April Fools' Friday

One of the boys' favorite activities is playing with blue and black glass beads.  My children and students have played with these same beads for decades.  I use them in my teaching and keep them in a whiskey decanter.  They look beautiful, make a musical sort of sound as they clink together or are poured from the decanter.  When one of the boys decides to work with the beads, they automatically bring two placemats.  The extra one is for their brother.  They then place the mats side by side, so they can work closely, while defining their workspace.  Nathan enjoys sorting the beads into conatiners.  Andrew has no desire to sort them, but loves pouring them out and putting them back into the decanter.  This is a supervised activity, because the beads are small.  The boys enjoy teasing me by putting the beads near their mouth.  They laugh when I tell them, "not in your mouth!" 

We bought new bookcases for the family room, so the boys would have space for all of their projects and toys.  It runs the length of a wall and has a ladder attached on wheels.  In the morning, when the boys saw the ladder they said, "Daddy's ladder."  We agreed, hoping that they realized it was not appropriate for little boys.  They discovered that the ladder moves and would move it away from the door they wanted to open, but other than that left it alone.  In the afternoon, I saw Andrew looking at the ladder.  I could only see the back of him, but I realized the minute the ladder started to open new possibilities in his mind.  It was the tilt of the head that said he was getting a new idea.  He very slowly turned his head to check out who might be observing, and broke into a huge smile when he saw Gramma right behind him watching.  That smile said, "you know I'd never think about using Daddy's ladder."

I remember when Ryan Joseph was just a toddler.  Terry and his brother, Dennis, were installing a ceiling fan in our family room.  Terry was in the attic and Dennis was at the top of the ladder holding the fan in place.  When he looked down, he saw Ryan Joseph half-way up the ladder.  There's something about a ladder that invites us to climb. 



Is it the hats, or is it us?