Big kid highlights of the week

I've been hoping Hyatt would find interest in manly things, rather than dress-up shoes and dresses since that's what Tilly's into (when we bought Tilly's princess costume, Hyatt wanted one too...the blue one since that's a boy color). It finally appears he's made some leaps and bounds in the "boy" direction. I even have proof!


Hyrum's been watching the outdoor channel (basically all hunting) a lot lately, since he's in hunting withdrawals (the poor guy hasn't gone hunting since we hunted while I was pregnant with Talea). Hyatt LOVES it! He'll even choose to watch hunting over cartoons, and he loves to tell me what animal call the hunters are making (duck, turkey, elk, deer, etc).

He's hunting a turkey here.


He runs around with a worn out little shell of a toy gun pretending to hunt, but I've had to teach him that he can't shoot at his sister unless he's pretending she's a deer and he's hunting her. He even takes sticks from outside and makes them his gun. I think Hyrum has found his hunting buddy, if he can ever find a place, and the time, to hunt.


Hyrum bought Hyatt a hunting game to play where you shoot deer and such on TV, but the gun doesn't aim properly on a flat screen TV, and our only "curved" front TV is out in our camping trailer, so he and his Dad go out there for bonding time...to hunt.

Okay, so they really were shooting a raccoon here, but he does have a game too.


Hyatt's gotten extremely attached to hanging out with his Dad doing "guy stuff". On Thursday, I stayed home with Kiersa and Hyatt to load up a trailer of wood (from the rotted wall that was torn off our house), and Hyrum took Talea with him to work so he could drop her at her preschool/playgroup thing since it's in Coquille. Hyatt woke up as Hyrum was walking out the door saying goodbye to me, and THAT DID IT! Hyatt instantly started crying and freaking out at the thought that Hyrum was going to go to work without him. Hyrum felt bad, so he waited while I threw some clothes on Hyatt and did a quick brush of his teeth, and off he went to work with Dad and Tilly...no time for food. At 10, they dropped Tilly off at her school thing and then the two boys just got to hang out at work together. They went and got orange juice and breakfast sandwiches from the quickie-mart place since they hadn't eaten, and went back to work together. At noon they picked up Tilly, went home for lunch, picked up us straggler girls and the trailer of wood, and we all went back to work to dump it.

We burn anything burnable (that's torn off the house) behind the shop, and I think Hyatt has found his new calling in life. He LOVES to put out the fire at the end of the day with the hose. He's very impatient waiting for the last flames to go out, and when he notices it, he drags the hose over to the ashes and begs to soak it all.

Back in May he was timid when it came to the soaker fire truck toy (if you remember that post...one of my earliest ones), but now he's all into water and hoses.


Hmmm. Not only does he look like his Dad, he acts like him! Hyrum always wanted to be a fireman, but I'm pretty glad he isn't since it's such a dangerous job. I'd be worried whenever he got called out. I truly, honestly don't know how I'd remain sane if I lost Hyrum. He really means more to me than anything else in this life. I may not be addicted to caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol, but I'm hopelessly addicted to Hy!!! Even though the economy is being rough on our business right now, I'm starting to love that it forces me to go to work with him because I get to spend so much time with him everyday, and it kind of feels like we're back in our semi-driving days when we spent 24 hrs a day together for 2 1/2 years, loving almost every minute of it. I just have a hard time keeping up with the household chores when I'm gone all day and wiped out by the time I get home. The laundry pile under the chute was waist high the other day before I got a chance to do it!

Still, all of us going to work has actually been great because the kids have a ton of room in the back to ride their bikes, and their play room is twice the size of their room here in the apartment. I still get to be with the kids all day, and Talea has her own computer to work on preschool stuff, and I've found that's the key to her interest in learning. She is the biggest technology bug I've ever seen at 4 years old.

I've been trying to teach Talea how to read by having her write letters that make up a word, but she just couldn't grasp the concept. She got a hold of my label maker on Friday and a light bulb went off in my head. Technology!!! I told her to type in C-A-T, and bam! She sounded it out and figured out what the word was . She actually read it!!! I had her type in all the words that end in A-T, and she read them all. I started on other 3 letter words and she got those too. Then I told her a word and had her think of how it might be spelled, then had her type it into the label-maker the way she thought was right. Ta Da! Success!!! I have found the key to teaching Talea!!! If it's an instrument of technology, she'll focus and love it. If it's on paper, forget it. She gets bored QUICK and wants to play with something, draw, or get on the computer and do her preschool stuff!




Ever since being a teacher, which opened my eyes to the endless flaws of public school systems, I've been toying with the idea of homeschooling my kids. A mom in our preschool class just pulled her 6-year-old out of school and is homeschooling him (for various reasons) and he does his work on the computer, mostly, through a government sponsored program where they give you a computer and keep you on a schedule so you don't slack off. She says it's been great for her son, and I think that method of learning may be Talea's key to success, so I think I just might try it. We'll see.