juliloquy

quick learner

You have perhaps seen the video of Roo's birthday where she is clearly perplexed about the blowing-out-the-candles business. HPR helped her with the cake candles and Shmoo helped her with her birthday ring candles.

Shmoo's birthday is six weeks after Roo's, and this video shows that it didn't take long for her to catch on. I ended up having to restrain her while HPR relit Shmoo's candles.

busman's holiday

HPR has the day off and we're going on a day trip to Mt. Vernon. I hadn't realized it's so close.

And this is a photo of Shmoo in the bounce house at his birthday party.

mistakes were made

A few recent photos have me wondering what kind of example I'm setting for my kids.

First is Roo's Britney imitation.

 

She went on to give the baby an underdog-push in the baby swing.
Seriously - she said "unnadod" as she was doing it.

All right, so two minor lapses in judgment and no one is hurt, right?
I'm afraid I can't say the same of microwaving the baby.

 

Ding! Fresh baby!

So I guess I should make some changes to my parenting tactics. Maybe the first step should be to let the kids out of their cages more often.

 

Halloween recap

Daylight savings ends. An extra hour of sleep, right? Yeah, tell that to a 2-year-old. Specifically, my 2-year-old. Because the kids both took good naps yesterday (a rarity for Shmoo these days) and because of trick-or-treating and the required combing through of the haul, we let them stay up late. It still seems so unfair that that never works for getting them to sleep in.

So, Halloween. We weren't sure how our new neighborhood would be. Seems like it would be the kind of place where people really get into the holiday. Probably it was back in the 60s when these houses were first built and there were kids everywhere. Long story short—our cul-de-sac is lame. We were the only house open for business. We are at the bottom of the cul-de-sac and only had about 10 visitors. (Wishing I had been more generous with the first visitors.) Anyway, now we know for next year.

HPR stayed home to answer the door while I took the kids out. Roo was in the stroller for some of the time. Shmoo was sweet in asking folks if he could have some for his sister, too, motioning back to us in the driveways. (Not sure how truly unselfish were his motives, but I'm choosing to put that spin on it.) Our route was a nice loop around the neighborhood. We were out from about 7-8 and toward the end, people were virtually pouring the candy into our bags. So between the kids' take and our leftovers, we're doing well.

It's crazy, but it just might work

I signed up for NaBloPoMo, which requires me to post every day in November. I believe that means more posts in November than I've put up so far in 2009. I'm looking forward to seeing where this takes me.

Also crazy: we invited all of Shmoo's Pre-K classmates to his birthday party next weekend. Nineteen 4- and 5-year olds.

Shmoo wanted to be the Easter Bunny for Halloween (?!). Easy costume! I bought a second pair of bunny ears and tail for Roo, but she wouldn't wear them.

And Roo just woke up from her nap. More . . . tomorrow!

Dear _Ms. Roo_

We are writing to you to confirm receipt of your proposal _3 a.m.READ BOOKS PARTY!PARTY!_. We regret to inform you that we are unable to fulfill your request at this time. While intriguing, the project does not meet our current needs. Please feel free to contact us again. We may have such an opening at a later time, perhaps 7 or 7:30.

All best wishes,

The Management

a story

My Peace Corps training was held over 11 weeks during the summer of 2000. The 65-odd trainees* all lived with host families in a town in western Bulgaria named Dupnitsa.** The Jerman River*** flows through Dupnitsa and I would cross it every morning on my way to our training classes.

Bulgaria, to my knowledge, does not have anti-littering laws, and although it is not a "disposable society" to the extent of the United States, you will find trash strewn about any open space in Bulgaria.**** The Jerman River was always choked with trash, most of it plastic bottles.

We idealist and energetic Peace Corps trainees took note and decided to do a big river cleanup. About 20 of us, along with some host-sisters and -brothers, worked hard throughout one clear Saturday morning. When we finished, the 3-block section of the river was completely void of trash. It was lovely.

As we sat back, weary yet satisfied from our efforts, a friend said "Crap, we forgot to take a 'before' picture."

Without missing a beat, another volunteer quipped "Just wait a week or two. Then we can take the 'before' shot." And verily it came to pass.

This is now the story of the state of my house. Although replace "a week or two" with "an hour or two."

The End.

*Some odder than others, oh-ho-ho.
**Dupnitsa means "little hole" in Bulgarian. Fitting name. But I have no complaints about my training or host family experiences. Oh! I see the letter I wrote back in 2001 is still part of the Welcome Book [unattributed, pages 89-90 of this pdf. But I just noticed that they took out part of the last sentence on page 89. It was supposed to read ""If you’re a teacher, be prepared to wrestle with tough educational issues: how to teach to multilevel classes, what to do about students without textbooks, and whether to teach the 'smell like a monkey' version of the Happy Birthday song."]
***I totally had to look up the river's name. 
****Bulgaria could stand to run the Indian crying commercial.

we propose this toast

Shmooie requested French toast today, then helped me make it. This is our conversation as I put it into the skillet.

Me, reviewing [everything's a teaching moment with us, poor kids]: So, what is the mixture we dipped the bread into?
Shmoo: French!
Me, laughing: egg and [waiting] . . . milk, right?
Shmoo: Why do we call it French toast? Is it French?
Me: I don't know - I don't think so. Maybe people just wanted a fancy name for it . . . Oh and we put cinnamon in it, too . . .
Shmoo: And cimmanim comes from French, right?
HPR, from the next room: Cinnamon comes from India.
Shmoo: So we should call it India toast! Indian toast!
Me: Yes indeed. India toast!

Oh how I love the geeks

Here is a video of scientists telling which element they'd like for Christmas, interspersed with a duo playing test-tube panpipes. I'm rather keen on the oxygen guy's reasoning: "well, to sustain life, basically, innit?"




Brought to you by the University of Nottingham's School of Chemistry, who also just finished the Periodic Table of Videos - a YouTube video for each element.

What would you choose?

early morning snippet

Shmooie's bedroom is on the opposite side of the house from ours.

This morning at 5, I hear pad pad pad pad of Shmoo-sized feet down the hall. He comes to my side of the bed:

"Miss Michelle [preschool teacher] says I can't have Nemo as my friend at school. She says that nighttime pets aren't allowed at school."

"That's the rule," I respond, and roll over.

pad pad pad pad back down the hall.

Thirty seconds later pad pad pad pad back to our room.

"Mommy, you hurt my feelings."

"Here, let me kiss them."

*kiss*

pad pad pad pad back down the hall.