Things Overheard in the Thiessen home
Culled primarily from Facebook status updates
You have been warned.
Here are examples from recent months:
My son is imagining that he went to the end of the universe and opened up a new one with his friends. His friends are " a dino-pirahna plant, Yoshi, and a mutant six-legged lion that he just made up." So...shouldn't he have at least one real, flesh and blood, human friend? Do other people's little boys have friends?
Kids were listening to Respighi's Pines of Rome this morning with the iTunes visualizer on too. I kept hearing things like "Double Helix!!" and "A Wormhole!" coming from the other room. They have weird hobbies.
I came home from grocery shopping to find that my children had transformed into Jedi warriors.
And they have a Wookie named Hanukkah.
I'm pretty sure that's not socially acceptable.
Zaya wrote a silly story yesterday. I printed it out this morning. We are running out of ink, so some of the words are very bold. The others are light and faded. He's reading it out loud, but loudly emphasizing all the random parts that are dark. He's such a goober.
Right now in our house:
Zaya is a vampire
Mim is a Werewolf/Vampire/Zombie. She morphs.
I frankly have no idea how they know much of anything about these creatures. I blame ThinkGeek.
Mim in a whiny voice -
"Mom, I just want to play tax-collector, but Zaya keeps going off to other dimensions."
At breakfast, my kids were cafeteria managers. Then they were time-travelling big game hunters. Then they were T-rexes. (This says something about their place in the whole predator/prey dichotomy, I think.) Now I'm supposed to go see "a special" in Mim's room. It's only 9 am. This is going to be one of those days.
Zaya tonight, calling from his bedroom:
So, Dad...a hypothetical question. If the earth, or any planet, were hollow, and there was something at the exact center of that hollow space, would there be pressure on it from all sides because of gravity?
An exact quote. They're still in there discussing it. I keep hearing words like mass, nebula and eon. Not sure what the answer was.
Zaya keeps saying he's eating a Barbarian Filled Long John.
Sounds horrific!
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Mimsy
Mim has a great imagination. It runs on a different track than Zaya's, but it's no less unique.
She told me she wanted to draw a face with pipe cleaners and paper. I found some tape for her and then left her to her own devices. She returned with this.
In case you can't tell, that's a gigantic open mouth. The red pipe cleaners are lips, then we have a tongue, uvula, tonsils and dark pit of the throat. There are teeth around the outside.
We went to the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield to visit my cousin. The kids each chose a stuffed animal. (Separate post about that to follow.)
Mim's animal is a wolf named Silver. He's become her baby, and she's decided to wear him like a tribeswoman might. I helped her with this particular arrangement.
I think the wolf looks pretty happy too.
She has also absolutely fallen in love with Minecraft. It's a world-building game that looks simple at first glance, particularly because they've purposely chosen an 8-bit art style, but the options are near endless.
Mim has already created seven or eight worlds. (This is not one of them, it's just a picture I found on the net.) She only likes to play in creative mode, because you can't die and you already have access to all the resources. If I could figure out how, I'd get a screen grab of one of her glass and diamond palaces for you, or one of her vast chicken coops made of blue wool. She also has a house on one world that is layered with different materials so that as you go down the interior stairs, you walk past strata.
She always was my child who would play with blocks. Essentially, this is blocks on an infinite scale.
It's so fun to watch my children grow, because they show their personalities in such funny ways. I love that home-school gives me the blessing of being there for so many of these moments because we are all learning to embrace our weirdness, and it's quite a trip!
She told me she wanted to draw a face with pipe cleaners and paper. I found some tape for her and then left her to her own devices. She returned with this.
In case you can't tell, that's a gigantic open mouth. The red pipe cleaners are lips, then we have a tongue, uvula, tonsils and dark pit of the throat. There are teeth around the outside.
We went to the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield to visit my cousin. The kids each chose a stuffed animal. (Separate post about that to follow.)
Mim's animal is a wolf named Silver. He's become her baby, and she's decided to wear him like a tribeswoman might. I helped her with this particular arrangement.
I think the wolf looks pretty happy too.
She has also absolutely fallen in love with Minecraft. It's a world-building game that looks simple at first glance, particularly because they've purposely chosen an 8-bit art style, but the options are near endless.
Mim has already created seven or eight worlds. (This is not one of them, it's just a picture I found on the net.) She only likes to play in creative mode, because you can't die and you already have access to all the resources. If I could figure out how, I'd get a screen grab of one of her glass and diamond palaces for you, or one of her vast chicken coops made of blue wool. She also has a house on one world that is layered with different materials so that as you go down the interior stairs, you walk past strata.
She always was my child who would play with blocks. Essentially, this is blocks on an infinite scale.
It's so fun to watch my children grow, because they show their personalities in such funny ways. I love that home-school gives me the blessing of being there for so many of these moments because we are all learning to embrace our weirdness, and it's quite a trip!
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Baby it's Cold Outside. Finally.
Our first snow day in Missouri. The kids are ecstatic. I got them to finish Math, English and Spelling, and then sent them out on an extended "play until you can't play anymore" recess.
I waited inside to greet and comfort them on their return.
So glad we have a basement with a backdoor. It's perfect for peeling off wet layers of clothing.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Some Christmas photos and thoughts. Not deep thoughts.
We had our usual hustle and bustle this year, with an added element of staying with family until we were ready for the drive back to Missouri. It was great to see everyone again, and I officially apologize for all messes and inconvenience that we left behind.
We had our own little celebration here at home the day before we left.
Then we visited my family for a few days, and traveled to Texas for a day as well.
The next few days we spent with Art's family.
We were almost able to pack everything back into the van for the trip home, but not quite. (That's without the back bench seat. We left it at home.)
While we tried to unpack, a process that took several days, the kids began rediscovering their toys. Mim begged every two or three minutes (from Monday to Friday evening when we arrived home) for me to go get batteries for the remote control cars that they got from my grandparents in Texas. She couldn't understand why I wasn't terribly eager to get back in the car and run to Wal-mart.
In the interest of family peace, however, I did. They have provided hours of great entertainment. Mim's remote came without an antennae, so Aaron soldered one on for her. Of course his looks great and works very well. I had previously come up with my own solution, which involved a metal chopstick and some painter's tape. Granted you had to kind of hold it in with your hand while using the remote, but I'd like to point out that it did work.
That's our Christmas story. Lots of family, lots of gifts, lots of fun, lots of unpacking. All worth the trip.
We had our usual hustle and bustle this year, with an added element of staying with family until we were ready for the drive back to Missouri. It was great to see everyone again, and I officially apologize for all messes and inconvenience that we left behind.
We had our own little celebration here at home the day before we left.
Then we visited my family for a few days, and traveled to Texas for a day as well.
The next few days we spent with Art's family.
We were almost able to pack everything back into the van for the trip home, but not quite. (That's without the back bench seat. We left it at home.)
While we tried to unpack, a process that took several days, the kids began rediscovering their toys. Mim begged every two or three minutes (from Monday to Friday evening when we arrived home) for me to go get batteries for the remote control cars that they got from my grandparents in Texas. She couldn't understand why I wasn't terribly eager to get back in the car and run to Wal-mart.
In the interest of family peace, however, I did. They have provided hours of great entertainment. Mim's remote came without an antennae, so Aaron soldered one on for her. Of course his looks great and works very well. I had previously come up with my own solution, which involved a metal chopstick and some painter's tape. Granted you had to kind of hold it in with your hand while using the remote, but I'd like to point out that it did work.
That's our Christmas story. Lots of family, lots of gifts, lots of fun, lots of unpacking. All worth the trip.
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