Another example

of the hilarious brilliance in Lily's songwriting.

So far this song is untitled.

She was born like an artist. Raised like a hound.
She always shines bright. Never hides her colors.
Glides like the wind. Floats like a feather.
And always shows her colors of her Land.
She jingles with the bells. Makes the rainbows shine.
And has the colors of the wind.
She can be an artist, she can be a hound.
But she keeps her colors bright.


What I want to know is who is this song based on? Some figment of Lily's imagination? Or is she writing about herself (she does fancy herself an artist after all)? In which case I'd really like an explanation for the raised like a hound part. Not to mention what zoomorphic trait does she imagine a hound gives to this artistic girl who jingles with the bells and makes rainbows shine?

What do you do with neighbors who

refuse to take your homemade Christmas treats delivered to their door in the holiday spirit by your cute and guile-less eight year old daughter?

At least they didn't scream at her but merely sent her packing with a curt, "No thanks, we don't need any."

It's surprising how much it smarts to be disliked so vehemently.

Grant and I are both really un-festive when it comes to putting up Christmas lights on the house. As in, we have never done it and have never wanted to. I really don't know what Grant's reasons are, but for myself it is the frigid weather. I'm already so cold inside the house that I have no idea why anyone in their right mind would purposely go outside the house for hours to do a project when they don't have to. Eliseo, however, is dying to have Christmas lights on the house and has been trying to convince us for days that it is a worthwhile effort. When I picked him up from Scouts tonight he tried a new plug.

Eliseo (pointing to a festive house): See! We need to do our house like that. It's just so....attractive!

I really can't convey it in writing but the way he pronounced the word attractive is still making me laugh. It was a convincing enough argument that I may let him have a go at it himself and see what he comes up with.

Ode to Winter Hatred 2011

When Hell freezes over

It really will be

Hell.

Summer was fun. We went to the cabin in Colorado. We went to Oregon for a month. We visited the coast, something we haven't done in 10 years. I got to see my sister Rachel, which I haven't done in two years. I got to spend a lot of time with my cool sis in law, Elyn, and it was super fun getting to know her better. I took tons of pictures and some video, but we all know how much I can't stand uploading pictures so use your imagination. (You are permitted, while you are using your imagination, to picture me looking exactly the same as I did about 15 years ago.)

My highlights:

We were blessedly away from our psychotic neighbor for most of the summer.
There was help with dinner and clean up every night.
Jogging in the perfect temperature of an Eastern Oregon early morning under the shade of trees.
Garage sale-ing with my mom and sisters.

The kids' highlights:

Not having to practice piano for six weeks.
Having to change clothes only once every three days or so.
The dessert marathon that was Grandma's house.
Cousins, cousins, cousins!

Now we are back in school. Rune at Jr. High, which he loves. I am so happy that he is having such a great time. Eliseo and Lily at homeschool. We are doing K12 this year. We'll see how it goes. Alma and Violet manage to decrease our productivity by about 50% every day which is not exactly fun, but it can be funny.

I've recently developed an intense interest in investing and acquiring assets. I've always been a scientist at heart and never thought I would have any interest in financial matters, but it's been very fun so far. I even bought the book Investing Online for Dummies. Rune was very proud of me. He said, "Hey! You bought one of those Dummies books!" Even if I never become a savvy investor I'm thoroughly enjoying learning something entirely new.

You notice I haven't mentioned Grant. That is because archaeologists disappear into the 'field' during the summer. (You must mentally say the word field in a mysterious voice.) As far as Grant is concerned I think our summerly interaction largely consisted of me nagging him about sunscreen, long sleeved shirts and wide brimmed hats. As much as I hate winter it will be nice to see Grant again (and WITHOUT a sunburn). I can't say how much he will enjoy seeing me, though, after all my nagging!

Lastly, just this Saturday I had the awesome experience of meeting Billy Blanks. Who, for those of you who don't know, is the creator of Tae Bo. Although he was unaware of it, he and I go waaaay back. For about 7 years I stayed in shape through two of his DVD's. The Basic one when pregnant and the Advanced one when not pregnant. Billy Blanks and his blue (Basic video) and red (Advanced video) singlets are permanently etched in my brain. Unfortunately, he no longer wears singlets.

