No major recent develpoments of stories to tell here. Seems to be a theme, our lives our just boring right now. haha!

Ben's entire school sang in church last week. It was beautiful.
I made Pulla, a traditional Finnish coffee bread. It didn't rise quite as well as I would have hoped, so it turned out extra dense. I have gotten in right in the past, but this time was not as good. Going to have to give it another go soon.

Here's a shot of Hunter looking at a Christmas book. We've begin decorating, and he's loving it!

This is Ben's mischievious face. He's such a little stink.

Happy December to all!

Monsters

We've been counting down the years until Ben is old enough to wrestle. We've known for some time he was going to love it; he's demonstrated his desire and strength in our living room since he was 2. But the rules are, in our town, you have to be 5 and in Kindergarten (or Kin-dee-garten, as the coach says). Last year, at season's start he was 5,but still in preschool.

We all went to the first practice. Theo was worried about bringing Hunter, but after a conversation I had with the boys, I thought Hunter might need to see what's really going on there:

Ben says he's excited about wrestling. "I am going to win! I'm going to take the other guy down!"

I tell him, "I am excited, too. You follow the coaches instructions. You know you can't hit in wrestling, right Ben?"

"No, you can punch, though!"

"No! Ben! Never!"

"You can slap, though."

I'm worried now... "No Benjamin! There are rules and you're going to have to learn them. Hitting is not what wrestling about." I resigned to leave the rules to the coaches, and a bit silenced by his reactions, I'm interupted by a bystanding Hunter, "Mah. You betta bwing a wot of ban-aids"Apparently Hunter thinks wrestling is going to be like the few seconds of the UFC fights he has caught on our TV!

Hunter seemed worried. So, I thought we should at least show Hunter what his bruh-der is going to be doing two nights a week from now until March.

Brand new wrestling shoes.

Ben loved the first practice! His favorite part was the game they ended the night with: Sharks vs. Minnows. The coaches were sharks, and the kids had to try and cross the gym floor wall to wall without being taken down and thus changed to a shark. Ben loved being a shark so much he purposely cheated on the last game and went back to one of the coaches to be tackled even after escaping.

This week, just as Theo was preparing to take Ben to practice, Hunter became ill and threw up. When presented with the option of taking "the wrestling one or the puking one," I chose wrestling, grabbed my knitting, and my camera, and headed out.

When we arrived Ben ran off as fast as he could and did a huge flip. I was a stunned. I didn't think he could do that. I did the mom thing, "Oh! Be careful! Be careful!" and "Are you supposed to do that?" I saw broken wrists. Twisted arms. I worried he should know some sort of gymnastic techniques... and then I reminded myself this was a padded room, and he was just doing a running summersault. Jeez.

See he upside down kid in the blue t-shirt, gray pants? Yup, that's Ben.

Each one of this runs ended with this amount of happiness.

A coach helps Ben perfect his abdominal exercises.

Ben and another wrestler do an learning excercise, stepping on the opponents toes (which led to reaching for and/or evading the toes, and then take downs using the opponents whole legs.

The next day, he said something to the effect of, "All you did was knit the whole time you were at my practice." Hmpf. Smartass. I was knitting. But also watching him, and taking pictures, and making friends with the mom next to me who's son happened to be paired with mine. But I can tell you, for sure, this is not the first, nor will it be the last, that I have not met Ben's expectations. Just look at his face.

Oh, and the team is called the Monsters. Too cute.

Everyday Lately

No big picture-taking events going on in our lives lately, just normal, glorious, everyday stuff.

Ben had his first performance of the year. His kindergarten class sang with the preschoolers from his school at another classmates church in town south of us. I enjoyed going to another church like ours, and Ben sang all the words: miraculous. Everyone told me his K teacher is great at getting the kids to sing, and they were right. Also, she played guitar along with them, which was nice.

Ben has been spending the little free-time he gets between wrestling, church, and school with his legos still. Last night he constructed an airport with a car, airplane, and more. He brought it all downstairs to show me, and ellaborately explained the whole thing. This was a "Fun Airport," I'm guessing like a "Fun House."There were two big sticks to smash your head, and a wrench to "wrench your bones." Alrighty then.


Meanwhile Hunter squished his Schmoopy cat. She is getting so big!

This is from last week. Hunter puts this costume on all the time. It so cute to sporadically see Buzz with his wings go flying by.

Hope Fall finds you all well.

Still Knitting

We've been so busy around here! Ben has started wrestling two nights a week, and I feel like I'm constantly driving the kids to and from school. In between the cleaning, driving, and general family life I have been busy knitting. I am still finding so much joy in the process. I find myself awake at night with ideas! Here are some of my latest creations:

Head on over and look at the goodies in the shop!