Niece Update

She's over ten pounds and two months of cute. This was not the best picture of her, but my camera's battery failed and by the time I got back, the baby had been moved. (I did leave some other adult watching her on the couch while I ran for the batteries.) Doesn't Penny look huge?



Penny just put my socks and sneakers on. Yes, mine. She thinks it's pretty freaking hilarious. Should I take a picture? We're having a good week at home. Crisp, cool (but no ridiculousness, it's 60s during the day) and sunny. More pictures after tomorrow.

A Week (or two days) in Pictures

Ah, the annual making of Thanksgiving costumes, a time-honored tradition since at least my late-70's era kindergarten. I (of course) forgot my camera at the kindergarten Thanksgiving party on Friday, but take my word that half the kids wore Pilgrim hats and the others wore Indian headdresses. Although their teacher told them they were supposed to sit like good little Puritan children and not speak unless spoken to, the minute her back was turned, it was all-out war, with updated (imaginary) automatic weaponry. Since we all know how the Native American-European friendship thing worked out, I guess it wasn't all that inappropriate.

The only picture we got was after dinner, when the girls tried on the various costumes Emily made during the week. Penny is wearing a turkey hat made by Emily during the party out of that craft foam stuff from which every preschool craft these days seems to engineered. What did we do before that stuff? I know! Construction paper!



Emily had her last soccer game on Saturday. Daddy said it was challenging to get an action shot, since Emily has a casual, observational relationship with soccer, even when she's technically on the field. That's okay--she's five and she's having fun. Carlyle plans to coach next season, so we'll see what effect that has on her, um, game.

Photo Round-up

Earlier this week, Emily went on a field trip with her kindergarten class. I got to drive in my van, a privilege which is highly overrated. If two 5-6-year-olds are noisy, then five of them are up there with, I don't know, someone cutting down a tree with an electric saw next door at 6 am. (This seems to happen fairly regularly in our neighborhood, peopled with retired gentlemen who can't sleep and are obsessed with their lawns.)

At any rate, the field trip was fun. It was Slim Goodbody. Yes, the same guy you might remember from PBS when you were a kid. He looks pretty good for 60, keeps it short, and even lets kids from the audience get a chance to come up on the stage. Of course, that also presents the developmental issue that children this age don't understand odds and all think they should get picked if anyone get picked. At least that's what Emily seemed to be saying when she briefly broke down after not being picked.

So here are photos from outside the building and in their seats before the show started (no flash photography or video cameras permitted during the show, natch). Emily and her cousin making silly faces.






I have to say, though, that I really do reconsider this private school thing when I hear behind me, one kid say to another, as another school files down the aisle to their seats, "Hey, look at the brown kids!" I can talk to her about how we all have different skin colors, and read books to her about slavery and discrimination and immigration, but if every day at school she's surrounded by white people . . .

And I don't blame the kid behind me, who was probably only 6 or 7 himself. He's just saying what he observes. It's not his fault that white people tend to whisper about race, as if it's impolite to acknowledge or might embarrass a minority who may not be aware that his skin is so dark. I think there are some things that can only be learned by actual association and conversation with children of other races, teachers of other races. Of course, there are lots of good things about her school, or else she wouldn't be going there. But it does make me think, and I will probably keep thinking.

Next up was Emily's Thanksgiving program, which substitutes for the annual Christmas program this year due to the difficulty of renting church space during the Christmas season. Seems that churches like to do Christmas shows, too. The program was cute, but only a few pictures of Emily made the cut. Turns out my camera doesn't do distance too well. Guess I knew that.





Huh. In that middle photo, it looks like she's wearing make-up, but SHE IS NOT. No way, no how.

Missing are today's soccer pictures from her second-to-last soccer game. Daddy had the camera (thanks to me) but forgot to use it. I can't blame him because I didn't remember for the first 6 games and 8 practices either. We get to keep the uniforms, so I guess we could even stage it later.

This week we've also been mired in snotty noses, sneezing, coughing, and the occasional upchuck by the smallest member of the family (not including the cat) who apparently responds to all viruses by throwing up. Also, the cat got fixed, and we had the carpet treated for the fleas with which we are apparently infested. (So that's what those little red bites on my ankles were!)

And Carlyle turned 33! Happy Birthday! We're going out to dinner tonight, sans kids. Yay!

The Things Kids Say

Emily (on the way home from school in the car): Mommy? What happens when we stop counting?

Me (listening to NPR): What do you mean? Counting what?

Emily: Mommy! No! I mean, when the numbers stop? What happens when the numbers stop?

Me (recalling an earlier conversation about infinite sets): Oh! You mean how the numbers keep going and you could just keep counting forever.

Emily: But even if you kept counting forever you couldn't get to the end.

Me: Right. They just keep going.

Emily: But how do you know what number is next?

Me (back to NPR again): Um?

Emily: How do you know what number comes next when you keep counting and counting?

Me: Well, the numbers always happen one after another, like 16 thousand, four hundred and four and then 16 thousand, four hundred and five.

Emily: But you couldn't ever count them all?

