Lucas has been enjoying playing with Fuse Beads lately. You arrange them standing on end in patterns and then fuse them together with a clothes iron.

Lucas quickly tired of following the suggested patterns and created a whole army of little guys. They each have a name, though I can’t tell you what the names are; I could not pronounce them even if I remembered them.

Here are a few familiar characters: a fused R2D2 and a Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader ready to fuse. I’d better get on that!

For this one, he used the fuse beads in a different way. Waldorf kids are cool.

Grandma visited today with Valentine’s presents for the boys. When they saw these lollipops, their eyes became wide as (heart-shaped) saucers! We love you, VoVo!

Sometime last year I found a project on the Great and Glorious Internet for making crayon heart Valentines and I saved it up for months. I really looked forward to actually doing this with Lucas! Last year, our Valentines for Lucas’s classmates were wonderful and handmade. They also took days and days of concentrated effort, which was (in hindsight) more than Lucas really was ready for at 6.5 years old. I wanted to do something easier this year, and this project turned out to be perfect for three reasons: 1) we used up years’ worth of crayon stubs; 2) they truly are beautiful and useful treasures; and 3) I invested in a groovy Wilton mini heart muffin pan that I can use for all kinds of goodies, not just crayons!

Before. We stripped the crayon stubs of their paper and *gasp* broke crayons into smaller pieces on purpose.

We filled up my groovy new silicone baking pan (safe up to 500° F), set it atop another cookie sheet covered with a sheet of aluminum foil (just in case), and popped it in the oven for 20 minutes at 250° F. We found the crayons (of mixed brands and qualities) melted at different rates. It took 20 minutes for them all to melt. We removed the pan and let the melted hearts cool. When they were completely cool, they easily popped out of the silicone shapes. You can actually turn the heart inside out and the crayon comes out perfect and unmarred.

After. Here are the first two batches, which we actually finished in January. Aren’t they lovely? We made 36 of these gorgeous multicolored crayon hearts—more than a class set.

We found the pigment sank to the bottom (the top in this picture). The paraffin wax of the crayons was less dense than the pigment and it floated to the top (or bottom in the photo). They have an interesting stripy effect when viewed from the side, no? The paraffin side of our hearts doesn’t color all that well, but we take comfort in knowing it will be useful for magical watercolor paintings. A child can draw with the clearish wax, then watercolor over the wax drawing for a batik result. Anyway, I’m really curious whether we’d get a better result that colors on both sides if we used higher quality crayons.

Here are Lucas’s finished Valentines 2010, wrapped, signed, and ready to go for Friday’s exchange at school. I hope the children like them. I think they will be a hit!

It was a great weekend! Ian and I got to go to see Eddie Izzard play Oakland’s Oracle Arena with some friends. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a bigger venue for anything. We had nosebleed seats way up top, but it didn’t much matter. We so enjoyed him. Anybody who does Latin jokes is my hands-down favorite. I took a pic with my cell phone, but I don’t know how to get the picture to my computer…

Yesterday we moved Lucas’s bed into Asher’s room. Well, Lucas and Ian moved the bed. I performed support tasks and kept Asher out of the way. It’s quite an adventure taking Ikea furniture apart and putting it back together again. Good think my hubby’s so handy! Both of the boys seem very excited about this new arrangement. Last night at bedtime there was a kind of slumber-party feeling in the air. I expect it will take some getting used to, but I think they will adapt nicely. Asher’s bed is now beneath Lucas’s bed, which gives Asher a kind of cubbyhole to sleep in. I think he will come to really like that, at least for a time. We’ll leave things like this awhile and eventually move my office into Lucas’s old bedroom. I feel a little guilty taking his room from him—it’s been his since his birth. But the new arrangement will give my office a door (a blessed, beautiful door!) that I can close to keep out family noise while I’m working. I look at it as a short- to medium-term investment in my sanity and my business, and possibly in my kids’ relationship. Perhaps sharing a room will promote brotherly closeness. Or perhaps that’s my wishful thinking.

