A house full of energy and enthusiasm

We got home from Community Bible Study this morning and Rachael immediately ran into the playroom and shut the door. A few minutes later she said, "Rebecca, look! I found something on the stairs for you!" and brought Rebecca the note above. ("Your first clue will be in the playroom. Look all over to find it.")

Meanwhile, Rebecca was drawing on the kitchen floor. She said she was doing her homework for Miss Cupcake. She wrote Miss Cupcake's name, drew a picture, and wrote and recited out loud:

1+1=2

2+1=3

4+4=8

Then Rebecca dug a ruler out of my drawer and told me the piece of paper was "12 long."

I think the "treasure" was some money in a box. I never actually saw it though ...

Right now Rebecca is dressed as Dorothy and Rachael is Glinda the Good Witch. (They've never even seen the movie.)

Earlier they were pretending to go to Disney World, riding rides, singing "It's a Small World" and "Toyland."

Baby Ben has been playing with his toy rocket and toy toolbox. Also opening and closing doors.

I think I hear Rachael on the phone now; she must have called my mom.

It just never seems to stop around here ... the playing, the enthusiasm, the energy, the ideas, the creativity.

My favorite children's author

If I had to be on a desert island with my kids and all the books of only one author (which makes no sense, really), the author would definitely be Tomie dePaula.

You gotta like somebody who appeared on Barney, along with his sister Maureen, to read his book The Baby Sister, about when Maureen was born.

The books in his "Tommy" series are all really neat: true stories of his childhood and family. In addition to The Baby Sister, they include:

The Art Lesson
Stagestruck
Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs
Tom
and lots more!

Then he has several really cool stories ... legends, I guess, or tales from different countries, like:

Tony's Bread
Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato
Adelita (a Mexican Cinderella story)
and others!

Then there's the Strega Nona series, which we haven't gotten into much yet, but probably will someday.

And that's not all!

There's the series about The Barkers, the Welsh Terriers (I think) family with twins Morgan and Moffat. (I believe Mr. dePaola has two Welsh Terriers by those names. Like I said, you gotta love this guy.)

And the Bill and Pete series!

Oh, and there's a really clever Christmas book about all of Santa's crazy relatives, called Guess Who's Coming to Santa's for Dinner?

And that's not all!

I'm looking at Amazon now and there are several books on top of all those that I've never heard of ... plus I see some biographies ... oh, I would like that, even if the kids wouldn't ...

I guess I'm headed back to the library -- as usual! :)

Snow pictures, finally

Okay, I finally downloaded the pictures from when we had snow the weekend of January 19.
These were taken Friday evening, just as it was starting.

It wasn't a great snow, but it was a definite snow, which we sadly haven't had around here for a few years.
To me, it isn't a truly great snow unless you can't see where the grass ends and the driveway begins.


Here's Baby Ben on the back deck ...


And here he is next to the front steps.


Rachael and Rebecca filled up this tub of snow and put it in the freezer. A day or two later I found it still in the freezer, but mixed with chocolate syrup. After a few days of that, I finally dumped it in the sink.

Pretty girls!

I thought Rebecca looked so cute when she got dressed this morning that I took a picture of her.

If you look closely, you can see she's wearing sparkly red Dorothy shoes, an Olivia Newton-John headband, and a clear hair clip on the top of her head. Her yellow purse is on the floor behind her, and she's holding a Prayer Bear that Grandma Glo gave Benjamin this weekend.


Rachael wanted me to take her picture too.
I think at that moment she was supposed to be Mia, the latest American Girl doll.

Benjamin and his two best friends

Rachael has Lammie. Rebecca has MommyDoggie.

Benjamin has Blanket. I sometimes call him "my little Linus."
Just recently he's been wanting Blanket in one hand and Blue and White Doggie in another hand. I think my mother brought that dog to the hospital when Benjamin when he was born, although who the hell knows anything that happened during those months?

I asked Rebecca what we should name his doggie. I think she said WhiteDoggie, but then she said Spot. He doesn't seem like a Spot to me ... so the jury's still out on that one.

Before I pick him up out of the crib, he always reaches down and picks up Blanket in one hand and Unnamed Doggie in the other. Then he looks at us and sort of babbles as if to say, "Okay, I'm ready to come out now!"


Not actually sleeping, just cuddling up for a few seconds.


Over here we keep our dishes, that's where we keep the glasses ...
and here's where we keep our baby!

