ANGRY BIRDS, LAZY DAYS

I haven't posted about my awesome kids recently, have I?

River has spent most of the past year immersed in the world of construction, but apparently construction is now over. The theme for this spring has been video games.

Angry Birds, Mario, Minecraft, and more Angry Birds, mostly. The thing that intrigues me most about this is that while he does spend a lot of time playing games (and watching game videos), he spends even more time recreating the video worlds in various forms: role playing, play-doh, cut cardboard, real slingshots, bath toys, and stuffed birds with blocks come to mind. Angry Birds Space had us pulling out a solar system book last week, ending a significant reading drought. Lego is perfect for Minecraft, of course, although we've also seen our fair share of stone axes and other real-world tools. And then there are the drawings, which, while they've never been River's primary focus, tend to happen on a large scale, usually several times a day. The longest and most recognizable phrase he has written so far is on a recent drawing: Angry Birds Underwater.

We've had some really amazing conversations, recently, too. One of his favorite subjects to explore is how people came to exist, and then how they learned to build houses. He's asked to play letter and number games, recently, too, and I'm learning to be amazed at how much he picks up when he's not actively working on things. Why can he do more equations than he could last time we talked about subtraction? I don't know, but he can.

And Violet... I feel like maybe I don't write much about what Violet does. At her age, I'm sure I had lots of theories about what River was into, but so far Violet has been very easygoing and mostly just into whatever is going on. She does like a lot of the things that River likes, but some more than others. Recently she's also been enjoying Angry Birds, especially the part about building towers and knocking them over. She's also been fascinated with letters. She plays quite a bit of Starfall, loves to be read to, and I wouldn't be entirely surprised if she ends up reading before River does. She's also been enjoying dolls, stuffed animals, and of course,  horrifying daredevil stunts. We're going to try to get to a sample gymnastics class soon and see if River can tolerate it, because I'm pretty sure Violet will love it.