In Your Dreams

I've not witnessed such a thing with my children . . . until recently. I'm not even sure if I've ever noticed such a strong connection between two little people. I've seen Vanessa have close connections with friends but I've not seen a little girl so very smitten by my baby boy.

She was a precious little girl, with a soft lisp. And the level of connection made me think of the beginning of the movie Up, which I hadn't seen until recently, and with her being a little girlier than the little gal in the movie.

Here's how I describe the most moving parts of the interaction. This little girl just started engaging Zane. Next thing I know it all unfolds in front of me. Zane offered to share his flashy Woody LED light. She said her grandma went to the bathroom and would bring her back something. A few seconds went by and the little gal sad "Well, I guess I could have a turn while I wait."

Zane offered it to her. From there we continued chatting. Both she and Zane were amazed by the fact they are both 4. They held up 4 fingers to prove it and touched their fingers together. She started singing "Everything is awesome. . . " over and over and I told her Zane likes to sing that phrase a lot too. Zane started getting silly with it "Everything is awesome . . . poop . . . everything is awesome . . . pee. . . ." I shook my head to maybe not do that for her. :-) Under his breath he told me to stop watching. :-)

Then she reached over and grabbed his shoulders and with a tight grip and a subtle shake said "I have to tell you something." Zane continued being a little silly and somewhat falling loosely in her grasp when she said again, all wide eyed and confident "No. Let me tell you something. . . ." She let loose and stood up tall placing her hands on her heart and said "My heart is here. Your heart is there. I have Jesus in my heart. Everyone can have Jesus in their heart." I pulled back in astonishment and interjected "Wow. That's very true." The little girl then started singing Agency D3 and I said "Zane knows that song too!"

A moment later, as the little girl was starting to ease closer to Zane and plant a little kiss on his nose and cheek (Zane edged back) her grandmother returned. Grandpa pointed out to the grandma that the kids seemed to be very interested in each other. I shared a few of the connections they made, pointing out her VBS references and such . . . the grandma said they go to Genoa Church. (Phil and Leah, she lives in Pataskala, so keep an eye out. Her name is Karas. Just tell Seth to keep his distance. :-)  As we departed we encouraged goodbyes. I told Zane he should give her a high five. They high fived. Maybe one day they will cross paths again. For now he's mine.

A Signature Trait

Zane enjoys his time with Miss Carissa. He's still trying to muster up the first hello each time we visit the library but he's so bashful. Miss Carissa probably thinks he's not fond of her but if only she truly knew that he's quick to look for her and ask about her every time we're there. Zane expresses admiration in a less obvious way.

This day we discovered a newly released book, I Am Albert Einstein. What an adorable little book. You got to read it. Even if you're a man reading this post. :-) The emphasis on hair is so how I think of Zane. Everyone wants to touch Zane's and run their fingers through it. He's been quite patient with that since growing hair and often enjoys it. His hair -- definitely a signature trait.

Stemming

Last Saturday Vanessa and I ran down to the STEM Expo hosted by Ohio State University. We stayed until it got overwhelmingly busy, which is often too much for Vanessa. She seems to have an engineering mind so it was great to explore the different fields to get an idea of what she seems to enjoy most. 

We started out by trying out the electric motorcycle built by Ohio State University's engineering students, which achieved 3rd place. When we looked at pictures of the riders, Vanessa decided that might be too intense for her.

Vanessa built an edible car and was extremely thoughtful when choosing components and persistent in adapting the parts for building it. She chose a carrot, small pretzel rods, fudge stripe cookies, gummy rings, and gummy bears to go along for the ride.She then tested it and it completed the course, although one wheel broke off at the finish line. She did awesome with no help from mom, except for encouragement to take her time to think through the steps.

She also learned about primary colors of light and said she enjoyed that most, before creating a hovercraft and trying one out. She also created clay boats to float and measured its sturdiness with pennies.

She used two catalogs with pages woven to pull up a greater than 200 hundred pound bucket of cement. Mind blowing.

We stopped by to say hi to Olivia from Bolivia. :-)

And Vanessa's predictions for environmental runoff were spot on.

Monkey Toes

Need I say more?

For the Archives

On our weekly trips to the library Zane and I load up on picture books for bedtimes. On this particular day I couldn't get him to help me out because his nose was stuck in another Minecraft book. He was convinced he understood all the how-tos listed and kept exclaiming, "Mom! Look! If you . . ."

Although Vanessa often goes to her school library many times a week, she doesn't get to go to the Hilliard library as frequently as she used to. She misses that. We made it a point on one of our recent snow days and we hung out for probably a good two hours. One of the first things Vanessa discovered was the huge collection of Geronimo Stilton books, currently one of her favorite series.