Blowing & Drifting

It’s been a while since I posted some good kid quotes, and since I’m going to miss the girls a lot while I’m attending my grandfather’s funeral in the U.P., I thought I’d post a few from the last couple weeks: Genevieve, disagreeing with me: “You don’t know the truth, big man.” Julia: “Tomorrow for [...]

[Read more →]

Yesterday, Vivi fell off the deck of the Northfield city pool and hurt herself pretty badly. I should have been right there, but I was talking for a second with another dad, and when I looked back, Vivi had slipped, basically right into my arms. But still. She cried really hard, screaming, “I hurt my [...]

[Read more →]

This is a video camera: This is a video camera in the hands of a four-year-old. Genevieve calls this “My Laughter Box is Full.” My Laughter Box is Full from Christopher Tassava on Vimeo.

[Read more →]

On Friday night, the girls played some more “monkey in the middle,” which they call “Ball Thief.” Here are 23 seconds of them are in action: Ball Thief from Christopher Tassava on Vimeo.

[Read more →]

After dinner tonight, the girls and I went outside to play catch and have a few more minutes of active fun. As Julia and I were tossing a ball back and forth, Vivi – wearing a nightgown for no good reason at all – transformed herself into “Ball Fief” and proceeded to try to steal [...]

[Read more →]

Monday night, the girls decided we were going to play freeze tag. So we did, and it was both lung-burning and hilarious. They understand the basic idea, of course, but their physical limitations and personal idiosyncrasies make for a zany sort of activity – not quite a game, but not quite not a game, either. [...]

[Read more →]

One last post about Vivi’s birthday – photos of her on each of her birthdays.

[Read more →]

Apart from some characteristic growliness when waking up, Vivi enjoyed her birthday a lot. In an adorably openhearted way, she loved being the worthy center of attention: eating birthday cake for afternoon snack, opening presents, having a dinner made to order (and what a dinner it was: pizza stromboli, corn on the cob, and rhubarb [...]

[Read more →]

Genevieve had a blast celebrating her fourth birthday at Nonna and Boppa’s house, where most of the extended family also showed up. The best part was either the cake or the presents but Vivi was also pretty excited by the fact that she gets “another birfday!” on Sunday, her actual date of birth. Tonight’s bedtime [...]

[Read more →]

Vivi spent about half an hour before her “family party” on Friday afternoon writing this on her Nonna’s computer: Happy birthday to me Happy birthday to me We love our birthday girl I love my cake It’s so cute She was pretty happy with her accomplishment!

[Read more →]

Notwithstanding the fact that the girls have never been and are still not particularly good travelers, today’s trip up to Moorhead was by far the easiest, smoothest trip we’re ever had. Nobody (adult or child) cried, the (adult and child) complaining was kept to a minimum, no untimely urination or vomiting occurred, and on the whole, [...]

[Read more →]

Vivi dislikes when I either work out or take a shower, and will do almost anything to prevent me from doing one or the other. Today, she said that I couldn’t take a shower (after my bike ride) because “thewe awe cwocodiles in the showew.” More, translated into English and restructured into a semi-linear narrative: [...]

[Read more →]

Three moments made me glow with happiness today: At the coffeeshop for breakfast with the girls, several people stopped to compliment the girls on the art they were doing – Vivi’s “scawwy monsters” and Julia’s detailed depiction of the coffeeshop itself. I had a good fifteen minutes of playing catch with Julia, helping her get [...]

[Read more →]

In yesterday’s post, I described Vivi’s unusual meltdown on Monday night about having me stay home from work. Tuesday morning, in the clear light of day, we solved the mystery of the meltdown, which had its origins in something heartbreakingly adorable and adorably heartbreaking. Long cry short, it turns out that poor Vivi was terrified [...]

[Read more →]

This evening Vivi and I were  drawing when she looked over at me with big sad eyes and asked, “Is amorrow a weekend day?” I shook my head. “No, honey, tomorrow is just Tuesday. It’s a few more days until the weekend.” Whereupon she burst into tears – heavy, gasping, wailing tears – and leapt [...]

[Read more →]