Guess what I am

It starts with letter S.
It has no legs.
It is a reptile!

And when probed by his classmates for one more clue, Ben added a fourth one:
It is very long!

Last Friday was Ben's fourth time as the Star of the Day, since he started preschool coming to half a year now. Still, each time the special day rolled around, he would be just excited, and usually would already have something in mind to bring for the show-n-tell, even before the schedule was out for when would be whose turn.

Now Ben was at first thinking Fluffy, his plush penguin, or maybe his favourite plant-eating dinosaur he'd recently started referring to, affectionately, as "Triceratop-sy"(?!!). But that was before he asked me the other day, if we could make a green anaconda, "the largest snake", "but it is not venomous". The same snake, that not too long ago, big brother Jon wrote about, and neither boy has since given up his love for reptiles big and small.

And because Ben was in his "snip, snip, snip, snip away" phase -- so much so he snipped a hole in our cushion (!) -- I thought, why not we just cut a spiral on a paper plate! Very easily done -- colour, cut, dot in the eyes, and add a forked tongue, and he got himself his mystery object!

Ben's "reversible" reptile that he hid in the mystery bag for his friends to guess. One side he'd coloured green, to be the anaconda, and the other, red, to be a rattlesnake!

We went on to make another five or six more snakes like this, and then, also a different snake using a sock (just take an old sock, decorate it as you like, and slip it over your hand), and a paper-plate turtle (below).

The 'sock' snake (not photographed), and the turtle are both taken from a "Sing!, Play!, Create!" book by Lisa Boston, I really happened to just chance on it, at the library. But it sure offered us some "crafty" ideas! And I know, from more of such library finds before, such is the grace of God and His goodness, in everyday things that do matter to us!

Feeding time for Ben's 'pet' reptiles!

In fact, just yesterday, Ben himself picked out yet more great reptile reads of the fictional and non-fictional kind, purely based on what he liked or not on the books' covers (no kidding!). And we've been digesting what we can -- in the day with me, or at bedtime and if it's daddy tucking them in, Ben and Jon will always wrangle out a longer tale, than from this exhausted mommy!

I think kids will dig this book by Bob Barner on "Dinosaurs Bones", that mixes rhymes and colourful illustrations with facts like how much the skull of a T-Rex weighs.

So Rrrroar! Reptiles rock on (in our home)!

"I am a komodo dragon!" goes Ben one moment, and the very next, he's pretending, "Now I am a gila monster!". And then when he's not snarling, he's hissing away, and even showing his 'fangs' and upping his defenses when a not-so-friendly big brother isn't being kind to him, and vice versa, as our 'cobra' wants to get even, too! Once, when he felt so threatened by the bigger (can be overbearing) being, he even left his teeth marks (ouch!), and I had some 'taming' (time-out!) to do with both of them.

Ben, who only has school three mornings a week, can't wait for Jon to finish school every day, so he can play with his Gor Gor. But they fight so much over anything and everything, today while Jon is home the whole day, this mommy is doubly busy -- she has to be both faciltator and arbitrator (to break up the fights!), more than she ordinarily needs to be on a schoolday!

And sssnoozing his way out of this one...
No, Jon is not "eating snake" (pun intended!), he caught a bug that's been going around. Eight students from his class were absent on the same day early last week, and by week's end, the count was seven, including a few whose fever hadn't subsided, and some new ones. Jon's fever started after school yesterday, and besides him, five others also called in sick today.

Jon is understandably tired, and went and napped yesterday and today, without having to be asked. Otherwise, he's taking it easy, and surely doesn't mind the "I get to relax and watch TV" part of it! =)

Being at home also means more time for him to take his own sweet time to do his worksheets. His homework, that we are still expected to collect from his teacher at day's end. But we are not hounding him to complete everything right away, since getting all better is the priority now.

Meanwhile, the temperature's swinging like crazy. Within half a day, it went up to 73F, then back down to 63F, 52F, and there were flurries (light snow) for awhile when it dropped to 32F (or 0C, i.e. freezing point), and it continues to plunge some more! I went quickly to get most of the week's grocery done while it was still warmer in the morning, when Vern could watch the boys before he had to be in school. But he had to head home before dinner, when there was a passing tornado watch, that thankfully lasted for only a short while. It's now 15F (-9C), not the lowest predicted yet.

No, I don't take well to the hot-cold, hot-cold, and especially not the super-cold. Hissssss!!!