Me: Nope. Even if you counted all the time your whole life. They even have computers that count numbers really fast and the computers haven't gotten to the end. Because there's no end.

Emily: This is the computer counting (robot voice): 1234567891011121314


Later, when tucking them in for bed (at 7:45 pm, hee hee):

Penny: No hug! No kiss! (throwing covers over her head dramatically)

Daddy: Okay, Good night then!

Penny: No! No! Huggy! Kissy!

Me (hugging Penny first because I was closer): Good night, Penny!

Penny (after kissing me somberly on the lips): I will miss you, too, Mommy.

Trick or Treat

I accidentally deleted a portrait of Emily in her cat costume by the window in my parents' house. Bummer. I wish digital cameras came with an undo button. Halloween was fun, even if Penny fell asleep on the way home and still hasn't brushed her teeth! We're going to go do that now . . . Enjoy the pictures that remain . . .


After dinner at my parents' house, Penny has already started on the candy.


Emily is an experienced trick or treater.


Penny loves to trick or treat, too!


On to the next house!


At aunt and uncle's . . . time to dig in!


"That's mine, Emily!"


The cousins compare loot.


Her newly 3-year-old cousin helps Penny adjust her crown.

Birthday Party

My niece is now one-month-old and adorable, while peering curiously over Grandpa's shoulder . . .

. . . and while sleeping peacefully on Grandma's lap.

But the birthday party was for her brother, little B., who turned 3 yesterday. I am now going to post a bunch of pictures of kids, mine and my sister's, playing with little B.'s toys, eating, and enjoying the company of a few others their age (mostly not pictured). Also, my girls getting a kick out of a house full of boys' toys.





(above, that's the birthday boy and Penny (7 months younger) with a scary mask.)









Oh, my girls need haircuts again, but I do never get tired of looking at their faces. Tired of whining, maybe, and the demands for Juice, Help, and Look, Mommy, Look. But those are little things and soon will pass (I tell myself and I know it's true).

More from the Zoo

Where were we? I'm not going to try that Dancing Elephant Box video again, but it is cute, trust me. By 4:15, Carlyle still wanted to see every inch of the zoo in order to get our money's worth, while I wanted to sit down and not have to carry Penny/listen to her whining for me to pick her up. So, he took Emily to see the Florida animals (e.g., manatees, various birds, some kind of deer or something. . . yawn), which happens to be located along the longest length of trail/sidewalk/boardwalk with only one way out and one way in. I wished them luck and took my sore toe and my whiny two-year-old (to be fair, she was currently two hours past normal naptime, with no nap) to the Manatee Fountain (see, I saw a manatee, too!).

It may be hard to tell, but I went from, Don't get your clothes too wet! to Oh, heck, I have a change of pants for you, so give me your socks and shoes and shirt and go crazy, in less than 5 minutes.





I was sitting on a bench next to another (better?) mother who called her approximately eight-year-old son over right after I'd let Penny go half-naked. She demanded that he read the sign. "Read the sign. What does that say?" The sign happened to be right behind my head, so I turned around to look as the kid read, "Shoes must be worn at all times." The mother nodded, "That's right, mister." The kid put his flip flops back on and raced back into the fray. I decided, after swallowing my mommy guilt, that it was totally worth whatever miniscule risk of (what, exactly? broken glass? athlete's foot? judgmental strangers?) to sit down for fifteen minutes and watch her have a ball. I should have come prepared with towels and water-friendly crocs and all that. But I didn't, so there you go.

I also noticed that this same mom kept running over and moving her approximately one-year-old daughter whenever Penny entered the same fountain spout space. Probably a total coincidence.

Emily and Carlyle returned after the exhausting walk, which they nonetheless enjoyed. Then it was paper towels to Penny in the restroom and new pants and (old, but dry!) shoes and socks and we were out of there just before zoo closing at 5 pm.

We cautiously explored the streets around the zoo (thanks Google maps!) until we found a Sam Seltzer steakhouse. Probably not my first pick for a meal with a 2 and 5 year old. (Man, do they use low wattage bulbs in there! And give you a lot of steak!) But it was food and we ate it (except for Penny who only had dinner rolls and lemonade).

We got back to the zoo for the reopening at 7 pm, had to stand in line for a few excruciating minutes until they opened the doors. I only have pictures of a few rides, but highlights also included two child-friendly haunted houses, which Emily loved but disdained a bit, and one decidedly-not-child-friendly haunted house, which Carlyle reluctantly agreed to take Emily through. She was scared, she stated that she might have nightmares, but so far, she hasn't actually had any nightmares. So I think we didn't scar her for life. (You can bet that mom at the Manatee Fountain wouldn't have approved, though!)





Those last two are on the carousel, the only ride Penny (reluctantly) agreed to ride. You can even see me lurking behind Emily, while Carlyle (cameraman) was standing right beside Penny. And the carousel was moving.

It was a really good day. A good way to spend the day before an important and difficult comprehensive exam, which I think I passed (results in 2-3 weeks). The kids fell asleep in the car and didn't even blink or protest when we plopped them in their beds at home.