up up and away

The plan was for Baba to go to Bible Study at 6 am, (giving us an hour more to sleep)come home, eat breakfast with us at 7:30, and leave at 8:15, to be in Redmond by 9:00. HA! Guo was up at 6:05 checking his rocket. In the process, he decided he better glue "just one more piece"; then he bounded back upstairs announcing:  "don't you think time to get up?" (sic)... if only that that had been a rhetorical question...

The following question I guaranteed has now taken over the #1 spot as most annoying from "are we there yet?"... It is:

"you ready to go yet?", followed by: " you ready to go yet, Barbara?" (with a roll of the r's)... hear this every 30 seconds when something exciting pending... translating to mean: some place a 12 year named mister, bouncy, trouncy, full of life, meet every adventure vim & vigor Guo wants to go...

(excuse the blurriness of couple of pictures... someone was moving too fast...)

                      

..."there it is"... "where?...                                     ... "I'll get it"...       

 

   ... "Look, Baba... see..."

               

... everybody look this way                                     ... the smile tells it all

Baba (aka Grandpa), Guo (Uncle), & Richie (3)

Even with a minor disaster of loosing the nose cone from the rocket, it didn't dampen Guo's spirits. He had soaking wet feet and jeans from the long grass, but the biggest grin. He couldn't wait to get home to check out hobby stores for a replacement nose cone. We finally found a new hobby store in Everett today (Monday), that has a variety in stock.

Guo also saw his brother Carl and got to tell all about his rocket with a complete description of Saturday's adventures. I had forgotten Carl had done a little rocket flying in middle school. Carl seemed genuinely interested in the rocket and going into the hobby store with them. Perhaps since he lives closer than Robert & Richie, Guo will have an additional partner.

As I told someone today, Guo never ceases to amaze me. He still is at the beginning stages of reading, but that doesn't stop him from learning. When he decides he wants to do something or know about something, he listens and watches everybody and everything around him. He gets very quiet and his eyes are in constant motion. He misses nothing. 

And now he knows here "it's ok to ask a question". It took me a year to convince him that was a good thing and he would not be punished or belittled... now he is even beginning to ask his father. One step at a time, though... for some reason he will raise his hand... and yet I know why he cringes when he says: "I have a question" even though both of us immediately always answer: "yes, that's good... what is it?"... AND #2 he only as questions of David and me... His day is coming...!

Anyway what I started to say before I got side track... about his learning... for example with the rockets... he came home the other night and explained to me about the motors, igniters, what ever size, launch pads, packing, etc..., the whys & wheres...  This is all from Friday and Saturday... this kind of learning happens all the time with him... he is a sponge... very aural and tactile... 

Yes, my hands are full... what a wonderful feeling... and I love the learning... boys are so cool... :-)

rocket construction

Here are the beginning stages of the rocket construction on Friday night. The entire process lasts until after 8:00 pm what with waiting for individual pieces having to be glued and dried..


   

... the box is open... now the directions are being studied... oh no, Baba started to hold his

head already... :-)

            

... "let me see here..."                                              ... "I know... see..."

... what's the saying??? ... 'a picture's worth a thousand words' 

... seems Guo read the pictures...

"Baba, we open the box & take a look at the pieces???"

... followed by "there's more to this than I thought" coming from my living room is never a promising sign of things to come.

The boys (?) are going to fly rockets tomorrow which necessitated a trip to the hobby store. Sending them off with strict instructions of budget boundaries, the grinning pair came back with all the basic items, plus some. When I tried to sternly question the need for everything, Guo first went into a serious monologue with hand gestures explaining rocket firing to the best of his knowledge. When he thought he wasn't making progress he turned on the twinkling eyed Guo charm. Such a boy.

At present the rocket builders are on a 'break' waiting for parts to cement. One keeps checking the clock to see if time will move faster thereby drying the glue quicker. 

News flash: this just in: ... "Baba, I think one part dry... I think so... let's go put one part together... I think so..." 

I'll let you know how the flight line continues; and test flights go...

:-)

YEAH!!!!!

Record book for fair entry and fair entry forms signed and turned in!

 Now to get those projects, dog, and Guo polished and ready to go...

Think we can... think we can... think we can... :-)

hmmm... let's try to play catch up again...

... but first...

              ... this should give you the visual of why I'm always at a day late on everything...

This was actually taken at Kayak Park on Puget sound about 10 miles from our house. We had -2.25 tides this last week. Those are substantially low tides showing sometimes unseen sea life in the tide pools that developed. Unfortunately, we are having what the weather department calls "June-uary", (very cold and very wet... snow alerts in the Cascade mtns.). Didn't keep this crazy family from putting on jackets, throwing on extra clothes in the car, and heading for the beach.

We spent nearly 3 hours enjoying it all. Before it was over Baba had a pocket full of shells and rocks... Guo had built 25 feet of canals from the streams in the middle of the beach to the water... he tested the strength of the dams and the speed of the spill ways with a feather, a round piece of balsa tubing he found, and a saturated piece of flat wood... to see not only which would make the distances, but the fastest as I said... what a kid...

In the process, they also saw a starfish which Guo reported "the kid said had 21 legs, but I don't think so... it didn't look like that many to me!" ... "but was big"

Sunday afternoon the sun came out for about 10 minutes. Guo decided to make sure his poor vegetables hadn't drown. The jury is still out. I'm afraid there will need to be some replanting. :-(

 

For the last week along with school work, we have been trying to get Guo's 4H notebook finished for the fair entry deadline. Tuesday is class and meeting night so we are keeping our fingers crossed that everything is finished correctly.

Well, along with everything else... can you imagine this child thinks he's hungry and since it's almost 5:00 we should think about eating AGAIN... What a concept!!! Best get going!

twinkle twinkle

morning conversation excerpt with Guo:

~while fixing the covers & pulling them back over to David's side of the bed, he says: "Baba sleep with you?" (meaning last night- yes, why?) "he roll over and give you kezz???" grinnnn, twinkle, twinkle... (yes) "whyyyy???" twinkle, twinkle (because he loves me!) "Oh!"~

... you'd think we never kiss, hug, or say I Love You... duh... especially, only about 20 times before all the lights are out around here... anybody ever seen old re-runs of the Waltons... that's what it sounds like at the Lymans!!! 

... have we told you lately how much we love Guo???

:-)

... yesterday we were driving down to Ft Lewis when in the midst of conversation my charming son said: "yes, sugar"... David wasn't sure he had heard correctly so he asked Guo if he'd called me 'sugar'... he said: "yes... she's my 'sugar Mama'"... 

this morning while getting ready for church I heard him say: "I decided Mama can be my 'sugar pumpkin', too"...

hmmmm....  :-)