He'll also be the first to remind you that it's mother's day. The moment they dared to tread into my room they descended on me with all the typical presents that kids make for their mothers in school, with all the excitement that kids have from keeping a secret.
He'll also be happy to tell you that it's St. Servatius day, one of the ice-saints.
Even better? my bed became the place of a go-fish game.
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| all five of us. theodore in left corner playing card game while reading howard pyle's wonder clock henry, felix, brian across from us me in the right corner showing my cards to the rather onery camera, disinterested in auto-focus before 8am. |
We also had a wonderful conversation about infinity, where they explained to us that TWICE as many numbers as infinity would still fit inside Mr. Hilbert's Hotel infinity, and that there are an infinite number of numbers between 0 and 1, so many that they WOULDN'T fit in Mr. Hilbert's Hotel Infinity.
Then Theodore went and made me coffee. The last few days he as been attempting to froth milk with rather varied disaster rates. Once he spilled the entire dregs drawer on the floor and over himself, and then gave up on the coffee, i'm not surprised. Once he managed to fill and overflow my pretty large coffee cup with extra steam water. Once he got Centa to just make it for me. But today, for the first time, he frothed milk, all on his own, and even got a little heart shape (a trick I haven't learned after 1000s of cups)
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| <3 yum - it was also extremely yummy |
so i was telling all the kids about the wise man with the jar
that old philosophy chestnut of the professor who shows his students that the jar can be filled with rocks, and then pebbles and then sand, then water (or beer) and not the other way around, and that those things are analagous to the important things in life. Basically don't fret the small stuff.
i'll describe how it worked with my kids.
there was a wise man with a jar. just a jar like our empty glass jars. he asked a classroom if the jar had room for lots of stuff in it or not. is the jar full or empty?
henry says: it's full of air.
that's right. it IS full of air. and can you fit other things in the jar?
henry: of course, if it is small enough to fit in the jar.
so what if the professor puts stones in the jar, a few big stones. now is it full?
henry: yes.
can he put more stuff in the jar?
henry: i don't think so.
how about little pebbles?
henry: yes, he could put pebbles in, and then littler pebbles, and then even littler pebbles.
exactly, and then sand. and is the jar full then?
henry: yes.
can he put more stuff in the jar?
henry: yes, of course!
what?
henry: he can plant seeds in the jar, and then the jar would be full of plants.
we call that lateral thinking around here. for some reason, i was dumbfounded, but i needn't be - it happens all the time with kids.
then we went to deutschlandsburg.
Theodore has been very enthusiastic about showing us where he went with chorus a few weeks ago. Train trip with the family. at 11euros round trip per adult and free kids we might take more train trip around here.
(on the way we stopped at lendwirbel's final thing: mothersday picnic, free food for all)
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| some unknown person captured this. it was very sunny and we were all squinting |
Theodore forgot exactly which path to take up to the burg so we took a much longer much steeper one than any of us intended, always in full sun. No matter, we got there happy, just in time for the clouds to break. :)
had a picnic in a thunderstorm
came back a much shorter path by way of strawberries, a welcome distraction from our wet shoes and clothes.
brian took all the pictures.
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| HOW AND WHY? |
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reflection before the storm
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Watching the thunderstorm
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| On the train |
At home we dried off and played more cards before bedtime.
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| Felix hasn't noticed yet that theodore is telling Henry to ask for an ace |
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