Outside the Box

I’m still working on seeing the world the way Lewis sees the world. His view is so different from mine. 

Messy is necessary. 

There’s always something to create. 

Outside is a happy place. 

Elaborate, silly stories are on the tip of his tongue.

There is humor in all situations. 

Treasures are to be shared and given. 

Spelling is easy. 

Conforming to traditional schooling is not. 

Opportunity is everywhere. 

Helping others is an instinct. 

Browning hamburger is a delight. 

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. 

LEGO directions are optional. 

These two. Their minds have similar ways. Creative. I’m grateful for her insights on his little mind. 

Elias Logic

E: Daddy, Lewis litewally just punch me. 

Me: How did you just use that big word in context?!

I was giving Lewis directions at the lunch table and he was arguing with me. Elias said “Lewis stop complicating it.”

Elias just measured Levi with a ruler And said he measured “5,  10, 11, M, N ounces and 5 dollars.”

Elias: Mom. I bet Jim Bash is gonna be at Grandma Susan's for coffee because it's Tuesday. 

Me: How on earth did you know it's Tuesday?!

Referring to the big fountain Elias asked

“Mommy? Why those are not raining?”

E: I want to take a bath. 

Me: it’s too close to bedtime. Not tonight. 

E: but I want a bath!

Me: you can take a bath tomorrow. 

E: Mommy can I have a bath or a shower? You can choose. 

Me: neither. It’s too late. 

E: make a choice or I will choose for you. And I choose bath.

Lewis: can I go to grandmas?

Me: no. She has a doctors apt. 

Lewis: I could stay with grandpa. 

Me: he works at the vet hospital on Thursday  mornings. 

Lewis: what’s that?

Me: it’s a special hospital for soldiers and other people who have served our country. 

Elias: and ninjas. 

Grandpa: I’m leery of those ninjas. 

While talking about Augustine’s bday party:

Elias: when is my birthday?

Me: not for a long time. 

Elias: I don’t have any birthdays. 

Me: then how are you alive?!

Elias: bones. 

Me: be careful when your (Duplo) guys climb the slide steps. 

Elias: oops. 

Me: it’s ok. It’s easy to fix. 

Elias: or Augustine will be mad at me. 

Me: well it’s easy to fix so he doesn’t need to get mad. 

Elias: [pause] oh, Augustine Burda. 

Me: 😂

Me: Did you have a good swim Elias? 

Elias: Yeah it was kind of embarrassing actually. 

Me: Why was it embarrassing? 

Elias: Because that girl Hella, she had slippers on and she slipped her feet right in and they were making waves. 

Me: That’s why it was embarrassing?

Elias: Yeah. 

Elias: This piece here [on his LEGO building] is a walrus protector. It will get shocked and protect us. 

Me: why does the crepe paper keep falling down?!

Elias: maybe it’s the lemur in our house. 

Elias went upstairs to get clothes. I waited for him on the couch, and suddenly I heard his voice. It sounded upset but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. I ran upstairs to see what was wrong. He was reading I Really Like Slop by Mo Willams out loud. Nothing actually wrong. 

Grandma Kathleen was helping Elias put on a pair of shorts and asked him if he needed clean underwear. He said no. Mom does that on Wednesdays.

3rd Grade Thoughts

Augustine says one of the worst part of school is Levi isn’t there. He gets home from school and needs some serious Levi cuddles. Augustine often holds him while having screen time, but I insist he hold Levi away from the screen. Sometimes Augustine forgets to pay attention to his baby brother during this time. The other day he was forgetting so I said, “what are you even doing?!” to which Augustine replied, “I’m multitasking, Mom.” It made me laugh really hard. 

Third grade is going great for Augustine. He enjoys the work, chapter books, and a new lunch/recess time. He won’t admit it of course. He’s noticing a lot of social changes in his class, so we often stay up a little later than bedtime chatting in his room about how to handle the awkward situations he’s noticing between girls and boys. From what I can gather, it really confuses his 9 year old self when 1) girls whisper and 2) girls look at you funny and 3) when girls ask to play a game on the playground and then don’t know how to join in the game. When I told him he was right, that his class is at the age where girls and boys start to have awkward and confusing interactions, he asked how long this would happen. I told him truth be told until he and his friends go all the way through high school, which made me laugh. He couldn’t believe it. 

Preschool Thoughts

We sing songs TWO TIMES today. I don’t sing. 

Me: guess what. You don’t have to go to bible study with me anymore. 

E: why not?

Me: because you’ll be at school having fun. 

E: yeah, that’s good newsing!

E: Mom one of my classmates found something that’s not exactly a porkepine but it’s something that’s sticky. 

Me: is it an animal?

E: oh! It was a pinecone. 

Me: so how was preschool?

E: pretty good. 

Me: what did you do?

E: a tornado drill. 

Me: what do you do for a tornado drill?

E: you exit. 

Me: so did you talk to any of your new friends?

E: no. I was the only one. 

Me: weren’t there a lot of other kids at school today?

E: nope. Just me. 

[we later realized he was saying there were no other children at school that we already knew]

E: we didn’t go outside today. Oh wait. We did. I played in the sand pit. I was digging a swimming pool.  

Me: wow! Did you finish digging the pool or do you have more to work on next time you’re at preschool?

E: I finished. 

E: [very annoyed] a boy was playing with the fire truck and I wanted a turn. So I say ‘can I have a turn when you are done?’ and he said yes. 

Me: did he give you a turn when he was done?