Mother's Day 2011

1. The kids had to be reminded that it was Mother's Day when it became obvious that they didn't remember and/or care.
2. They spent all day disobeying me.
3. I made a deal with Grant that he was excused from Mother's Day dinner duties if he would go work on the basement. He readily agreed, then went and took a 3 hour nap. Just when I was about to strangle him awake he popped out of bed and worked on the basement.
4. Over dinner I tried to give the kids a mighty guilt trip about my mistreatment. Only Rune was moved to real sorrow. Lily unapologetic-ally and glibly promised to serve me faithfully for the rest of the week. Then, after dinner, she threw a fit when I asked her to practice piano.
5. I went to bed laughing and not looking forward to the day when my house will only be full of echoes and Grant will be the only one around for me to boss.

My favorite kid's media

Not in any particular order.

Pingu

He is exasperating and loveable at the same time. Just like a real kid! The lack of coherent dialogue is completely made up for by simplicty and exaggerated body language. The kids (and okay, Grant and I) have all enjoyed mimicking the babble and, often through tricks of sound and mind, have found 'coherent' words from all languages that we know. The fact that the episodes are only 5 mintues long is also a plus. If the kids are begging to watch TV but you don't particularly want them to be vegging in front of a screen, the solution is simple: "Okay you can watch two episodes of Pingu." They feel like they've scored and so do you!

www.uptoten.com

Boowa and Kwala are hands down my favorite choice for toddler computer time. It is innocent fun at its best. The site is so simple, fun and catchy that I often play along with the kids. Or at least watch them play. They have a huge selection of super simple games and songs. Boowa and Kwala have been part of our family dynamics since Rune was probably four years old and I've never gotten tired of them. An added bonus: If you have a desire to teach your kids French, the site can be toggled between English and French.

Teletubbies

Toddlers love repetition and Teletubbies gives them plenty of it. When it comes to a fun activity a small child's favorite word is "again!" and the Teletubbies are all over that philosophy. They do everything at least twice. I appreciate so much that this show moves at a baby's pace and not the parent's. An aside: Rune and Eliseo watched this show quite a bit in Taiwan and all of us learned a fair amount of Chinese from it. It is usually very difficult to learn a language from TV but since the Teletubbies talk so simply, use a lot of context, and repeat so often it is an ideal language learning tool for small kids.

Kipper

On Netflix one reviewer of this show called it the "Seinfeld" of toddler shows since the episodes are about essentially nothing. But 'nothing' is our relative adult term for very important happenings in a child's world. I've tested this out on Violet. At various and random times I would ask, "What does Kipper do?" She always gets a big smile on her face and is never without a ready answer. "He goes outside." "He finds Tiger." "He swings on the swings." In her world view Kipper does lots of things. I've also really enjoyed listening to my kids try to imitate their British accents.

Backyardigans

Alma recently discovered this show himself on Netflix. I had never seen it before. The premise is a group of kids who use their imaginations to make all sorts of adventures in their backyards. But the real beauty of the show is the music. So far I think we've experienced every genre of music except rap. If someone knows of a rap episode I'd love the find it. My favorite episode so far is the chef/ninja/great pie episode. This show has inspired my kids to try and use their imaginations more and I imagine it could really inspire a musically talented kid.

Spongebob Squarepants

Spongebob is honest, hard-working, good-humored, good-natured, non-judgemental and completely without guile. He looks on the bright side of everything and the good side of everybody. He is such a welcome departure from the rest of cartoondom that is rife with sarcasm, half-snide quips and a universal disrespect for authority based on the premise that all parent/teacher figures are dumb and/or ridiculous. I also appreciate that it avoids the good guys vs. evil nemesis story line. The closest Spongebob has to an evil nemesis is, I guess, Squidward, but he's not evil, just obstinately bad-humored. And more often than not he gravitates towards Spongebob's happy and fun antics in spite of himself.