Blowing & Drifting

Musing about possible April Fool’s pranks, Julia asked me how hard it would be to rig a bucket of water to fall on someone’s head. Thankfully, she and Vivi went in another, tamer, drier direction. (The dress color and the last line in the description are the jokes.)

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Vivi wrote this newspaper while I was traveling earlier this week. Click on it to see a more legible version. It’s worth the time:

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When I was racing the other weekend, Shannon set the girls up with a dish-soap painting project. Here are two of the paintings they made, each with a mysterious title. When I asked them about the titles, they said almost in unison that I’d told them that artists sometimes gave their works strange names, so [...]

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Genevieve spends a lot of time talking about “Genevieve Land,” where the natives naturally speak “Genevieve Language.” Luckily for those of us who might have to travel to this locale, she’s started a lexicon with important entries like Mama, sweets, vegetables, and birthday:

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Today is Shannon’s forty-xth birthday. As chief birthday officer, I’m glad to report that everything went well. The gifts were well chosen and well received, and the girls and I acquitted ourselves well in the kitchen, making a workmanlike dinner of bacon grilled cheeses and apple-celery salad and – get *this*! – a chocolate cake. [...]

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At about 7:15, Vivi decided that she wanted to read in bed under the covers with a headlamp she’s appropriated from me. We headed into her room, where Julia decided to join in the fun (in her own bed). Everything went fine until it was time for actual lights out at 7:30. Vivi started crying [...]

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The cover of Vivi’s nonfiction book on penguins. The interior pages display an excellent sense of the most useful balance between facts and images. In this work, she only used secondary sources, so I suppose they’ll do some primary research – field work on the Ross Ice Shelf? – next year.  

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After breakfast today, Julia asked me, “Do you know how long it takes light from the sun to reach the earth?” I said no, slightly ashamed that I didn’t. “Well, guess!” she told me. “Uhh, one minute.” “No, more. It’s a surprisingly long time.” “An hour!” “Way less.” “Fifteen minutes.” “Close!” “Uhhh, seven and a [...]

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The only thing better than a giant snowbank is a giant snowbank with tunnels in it, and the only thing better than that is a snowbank tunnel from which emerges a smiling first grader!

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God, I love a big snowbank. I think back to when I was a little kid in the U.P., where snowbanks reached up to the eaves of some buildings and we could sled down off the roof. The banks around here aren’t quite so big, but they’re decent, and today Julia and Genevieve enjoyed playing [...]

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With Christmas now winding up, I think the song that Vivi created on Christmas Eve does a good job of summing things up:

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I’m not sure what exactly is going on here, but…

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Few kids have longed to lose a tooth more than Genevieve Rose. For pretty much the whole time that Julia has actually been losing teeth, Vivi has been imagining that she’s about to lose one – or several. Today, after a couple weeks of wiggling and waggling, Vivi finally lost a tooth – at school, [...]

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Vivi had a hard time late this evening, getting frustrated with her attempt to line up dominoes for a chain-reaction knockdown and then stubbing her toe when she stomped off. After a few minutes of snuggling with her mom, she calmed down enough that I could take her to her bedroom for a story. But [...]

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Julia brought these two items home from school this week – a lovely little poem about snow and a nice piece of descriptive writing – complete with illustration – on her favorite cocoa mug: The drawing is pretty accurate! Here’s the real thing:

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