- he just wants us to be impressed that he got 83 points doing whatever the heck he is doing. 

We learned how to play Yahtzee. He made up this afterparty for himself where he rolled the dice a bunch of times and added up the values in his head. He eventually got to 212, which he wrote down and then wanted to double a bunch of times. He got 424 and 848 in his head, but got tripped up when he had to start carrying the ones. Aaron gave him a little tutorial and then he was at it again. After he was done, he added a box on the top right of the paper that had random stats like how many arrows were drawn on the paper. 

This kid is a little too obsessed with iPad time these days. He earned a one month subscription to this game we used to have where you can code your own games. He thinks about Code Spark... a lot. He only gets iPad time for an hour or two on days when I have afternoon work calls. His solution is that he draws out detailed plans that he later creates. 

After talking about the covid vaccine, Elliot wandered off and came back a while later with this syringe craft he made out of paperclips and paper. 

Then he built this not at all shady clinic where he can give people coronavirus shots. He was quite disappointed with his lack of volunteer patients. 

This kid is just something else. I spend a fair amount of time in wonder at how fast Elliot learns things. Its a wee bit terrifying sometimes, but also super fun. I love watching all the things he creates!

Oranges!

 We got a great harvest of humongous oranges this year! Our fruit trees provide me with oh so much joy. 


I let Isaac suck the juice out of a couple slices. It was quite possibly the most delicious thing he has ever eaten. That not actually that impressive because most of what he eats is pureed vegetables and plain cheerios. 


We found that if you peel it in big chunks, you can use the peel as a cup! It's like La Croix in that it is slightly fruity water. Which is actually disgusting, but lots of people buy it for some reason? I've never understood the La Croix craze. Anyway, the kids had a blast playing "village kids" with their orange peel cup.