Tape: an Addiction

Scotch tape is an ordinary household item. A typical and harmless item found in most craft supply boxes.
Harmless? Sure, if you don't abuse it. Which Zusha does.
When he makes crafts, he uses an entire roll of tape for one tiny object. When he hangs his artwork on the wall, he places six inch pieces of tape on each corner, and then with even longer pieces, he lines the edges. Each and every one. Several times.

Here are just a couple of examples I chanced upon one morning.
Zusha taped a wall inside my computer armoire because it was a little unsteady. Now it's perfect.

Also, notice above that the roll of tape itself is taped up! So the roll shouldn't fall off the holder by mistake. You know.

The next project was my desk. It's a cheap writing desk I bought for $5 () on clearance at Rite Aid a few years ago. The laminate was peeling off in one corner (can't imagine why. Not like I have little scratchy, picky, tot fingernails roaming the house) and Zusha offered to tape it. Maybe "offered" isn't the right word... but I digress.

And tape it, he did. There are only what- five, six layers?

And since he had the roll of tape in hand, he decided to do more good and taped over the screws. So they shouldn't fall out or anything like that.


And then he was on a roll. (Pun intended.) I keep a bin of the kids' hats on my desk, which, he decided, was in danger of being misplaced.

Not anymore!
As a bonus, Zusha reinforced the cubby door. He's magnanimous like that.

All in a day's work!

Crafty Little Guy

Some of Zusha's crafts, age 4 1/2. All his own initiative. Some he asked me to help with some details, others I didn't see at all until he presented me the finished product.

This is a matchbox with matches. This is one of the crafts that Zusha made totally without my input or help.


He even made it open so the matches can be put in, like a real matchbox. All his own idea!



Maracas. This had a little input from me.

Zusha made the shape from envelopes and postcards that he found in my stationery box. He also made a stick from the same piece of paper that he cut out. But he was disappointed that it was too floppy and didn't make noise. So I suggested that we reinforce the paper stick with popsicle sticks, and that we put rice inside the maracas to make noise. Zusha got so excited, "Let's go cook rice!" LOL. I told him we'll use raw rice. Now they still have these maracas, several months later, and keep them in their musical instruments box.

A clock Zusha made all on his own. He taped it onto the kitchen wall and then added the flower.


A phone! Haha. It has just a little too many buttons but how clever to make them with a hole puncher!


And today's last exhibit- scissors!

(Not "a scissor" like Zusha insists on saying because his classmates and Rebbe say that. Not that I'm surprised. But I refuse to give him scissors unless he uses the correct term so he quickly learned. I could give him a scissor, though, if I didn't think it was a pity to break scissors for the sake of a grammar lesson.)

I helped him cut out the holes for the fingers, but the rest was his own work, as well as idea.

June 2009 Photos

~Zusha 5, Gedalya 3 1/4, Adel 8 months~


One of the many downpours this month.


Rock climbing!


The boys with my mother, on our way to get our hamsters!


They took a couple of free newspapers to make arts & crafts from them. LOL!


"Mama, is this exercise?"


Gedalya defying laws of physics, as usual.



This is a really cool flower. The kids picked one of these last year and brought it home. I had no clue that this was anything but a regular flower. Then I noticed thin skin covering the root area. The skin looked like that of garlic. I peeled it off, and right away, I smelled... garlic!

Then I Googled "garlic flower" images and saw that it is a garlic plant, indeed! How cool. This year they are all over the place here.


Fancy baby.


This is one of the outfits my mother in law brought Adel from India. Cute!

(The skirt was supposed to be pleated, but it all came out in the wash. Oh, well. Now Adi has a flary skirt, cuz I'm not ironing pleats!)

Heavy Machinery

Gedalya was beyond himself with joy:

A real crane, and so close!

The boys wanted to ride this motorcycle SO badly. We passed it once several months back, but it wasn't working.

We also pass it on Shabbos when we go to Zusi's house. So they were only admiring it, without a chance to ride.

It's not on any of our regular routes, so we made a special detour to get a chance to ride the motorcycle. It was a big hit!


And last but not least...
Gedalya is a digger man!


Digging holes is serious business, people!

Baby Huntalech and Little Boy Things

Zusha and Gedalya decided to be baby huntalech (doggies) one day. They designated one jungle gym as their home and greeted every child who would venture up the steps by running up to them, barking and panting.

They also did quite a bit of crawling around on all fours.


(Baby Adel huntala was taking a doggie nap this whole time.)


The boy doggies found themselves a nice little bed. Under the ramp.


Ick.



Can you imagine what their hands looked like at the end of the day?
Well, you don't have to try too much:


And what about the rest of them?



Yup, it was a boy game, through and through.
Time for cleanup!
The wipe is filthy, but the difference it made in the boys' appearance is almost indiscernible.

Heh heh.


Barely had I discarded the wipes from the cleanup job, when there lay before us a new discovery:


Gedalya went in with abandon.



While Zusha was more conscientious of the fact that I had just scrubbed them clean.
He tested the waters (literally) in a cautious manner...


...but in the end decided:

"Ew. Count me out."

But Gedalya had no such conscience pangs as he ran to avoid the attack of the evil baby wipes.