Our interesting, full, unschooling day

I was just reading last night that, to be a successful unschooling family, you need to live an interesting life. Today seemed like an interesting day:

While I was getting breakfast ready, I laid several flashcards of the 220 Dolch Sight Words on the table and suggested the girls play a game together where they each take turns taking two cards that they can name.

This quickly evolved into the girls using tracing paper to trace several words onto a few pieces of paper in a sort of random design, then xeroxing it, decorating the words with markers, then setting up a store "selling words," complete with store sign and price tags.

At 10:30 am we all went to a toddler music class. Technically it's Benjamin's class, but he mostly just looks around, sometimes tries to reach the light switch, and wants to be held. When I handed him a scarf to dance with, he shook his head no. The girls like the class even though it's for one and two year olds. They see themselves as helpers.

Then we went through the bank drive-thru and to Jiffy Lube to get an oil change. The kids got to watch some Barney while we waited for the oil change. I'm pleased to see that Rachael is close to seven and still enjoys Barney and has no disdain for it. Benjamin is twenty months old and doesn't seem to have any real interest in TV yet.

Rebecca (age four) has been telling me for days that she hasn't had candy in a while, and we need to go to the candy store. Both girls brought their purses, which have several coins in them.

I know Rachael knows that four quarters make a dollar. She knows how to recognize all the coins, and how many cents each is worth. I know Rebecca also knows at least some of that.

Anyway, we head to Fuzziwigs at the Avenue. Rachael has just enough money to buy a pack of lemonade-flavored Hubba Bubba, and Rebecca has just enough to buy three big gummi/jellied dolphins. I also buy some Jelly Belly jellybeans for all of us to share.

Since it's lunchtime by now, we go next door to Johnny Rockets, which we've never been to before, for burgers and fries and flavored sodas. We all get cherry flavored soda(in retrospect, I should have gotten vanilla.) Rachael said it "too much cherry" and we were able to exchange it for a regular Coke. I wasn't thinking, and got too kids' meals as well as something for myself. Way, way too much food.

The people in the booth next to us had a German Shepherd under the table and I asked if they would mind talking to the girls about it. They were both very nice. The blind man looked to be about twenty years old and said he went blind about six years ago after surgery for a brain tumor. He said most blind people prefer to have a cane instead of a dog, because having a dog is such a big responsibility. But he said that, for him, it's been great.

When we got home, I put Benjamin down for a nap and me and the girls had "booktime," where I read aloud to them on the couch.

Rachael picked Snow White out of her Disney Treasury book. Rebecca picked a Sesame Street magazine. She pointed out to me a page in the middle of the story (of about 3-4 paragraphs) that she said she was able to read to herself yesterday. I asked her if she wanted to read it to me now, and she said no.

[I have the feeling she is learning to read but prefers to keep it kind of private for now. For example, there were two days about a week ago that she got my paperback copy of Anne of Green Gables, announced that she was going to read her book now, and then sat for about five or ten minutes looking at it. That must mean significant to her.]

Then the girls went down the the playroom while I'm sitting here typing and Baby Ben continues to nap. Rachael just drew a picture called "Stagestruck" to send to SS magazine in the hopes they will print it.

This weekend I got the Disney movie Cinderella out of the library, so maybe we'll watch that later. We watched it about a year ago and Rachael was scared of the cat. But, she told me, she's older now and maybe it will be okay.

In addition to that I somehow managed to wipe down the fronts of several kitchen cabinets and do two loads of laundry. (Although the laundry hasn't been put away yet, so I guess that doesn't quite count.) Mondays usually tend to be my most productive days.

Led Zeppelin at church today!

I'm a substitute pianist at a local Unitarian/Universalist church. Hadn't heard from them for a while, but they called this week saying they needed me for today.

It's a good gig, because it's a one-shot deal: show up, rehearse, do the service, get a check for a hundred dollars, go home and eat. They're also quality musicians over there and the director is very efficient.

Anyway, I was trying to pick what to play for the offertory, and browsing through my music cabinet, I found ... Stairway to Heaven! Aw, perfect!

Robert said to me, "No ....! You'd better check with them about that. That doesn't sound appropriate at all."

Ah, but Unitarians are different!

I had at least six or seven people approach me after the service to say how much they liked it.

Oh, what was also neat was that my mom came to hear me play. She doesn't doesn't know anything about Stairway to Heaven or Led Zeppelin, but she enjoyed both my playing and the service itself.