The Fallen Tree
Greetings to everyone.
Very early the Monday morning before Christmas 2016, we had a little wind whip through the neighborhood. It took down a forty plus year old Blue Spruce which stood some thirty feet tall on the southwest side of our lawn. Strange the wind did not topple any other trees in the neighborhood.
Even more interesting, the tree fell in the only way possible so that nothing else was damaged. If it had fallen even a few degrees in any other direction, fences, other trees, cars or roofs may have been damaged. Thank you, Father!
While we were collecting bids to have the tree removed, another more powerful and longer-lasting wind storm swept through the Denver area. No point in collecting bids now; everyone was going to be busy.
It took the tree guys four trips to get rid of the tree and more than three weeks. The weather played a little in the three week part.
Xavier watched it all from behind the picture window inside the house. The first crew arrived and removed the branches. It took a couple of hours even with chainsaws.
The second crew pulled the thirty foot log off the lawn with a crane. Xavier and I watched from outside on the porch and in the falling snow.
The third crew spent two hours grinding and removing half of the stump. Again, Xavier watched from inside the house. The forth crew finished the stump removal while Xavier was in school.
Xavier watched the first crew with the stump grinder for about :45 minutes, then dropped out of the chair and ran to build his own stump grinder. You can see in the picture above (taken through the picture window) above the grinder he watched and modeled his own after.
He cobbled together his big Tonka dump truck and Lightning McQueen and another Tonka car.
Once he built his grinder, he used other toys to acts as tree roots for him to grind away at. You can see his recorder acting the part of a tree root in the picture above. Also, you can see a tree from his dinosaur world set acting the tree roll.
Working At the Car Wash (Wash, Wash)
Greetings to everyone.
Sorry for the 70's retro disco reminder in the title.
Fridays are cleaning the house days. Xavier helps Rebecca with cleaning and earns a couple of dollars for his efforts (when his efforts are worth a couple of dollars, of course; none of that "no-score" soccer mentality fostered here).
This morning, Xavier really earned his dollar for cleaning up his toys in Middle Earth. Rebecca did not have to move anything out of the way to vacuum, and all his toys got put in his toy bins. They were not in the bins in an orderly way, but in the bins none-the-less. He also did a dollar-worthy job on his room.
We keep Xavier's money he earns in a Mason jar on his desk. He can see it, and we are helping him understand the relationship between work effort and dollar value, as well as costs and choices in buying toys.
Xavier's primary focus for his dollars are two things: "sharks," which refer to any kind of toy with jaws that open and close when squeezed, and Hot Wheels, cars and accessories.
Xavier has grown obsessed with car washes these past few weeks. Perhaps, because he has sat through a couple of them in these last couple of weeks. He gets really excited with all the water and rollers and dryer action as the car progresses through the stages of the wash.
I introduced Xavier to Hot Wheels YouTube videos last week. Who knew the monster that lurked behind sharing that piece of knowledge?! Xavier obsesses with watching these videos; we've seen them all at least twice!
Then, as he has gained a workable enough understanding of how to use the remote control for the TV YouTube app, he came across Hot Wheels Car Wash play sets. We've seen every car wash play set video at least a half dozen times. He'll watch for a while, getting more and more amped up, then have to run out to play with his own cars. Then, he comes back and watches again, only to run out excitedly and play with his setups.
Well, this morning, after cleaning up his room and play areas, Xavier came to Rebecca and wanted to build a car wash for his Hot Wheels. He knew he needed several things: a track to carry the cars, a tunnel for the cars to go through, sprayers to wash and rinse the cars, rollers to roll the cars and "leaf blowers" (dryers) to dry the cars.
As he listed these items off to Rebecca, he held in his hand a bunch of track; he did not know where to get the other parts he needed.
Mama, being the genius that she is, suggested using his six foot nylon tunnel for the tunnel. She also got a roll of paper towels and some toilet paper rolls for the rollers.
They put everything together. They improvised with other toy parts the sprayers and "leaf blowers." Xavier has spent the day running his cars through his car wash, often re-configuring parts of it as he thinks of new ideas.
And, yes, Xavier does sing "Working at the car wash, wash, wash" sometimes as he plays.
The Robot Grasshopper
Greetings and Happy New Year to all!
Our new year began as you may expect of a middle-aged couple with an active three-year old. We put Xavier to bed at his normal time, then watched TV until midnight.
Of course, we fell asleep before midnight. We woke about a quarter after the New Year, kissed, then went to bed.
Rebecca had her reserve weekend this past weekend. She needed to go up early this month: two days early. So, Xavier and Dad lived like bachelors for four days!
One of the toys Dad got in his stocking was a little solar powered robotic grasshopper. Some assembly was required.
This made a great father-son project after church and after lunch. We built the robot, which excited Xavier. He is into robots. He got two robots in his stocking. He has two pair of underpants with robot prints which he favors more than his others. He often talks like a stereotypical robot at times.
Xavier was highly involved (and helpful) in building the grasshopper. Of course, we needed to take in on a test drive after building it. Fortunately, today had a lot of sunlight, which the robot requires.
The best angle for the day and time was the driveway. Once we corrected the robot's actuator (we installed it too tightly), the grasshopper wriggled down the driveway.
Xavier jumped and grinned ecstatically! Then he learned that blocking the sun with a shadow across the robot stopped its movement. That led to an hour of fun in the sun and on the driveway. Robot on; robot off; repeat.