pictures and John Smith

Handsome man.
Ethne enjoying painting in Joy School today. (She's not in Joy School, but when it's at our house she gets to participate. Actually she demands to participate. :) )
What Hazel made. She loves Joy School.

Simply beautiful.
I love kids right after they wake up in the morning and they've still got the sleepy look to them.
This is my favorite oufit of Talmage's. It has a gorilla and says HUNK.
Sweet siblings. It seems like he's almost as big as her!

So, I took my sister Andrea's advice and got the book 'John Smith' by Charles P. Graves and read it to Jethro tonight. Talk about interesting! I never knew much about John Smith except that his voice sounded like Mel Gibson's and I am not related to him. (I am related to Pocahontas. It's true.) Thanks for the recommendation, Ands.

Anyway, so he went and fought for the Dutch against Spain for a couple years and learned about using fireworks from them. Then he decided to go help the Hungarians fight the Turks, and on his way there, some Frenchmen threw him off the ship because they didn't like Englishmen. So he swam to an island where he was picked up by a ship that took him way in the heck away, around Africa and stuff before getting him back to Italy I think and then he finally made it to Hungary. Then he helped the Hungarians win some battles using his knowledge of fireworks and a code that he had learned of while studying warfare. He also beat a few Turks in jousting matches. Then he was wounded in a battle and picked up by some Turks who sold him as a slave. His owner was really terrible, and one day when he was whipping John, John got fed up and turned around and killed him with his flail which he had been using to thresh grain, and he got away to Russia and then back to England. And the crazy thing about all this? ---it was all by the time he was 24! Wild, eh?

We're going to get the book about Marco Polo from the same series next. I was telling Kami about this on the phone tonight, and she said that it sounded like a Louis L'amour character, which was precisely the thought I had while reading it! :)

Another random tidbit--I was reading an article in a magazine while waiting at the doctor's office about genetics, and it was saying how some things they never can unravel whether it's genetics-based or a learned thing (because it's some of both). For example, individuals in families tend to have the same facial expressions when they're really happy, sad, surprised, etc. And on the one hand, children who have been born blind actually do this too--make the same facial expressions as their family even though they've never seen it, but on the other hand, children who have been adopted into a family make the same faces as their adopted family. Interesting.

In other news, Talmage has an inguinal hernia and he has to see a pediatric urologist Nov.5 to decide if they'll have to operate on it. And he weighs 11 lb 9 oz in case you were wondering. He's just so sweet. So soft and cuddly. My friend Margot recommended I get a pickle jar to preserve him in this perfect squishiness. What an ingenius idea!

Happy October 25.