I got to share a meal with some girlfriends last night and I’m more determined than ever to make that a more regular occurrence.  I just need to get out more and my kids can now handle it better.

We’re getting ready for Asher’s birthday party next weekend. I’m excited!

It’s still raining. Everything’s gray and cold. I have no issue with rain per se, but my idea of rain is warmer  and more … romantic … than the rain presently falling from the sky. Looking out my windows, I see my yard is dreary. My favorite plants are shorn or dormant. The lawn is full of yellow dead patches. Only the redwood trees look nice, and my, they’ve grown tall! I am looking forward to some sunny days to lift my spirits.

Asher and I were alone this afternoon and we just had to get out of the house for awhile. There’s a great “creek” running down our street so we took a boat outside to float it. Asher didn’t want to be bothered to try out the yellow rain boots for splashing in puddles. He just went for it! Also, the boat wasn’t nearly as interesting as the runoff. Just look at the glee on his face!

This splashing was a great distraction for me, too. I knew Ian was driving home from Fresno in the rain and I worry only because I know he doesn’t much like driving in the rain. I was anxious for him to be home safe and sound.

And now he is and I’m grateful.

It’s been a long day and I’m ready to call it. Lucas is abed; Asher will be soon. Good night. I hope you occasionally enjoy a good splash, too.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars seeps into my home via the playground—a Waldorf playground, mind you. Neither of my children have seen any Star Wars movies, and yet …

Asher: “I’m R2D2. I say ‘beepboopbopbeep’ and I have no arms. You want to be Yoda?”

Me: “No, thanks.”

Asher: “You want to be a guywalker?”

Me: “No.”

Lucas: “What about Leia Skywalker? She’s Luke’s sister. Do you want to be her?”

Me: “Not really.”

Lucas: “What about Ahsoka?”

Me: “Who is Ahsoka?”

Lucas: “YOU DON’T KNOW WHO AHSOKA IS?!?!?”

Me: “Nope.”

Lucas: “She’s Anakin’s PADDYWON.”

Me: “What’s a paddywon?”

Lucas: “I don’t know.”

Asher: “I’m R2D2firefighterStarWarsCloneWarsdoctor! Beepboopbopbeep! Yoda fights a creepy bad buy named nofing. I’m cooking dinner. Meatballs and getti. You want to come to my factory?”

Lucas recently painted his first canvas. A local craft and fabric store is having a sale on artists’ canvases. We bought a 12 by 12 in canvas for Lucas for something like $2.87. He used my craft acrylics—nothing very fancy. It was such an exciting treat to paint on a new surface! Alien art is cute.

This was a good reminder that I had lots of plans to paint. Hmmm … must get to that sometime soon.

Today is exciting because this afternoon Ian and I get to meet with Lucas’s second-grade teacher to see how he’s doing in school. (Our meeting should have occurred last November, but we didn’t make our appointment [insert guilty feeling here].)

Since our Waldorf school doesn’t give out grades, this is our big, mid-year opportunity to find out what’s going on with Lucas and how he’s progressing academically, socially, artistically, and emotionally—from his teacher’s perspective. I know what I think—that he’s brilliant and creative and diabolical and sensitive and totally likable—but then, I’m his mother, and decidedly not the one trying to teach him maths and cursive handwriting!

Painting by Lucas. Feliz Navidad!

An elfin warrior and a good soldier koala man fight the evil emperor, who threatens the kingdom of cuddly Oo Ah Ee creatures!

No toys in this house are played with as much as these colorful silk scarves, except perhaps for Legos. Lucas never tires of inventing stories and now that Asher is almost 3-years-old, he has plenty to add to the games. Their play is far more imaginative,  interactive, and involves more role-playing than it was just six months ago. This is a beautiful thing because the more they play imagination games, the more they are cooperating instead of competing for resources. Fortunately, we have plenty of play silks.