Hoppers' Happenings

This boy acts out everything he sees on tv. Check out the giant staff he concocted to match Po's on Kung Fu Panda.

Amara's response to the following writing prompt:


Your school district wants to lengthen the school day. Persuade me why this is a good idea or is not a good idea.

My school should not lengthen the school day. If they did, some kids might miss dinner or have to stay up till 12:00 because they couldn't get their homework done in time. If they stayed awake until the middle of the night doing homework that needed finishing, they would be so cranky the next morning that they wouldn't even have enough energy to go to school, and if they did get there, they would be too grouchy. If school was lengthened too much, it could go on from 6:00am to 12:00pm. Say that it happened. Everyone would be late and sleepy, and they might even fall asleep in class. Think if the parents didn't know! They might get worried, and then they'd call the cops or something. Parents calling cops? If this happened, something bad could take place, like the principal being arrested. So that is why my school day really shouldn't be lengthened.

Sage advice!

"I'm Frodo. I'm invisible."

I don't want the distressing points in Mathis' last few months to overshadow the happy and fun ones.  This picture brings a smile to my face every time I look at it.  What a cute and happy smile!  Mathis has taken to telling us all about his feelings lately, and when I look at this picture, I want to mimic him in proclaiming: "This makes me soo happy!"
Fun things about Mathis lately:

He, like many others, is obsessed with Angry Birds.  Amara and Ethan bought him the red bird stuffed animal for Christmas, and he regularly hurls it at us "piggies" after making a funky sound that, at least in his mind, sounds like the game's sound effects.

He also loves the video game Skylanders, and is unbeatable in battle mode.  He had Amara in tears the other day because she couldn't beat him.  The best part though, is his mimicry of the various characters.  In the game, you put a figurine on the "Portal of Power" and it says its catchphrase and does a signature move before entering game play.  Mathis will repeatedly switch characters, saying his often indecipherable interpretation of their catch phrase and jumping around the room acting out their moves.  His favorite: . He does something similar with every tv show that's on.  He sings, he dances, he attempts to act out whatever is happening.

He's also amazed us with his quick learning of numbers and letters, and his ability to type his name on the computer so that he can log in and play games.  I've had to keep adding numbers, or changing the password to keep him off the computer, but he's figured it out more than once just by watching, the little sneak!

Mathis also loves to steal the "smushmallows" out of the "Yucky Charms," much to our dismay.

Sunday on our way home from church, Mathis proclaimed, "This world is for me!  Heavenly Father made this world for me!" For a moment I wondered if somehow a lesson on Heavenly Father's love for us had given my boy delusions of grandeur.  Moments later he explained that we would share the world, so that's a relief.  He also described Heavenly Father as a good guy. :)

Most recently, I found a cavity in his mouth, and took him to the dentist. Turns out he had multiple cavities, and because of his age and fear (thanks again stitches!!), he had to be put under General Anesthesia to have the work done. The dental work seemed to go fine, but a few hours after he woke up, we realized that his smile was crooked, meaning that his lip wasn't responding properly to his attempts to move it, and it wasn't due to swelling. That concerned me for a number of reasons, and I worried that he may look like a stroke victim for the rest of his life. The dentist thought it was strange, since that type of thing is rare in dentistry, but when it happens is usually attributed to nerve damage caused by the needle that administers the local anesthetic, which Mathis didn't have. The dentist's perplexity scared me, but our pediatrician seemed more confident about it being a nerve palsy due to the dental work and that it would recover. She was right, but it took about a month of slow and steady recovery.

Finally his smile is even again, he can get through the day without a nap and without crashing, and he hasn't had any major injuries lately, though not for lack of trying.  A few weeks ago, he planned to slide down the back of a couch onto a slate floor. I informed him that his plan was lousy and would probably would result in injury, to which he replied, "I'll just do this!" and cupped his hand over his chin. Seriously, kid! Apparently when you hurt one part of your body repeatedly (and yes, in addition to his two aforementioned injuries, he's also scraped his chin a couple of times and even managed to bump it on the carped floor in my room so hard that it formed a goose-egg for an hour or so), you begin to think that its your only vulnerable spot.


That is a lengthy account of Mathis' woeful existence over the last few months.  Fortunately, despite my account, the majority of Mathis' days have been spent eating fruit snacks, climbing outside, and watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so life really isn't so bad after all!

My sweet little Grace is coming up on 7 months!  I cannot believe how fast time is flying by since having this baby.  I can't keep up.  But, I have to say that I'm really enjoying the age she's at right now.  She's sitting up well, and busy discovering the world around her.  Her two bottom teeth came through about a month ago, and her top two lateral incisors both cut through before the middle ones.  I've been wondering if she'd look like my little vampire, but now the middles are coming in and catching up, so I'm pretty sure she'll just look like a baby with a mouth full of teeth in another week!
Grace has been more somber than my others have been at this age.  She smiles and interacts, but does more inquisitive observing than silly giggling.  She's also been loudly protesting whenever I leave her sight.  She'll be busy happily playing, but when she notices me walking past without her, she is not happy about it.
I've been trying to prepare myself and the kids for her crawling soon.  Even though I love watching her figure things out, its tough to keep up with a crawler, especially with a Mathis and other kids who love to play with small toys like Legos.  Wish me luck!
 

Yes, I know these are too dark, but she was so cute chewing on her dad's old driver's license.  She has an obsession with chewing on paper right now, so an old card like this, or a pillow with a big tag on it makes her pretty happy, even though she'd still like to get her hands on a piece of mail or a banking statement and gnaw on it until it disintegrates.

 Not sure what to say about this one other than that she's a cutie and we adore her.
Grace showing off the super cute hat made by one of her grandma's sweet co-workers.
Apparently Mathis has been honing his photography skills.  I found a bunch of random and upside down pictures on the camera.  This was one of them.  A snoozing Grace and her mom.