Andrew's family picture

I asked Andrew to draw a picture to put in our new year's letter. Here it is. Notice the hearts and arrows. Apparently they point at who loves whom the most. Andrew loves daddy the most and everything else follows from there ....

A simple project was a big success

The other night after making marshmallow dreidels with Andrew I had some leftover melted chocolate in two colors. Not wanting to let it go to waste, I made homemade "gelt" (coins) by drawing each of the letters in Alison & Andrew's names out (backwards) on a piece of foil in one color of melted chocolate, and then covering that with a circle to form a coin in another color.

I didn't think much of it ... it was a really simple thing, took me 5 minutes to do. So I didn't even take a picture.

Tonight I gave them to the kids. And got high praise from Andrew:

"My gelt is the goodest chocolate I ever ate. It's so good!!"

:-)

Andrew read a book tonight!

Andrew is very pleased tonight because he read a whole book. Admittedly it only had 4 words in it (two names:"Mat" & "Sam", plus the words "on" and "Sat") but there's a plot and several pages and he read the whole thing! I'm pretty pleased too :-). It's a series of 12 little books: http://www.bobbooks.com/bob_books_set_1.php

Alison's first computer program

Ali used "scratch" (scratch.mit.edu)  to write her first program. It's an animation called "wait up." She did it all by herself, and I wasn't allowed to peek until she was done. You can watch it here: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/suny36/1391022

When Andrew Grows Up

Andrew recently said that he wanted to be a fireman when he grows up. I asked whether he still wanted to be a guitar player and he said, yes, that too, and we discussed how he could play guitar in the firehouse when they weren't out on calls (I had to reassure him that yes, I was certain you could bring a guitar to a fire station).

Fast forward a week or two. Yesterday Andrew told me that when he was grown up he might go out on his own, for example if he wanted to visit a dog that he wanted to pet or something. But then he would come back home .... "unless I'm doing a show or there's a fire"

Alison's latest essay

Ali had to write a "journal entry." I'm not sure what the guidelines were, but here it is ...

An old quote from Ali -- May 13th

Forgot to put this in, but it's so Ali ...

Ali and I went for a walk to the other side of the lake and she climbed on a jungle gym (climbing frame) she hadn't played on before. She said, "This jungle gym is really made for me. It's so fun -- there's so many different ways to go on it. Every time you go on it you can go a different way!"

A New Story: "Hello Israel", by Alison

Today Alison brought home a story she wrote at school. I think it's just amazing.

Alison plays the recorder

Alison has been practicing for her big recorder concert in two weeks and she and I have been playing some of the duets together. I am astonished at the fact that I remember the fingering. And even more astonished at how absolutely fantastically fun I find playing duets with my little girl. She and I are having a blast.

Her teacher gives them colored "belts" (actually pieces of wool) that are tied to the end of their recorders as they pass various levels of achievement. Alison was very excited to earn her "purple belt" last week

Another Andrew Quote

Andrew: "Mommy, Samantha says I'm not cute"
Jennie: "Well, she's wrong, you're adorable"
Andrew: "Mmm hmmm"
Jennie: "You know what adorable means, right, it means you're super extra cute."
Andrew: "Well, I am the cutest one really in my class."
Jennie: "Mmm hmmm"
Andrew: "Yeah, really, I am."

Another March Andrew Quote

Another quote I noted back in March and never typed in. Andrew asked his stuffed dog what is the opposite of up and the dog "said", "woof." Which is indeed the opposite of up in dog language.

Andrew is a "song genius"

Back in March, Andrew said, "I'm actually a song genius."

Andrew Quote ...

"No Mom, it's just sometimes you're a horrible Mom," said Andrew (as I said "I'm a horrible mom" on the phone to another mom ...)

 (A minute later, when I said something about it, he said, "No really, mom, I'm right, you're only horrible sometimes.")

Nice things kids say

Last night Andrew said, "Mommy, why do you always smell nice?"

Question from Alison's math test

OK, so I'm a math geek. But Ali showed me this from her recent math test and said that her teacher said that hers was OK, but the red one he drew was better. After making sure she understands the concept (she does) I *love* her line (and think it's better!)

(Note for non-math-geeks ... the arrow at the end means it goes... on forever, so EF goes on forever in both directions, but HG starts at H and only goes on forever towards G and beyond)

Our Snowman

Even more snow today ... and some sleet ... great for making a snowman. Here's the result: traditional charcoal eyes (Alison's idea), carrot nose (my idea), button mouth (Andrew's idea), and a paint job (I brought the paints out, but it was the kids that did the painting!

Mommy's new swimsuit

I got a new tankini (two-piece bathing suit) in the mail last weekend. The bottoms have a little skirt thing because I might as well take advantage of the fashion to hide my hips. I asked Alison what she thought of it. 

Ali: "It's cute, mom, but, you know ... your legs ... you might want to wear stockings with it." 

Me: "With a ...bathing suit?!?" 

Ali: "Oh, I thought it was an outfit. If it's a bathing suit it looks great!"

One wonders where she thought I'd be wearing it. I imagine she thought it was some sort of party dress ...

Andrew Stuck in the Snow (From Feb 6th)

19 inches of snow according to the meter stick that Ali brought home from school a few weeks ago (it's got inches on the other side). I ask Andrew if he's ready to go inside ... "Yes but I can't get up"

Andrew's new job at school (From Feb 1st)

Andrew: "I got a new job today at school - I'm lights helper" 

Jennie: "Wow, does that mean you get to turn on and off the lights?" 

Andrew: "Wow!! How did you know?!?" 

Red: "Good guess." 

Andrew: "Yeah, just a really lucky guess!!!"