E: [annoyed] yes he did. 

Me: sounds like you did a great job being patient and he did a great job sharing with you. 

E: yes I did. 

4 Months Old

Levi is rolling back to front, smiling and giggling, holding toys and grabbing things in front of him, loves it when his brothers hang out with him, sits up with no help but still gets tired pretty quickly, sleeps in good chucks through the night, can’t get a good nap in to save his life due to being a baby in a family of six people, loves his hanging toys, and enjoys the exersaucer. He is 26 inches long and 22 lbs. 

He likes to cat nap in the swing, car seat, or on anyone’s cuddly lap. 

When Logan comes home after work Levi will fuss until Logan holds him. Then it’s endless smiles. 



Levi’s Godsister loves to help him be happy. She makes sure he always has his binki close by, a book to read, or a toy to play with. She LOVES his soft hair and is sure he needs a dry diaper often. She’s such a good big Godsister!

Augustine used to nap like this daily because it was my best bet to get him to sleep. Levi thinks it’s a pretty good napping option too. 

The Newman Center gives the sweetest baby gift...a personalized blanket. They are the softest blankets you’ll ever feel! Elias still sleeps with his. 

The cuddly fox binki doesn’t come in the next size up, so I’m not sure what we’ll do when he out grows this one, and he’s getting close. 

Burp cloths are currently one of his favorite toys. 

The Art Show

The Sunday Lewis created all the art was not an easy day. We were all grouchy and hot and tired. But because we let Lewis do his thing something beautiful came out of that day. By the end of that day we were all creating. We did three projects. Then after school each day during the week we did one or two more. 

We didn’t eat dinner at the table for a week because it looked like this ^. 

I wanted to teach the boys about an artist each day and then try their style of art, but I knew that was WAY more than I should do with a newborn in the mix. So we just used all sorts of different materials and depths and mediums. Logan had a lot of fun creating some pieces that were very clever, and I managed to make two pieces. Levi made one piece. 

We had a total of 60 pieces of art on display. Logan, Levi and my art was not for sale. 

I talked to the boys a lot about how to price their pieces to sell, and to consider the time and creativity that went into each piece. The art ranged from $0.05-$2. Augustine set up the play cash register - that happens to be a real calculator- divided into three sections so he could keep track of each brother’s money. It was impressive. 

Greta come over early with coffee. We had a nice chat while everyone else went to the library/napped. It was a nice break. Then Lewis read three stories to her and helped her make the cheese board for guests. Have I mentioned we love having her so close by?! ;)

Then it was finally time to open the gallery! 

Friends, family, our pastor, and missionaries all stopped by to see our work. 

The boys talked to their guests about their art and answered their questions. 

Logan pulled a joke on Grant. Always funny. 

Augustine was very impressive during the show. He would initial pieces as people claimed them for purchase. It was a fast pace job, helping a lot of people at once. He also collected money, counted it, and divided it up to the correct artist. He was very busy the whole time and did an amazing job!



Any good gallery has wine for their guests. 

Lewis did a nice job welcoming guests and showing them into the gallery. He also offered snacks and drinks. 



All but five pieces sold, and some of those five were Logan’s creations, so the boys did really well. 

Most of Logan’s team joined us!

And of course there is always time for a story with JimBash. (Elias says his full name as one.) Although I didn’t snap a picture, Levi also says there’s always time for a nap on Coco too. 

Elias was very pleased with all the coins he earned, as well as spending a quarter on Batman by Augustine. Worth it. 

Augustine and Lewis were pleased with their earnings too and will save it for LEGOs. I am pleased how many good lessons we were able to teach them through this experience too. 

The Art Show will surely be one of our favorite family memories. We just might do it again!

Creative Thinking

I’ve been working hard trying to see lewis’ view of the world. He has such a creative mind, so different from my type of creativity. 

He sees even the smallest things differently. Like shading in boxes...I knew something would be said despite him clearly understanding the concept. He even noticed the number pattern on the right as he was doing the work. 

He brought home this very cool zoo set he helped make and immediately added dinosaurs. 

He loves to build things from cardboard, so when he saw the empty bolts and rolls at Joann’s he couldn’t resist. We took seven home. 

He built his baby brother a fun hanging toy, and it even coordinates. 



Lewis thought Levi needed something more to look at so he drew our family and a “crawling tunnel”. 

Levi was literally giggling under it, even though he can’t reach any of it (due to glitter. Ew.). 

Then we moved on to this super simple craft for his teacher. Not so much his style of creativity, but definitely mine. :)

Then we moved back to his realm...cooking. He made himself taco beef with some help and put together nachos. 

We went back to Joann’s because he just HAD to make something else. My creative helper position was wearing on me, but I said yes. He made an art easel. That was hard to swallow because I knew he would want to paint next. I pretty much crawl out of my own skin when I have to help kids paint. It made me pretty grouchy, especially when the blue paint got on a shoe and *almost* got tracked inside the house on the white carpet, but we made it through. 

That face. So deep in creative thinking. 

When he was almost done he said, “Mom, I’d like to sell my art.” The boys had been bugging me to have a garage sale all summer (because you know, there are endless LEGOs to be bought) and I said no all summer because 1) not worth my energy and 2) we don’t have stuff we don’t use and 3) newborn, people. BUT selling something you put time and energy into that expresses something from within you that’s beautiful? Yes. I will totally help you with that. 

So from Lewis’ (exhausting) creative mind we were inspired to have a Family Art Show....

He Found His Tongue