Tuesday, April 19, 2011

New things! PhotoSunday! Fonga Rhythms!

It's spring, like I said earlier, and spring is a time for new things.
First: walking baby.
Really walking, not hardly even the drunken swagger he had at first.
And is he proud of himself? Oh yes. He's a big boy now.



But, sometimes he likes to pretend hes' a 'tiny baby', and then he crawls into the library book basket, (which he has first rid of all library books by tasting them and then throwing them on the floor) and his siblings take him for a ride. He loves it!





PhotoSunday!

Please join us in our photo projects. I've made a new page just for PhotoSunday! We had a very successful first attempt at photo sharing this Sunday. We spent a few minutes with each photo, offering each other constructive criticism. It was amazing to hear the children talk to each other and to us about our photos. This is going to be so much fun!

PhotoSunday! Flickr set.


In other news:

We have spent two wonderful afternoons at fellow homeschoolers' home doing some WEST African Drumming. This was great fun for all. The first time, Forest slept through the entire thing, so neither of us got to participate, but this time we were there. We learned a Fonga rhythm from Senegal, which our teacher, Michelle says is played at important events like parties and weddings.




It made me so lonesome for my brother Pete--that is DOCTOR Peter Hoesing to you! My little bro is now Peter Hoesing PhD! I call him the Doctor of Drums. I hope that's okay with him. He is an inspiration to all of us. I only wish I could have been a little fly on an anthill when he was the drummer for the wedding while he was there.
By the way, Dr. Uncle Pete says there is a special song for kids like forest. It means something like "Will toddle to anthill and eat the white ants" Maybe I can get him to say it for me again in Luganda.


Sunday, April 10, 2011

Spring has sprung





You know it is spring in the Oregon Coast Range, when the temperature hits 50 + degrees and your children are in their bathing suits, jumping into the creek and requesting sno-cones and popsicles. "Can we set up the kiddy pool and put Forest in it, Mama?" asked big sister last week, when the temperatures soared beyond 60 even.
The kiddos were gone from the house without any breakfast before I'd even done the first diaper change of the day, with grand plans to 'walk the creek', which I think involves getting your boots filled with water. "Can't we get out our summer clothes?" "Where are my sandals?" Yes, indeedy folks, that big yellow thing in the bright blue sky does indicate that the seasons are a changin'. I am never one to complain about the rain, I love how everything is so green, especially at this time of the year. The greens seem to take on a whole new level of green-ness. The moss is happy, the usnea is silvery, the ferns are beginning to uncoil, and all with help from the rain. Nevertheless, it always cracks me up and makes my heart sing with the young 'uns around here welcome the first sunny days with these crazy requests.
Forest has discovered the great outdoors. Recently, he went out, clad in his 'snow suit' (mostly it's just a protective coating against mud at this point) (Thanks, Susi!) and it was quite comical watching him put his hands down to crawl and then lifting them up to examine the damp surface of his pudgy palms with a quizzical look on his face. Soon he got the knack of crawling around in springtime weather, testing out several new delicacies: soil from potted plants, woodchips, sticks, rocks, moss, and today, black oil sunflower seeds. I like to take him with me while I feed the birds. I pull him around in the wagon delivering seed to our two feeders. Today I had to jump several times to grab the branch so I could put the feeder up and he just cracked up giggling. Apparently white mamas can't jump either.
Each of the big kids has been welcomed into the realm of camera-toting Doggetts, and as such, we have had our first 'photo assignment,' which was to capture something of the spring. So, watch this space for the results of that assignment, which will be posted after we weed through all of the photos (one of us took 4000 photos! that's a lot of weeding!) Until then, Happy Spring!