Starfish and Octopuses and Squeegees, Oh My!

Little Boy, my sister, and I visited the nearby Marine Life Center a couple weeks ago. Imagine the smallest aquarium ever, where the biggest specimen is a small octopus. That's the Marine Life Center.

 

It's right on the water. I thought Little Boy would like seeing the boats, but...boats don't have wheels. So they're not cool. "But the boats on Spongebob have wheels!" Maybe that's why he likes Spongebob so much.

 

There's a big tank in the middle of the room that you can look down into, three smaller tanks around the side, and a little touch tank. We'll get to that in a minute.

 

That's an octopus. Ick. I don't want to talk about it.

 

He approves.

 

We really only brought my sister along to squeegee the tanks for us. Haha.

 

One of the smaller tanks has a plastic bubble in the middle, so little kids (or small adults like me) can crawl underneath and get an inside view. Little Boy's face in this picture makes me giggle.

 

And here's the touch tank. The water in it is FREEZING--after all, these are all local animals that live in our icy coastal water. And! Look! Little Boy put his hand in the freezing water and touched a starfish. I tell ya, he's making a lot of progress.

It Passes All My Understanding

I usually post a scripture or a quote on Sundays, but I heard this song on the Mormon Channel today and the lyrics really got to me. And I wanted to share them with someone. It Passes All My Understanding by Cherie Call I was sitting on a southbound plane, I was buried in a magazine When the man in the next seat over Wanted to talk to me He talked about the universe, He talked about Saturn's rings He said, "I might be an atheist, Except for just one thing: It passes all my understanding How it all worked out just right The distance that we live from the sun, The stars that shine at night We may prove that it was just an accident But how did it begin? It passes all my understanding" I told him, "You are a scholar; You know things that I don't know But I believe a God in heaven Made everything below And I know we are his children; I've known it since I was two But when it comes to being struck with awe, I'm just like you It passes all my understanding, All the beauty we have here From the majesty of the canyons To a tiny baby's ear And even when I can't believe it, He still believes in me It passes all my understanding" We watched the sun set through the clouds In a tiny little airplane window With people sleeping all around And I thought of how we just expect this world to be And when the flight attendant passed me by I threw away my magazine It passes all my understanding, That the Lord knows both our names And that He made this world for everyone That was sitting on that plane And in spite of all of man's distractions He offers us His peace That passes all my understanding {image source}

Scripture Reading Challenge

Our family kinda stinks at regular scripture-reading. So when I found a scripture reading chart for little kids, I thought it might work for us. It did.


[I apologize for the lame photo.]

See? We put a little sticker on the chart for each day that we read scriptures together. When we filled up the chart, we had a little family outing to Dairy Queen--which was an excellent reward, since Little Boy will finally eat ice cream. And then we printed out a new chart and started over.

We still don't manage to read scriptures together every day, but we usually read a few times a week. And that's a lot more often than before. [Cross-posted at Pie for Breakfast.]

All Things Must Have Vanished Away

{photo by Kaylyn} "...And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away." -2 Nephi 2:13

A Dirty Boy

So I have this kid. He's a boy. But...in some ways...he's not all that boyish. He's always been kinda sensitive. Let's put it that way. I posted a little while ago about how Little Boy used to hate touching things that were mushy or cold. And he also didn't like to get dirty. Well, it wasn't so much that he didn't like dirt...he just wasn't attracted to dirt the way that some other boys are. But he's been getting over it a little bit. He'll eat ice cream, he'll touch mushy things [sometimes], and the other day at the park.... He got dirty! I was so proud.

The Little Thiefer

It seems like every time I knit a child-sized hat, Little Boy claims it for himself.

Beach Trip

I have a lot of pictures here, so I'm not going to type much. We'd been learning about the beach, so we took a trip to the nearest one (it's more of a seashore than a beach, I think--you'll see in the pictures). My baby sister drove--she needs a lot of practice hours before she can get her license. Little Boy hadn't been to the beach (seashore?) in at least a year. We had this part of the beach to ourselves. Rocky, huh? My brother tagged along, too. Little Boy found a tiny shell--you can't tell in the photo, but the shell is fingernail-sized. I wouldn't recommend swimming in this water (although some people do). We wear rain boots instead. We saw barnacles, little crabs, seaweed, gulls, and seashells--all things we'd learned about at home. And Little Boy thought that was kinda cool. But really, all a three-year-old boy wants to do at the beach is throw rocks in the water. {cross-posted at Pie For Breakfast}

Two Spoons Are Better Than One

Little Boy, all his life, has refused to eat ice cream. He's always had this problem with cold things. And mushy things. So ice cream...ice cream was right out. And then his little cousins moved into town for the summer [Isaac's brother and their family]. And his cousin likes ice cream, of course--and now Little Boy does, too. Funny how that works. Anyway, when I gave Little Boy a bowl of ice cream the other day, there happened to be an extra spoon on the table... and after a little experimenting... it turns out that two spoons are better than one!

Have You Seen This?

I'm not feeling so hot today, so instead of an actual blog post, I'm gonna show you a couple of YouTube videos that've had me laughing for the last few days.

First this one. It's an actual news report. The event itself isn't funny, of course, but the victim's brother is:

 

And now, if you've watched that, you MUST watch this one. It's a song that some jokers put together from the news report. It makes me laugh every time [just the first half. Evan's cover, not so much]:



And yes, I've had that stuck in my head for a week. I highly recommend teaching it to your three-year-old, if you have one.

Recipe Link: Sour Cream & Jam Muffins

I love muffins. They're quick and easy to mix up, Little Boy loves them, and they're DELICIOUS. Well...they're delicious if you have a good recipe. And this, my friends, is a good muffin recipe. Have you ever visited Cooking During Stolen Moments? I've tried a few of her recipes, and I have not been disappointed. But, seriously, check out this recipe first: Sour Cream & Jam Muffins. I made them in a regular-sized muffin tin, and they turned out beautifully. And deliciously.

Navigate This Life Confidently

“A good woman must constantly resist alluring and deceptive messages from many sources telling her she is entitled to more time away from her responsibilities and that she deserves a life of greater ease and independence. But with personal revelation, she can prioritize correctly and navigate this life confidently.”

-Julie B. Beck