Archive for December, 2012
Rose caught this rather wonderful shot yesterday, just down the street from our house. I missed it—I’d been out there gawping at the hawk (ID, anyone? its coloring is throwing me off—could it possibly be a white-tailed kite?)* and had snapped a few wobbly pix, using Beanie’s head as a tripod, but then I ran back to the house to take over stirring the marshmallows Jane was melting for Rice Krispie treats, so she could have a turn. The mobbing crow came along just after I left. Well done, Rose.
*UPDATE: yes, we think so!
The marshmallow treats were this year’s double-birthday feast, in lieu of a cake. My guys had a great day. At Scott’s request, we had a family reading of The Tempest (Act 1; we’ll continue on future Sundays). Rilla did us proud; she gave a splendid cold reading of the role of Ariel (with some vocab coaching from Rose, who prefers to stage manage). Scott was Prospero, Beanie read Miranda, and Jane and I split the other parts between us. I got to ham it up as the old boatswain, so I was happy.
Books read over the weekend:
Tippy-Tippy-Tippy Hide by Candace Ransom, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
Mr Pusskins: A Love Story by Sam Lloyd
Hist Whist by ee cummings (a Halloween book, yes, but a year-round Rilla favorite)
Recently watched:
Cranford (happy sigh)
The Avengers
In the garden:
Roses in bloom, cosmos & poppy seedlings thriving, cape honeysuckle glorious, freesia and daffodil bulbs coming up. And the rain lilies, too, I think.
December 9, 2012 @ 4:49 pm | Filed under:
Games 
Our favorite game is ending tonight—forever. At 8pm Pacific time, the lights will blink out across the land of Ur, and Glitch will be no more.
Yeah, we’re pretty sad. We’ll be signing on at 7:30 to say our goodbyes. Will we hear the Good Night Glitchen song one last time? Will you?
Bunch of books have to go back today; before they go, a quick catalog of the ones my gang loved:
Gideon by Olivier Dunrea, from the Gossie & Friends series.
Huck enjoyed this short, simple story about a gosling who isn’t quite ready to take his nap. A repeat request, usually as a stall tactic at naptime. 😉 Sweet art; pleasingly small trim size. A good library choice, since Huck, at a month shy of four (eek), is on the top end of the age range this book is likely to appeal to.
A leveled reader that enchanted all three of my youngest. The homey adventures of imaginative twin girls with very different personalities. The making-dumplings chapter is Rilla’s favorite. She’s hoping for more Ling and Ting tales.
This early reader scored especially high with my boys. Huck’s an easy mark: you had him at “Robot.” Wonderboy was amused by the way Robot upended Rabbit’s careful sleepover plans. Plus: Magnetic hands! A lost remote control! A snack of nuts and bolts! And poor, flustered Rabbit, worrying about sticking to his schedule—a character Wonderboy can very much relate to. I might snag a copy of this one to keep.
One of the few Elephant & Piggie books we don’t own, which means we wind up checking it out often.
I’m sneaking Autumn Leaves out of the house after approximately thirty-seven reads.
We forgot to read a book today! Rilla was busy drawing all through the early part of the morning, and then we worked in the garage for a while, digging out the Christmas things and filling some boxes for a garage sale our circle of friends is having this weekend—a fundraiser for a family who is adopting the dearest little newborn girl.
The big laugh of the morning came when we found, shoved behind other boxes, an unopened box from our move here six years ago—all taped up, marked in my friend Lisa’s handwriting “Ugly Bat Thing.” A skeletal metal bat someone gave Scott as a gift to celebrate his days editing, and then writing, Batman comics. Then proceeded a spirited debate over whether it is, in fact, ugly. (The six-year-old votes no, emphatically.)
Earlier, and I shared this on Facebook at the time but I have to archive the moment here, I was sitting in my rocking chair when Rilla came sprinting into the room to ask what color hair I would like if I didn’t have brown. Easy one: red. She darted away. Back again a moment later with this question: “If you were a mermaid, would you want to wear a shirt? Or be like a real mermaid. You know, bare.”
I asked if a seashell bikini were an option, but nope. Six-year-olds can be very strict. You want to be a real mermaid, you gotta go for broke. I, however, made the mom choice and requested a t-shirt.
She roadrunnered away. Back again a bit later: “What’s your favorite underwater animal?” Easy one. I didn’t read Ring of Endless Light eighteen times for nothing.
“Dolphin.”
Off again, zip-tang. A little later, I got to see (at last) what she was up to.
This portrait, I learned, was part of a set: here are the four girls. Rose hates swimming, so Rilla made her an elf.
The jellyfish kill me.
I’m hoping tomorrow brings a set of mermen portraits to complete the family collection.
Books we read today:
Caps For Sale
The Baker’s Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale
The Donkey’s Dream
***
Last piano class before Bean & Rose’s Christmas recital. Lot of Deck the Halls and Carol of the Bells going on around here.
***
• Loved this Mother Bird post on making oak gall ink.
• What happens to your data (and your domains) when you die?
• I mentioned this on Facebook and at GeekMom, but in case you missed it: Amazon’s got some good stuff for $1.99 on Kindle this month. Howl’s Moving Castle, the first Series of Unfortunate Events book, and Dava Sobel’s excellent Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, among others. We already own all of those in print, but—two bucks!
In the grocery story I can’t resist slipping a package of gingerbread men into the cart. On the way home I tell Huck and Rilla the story—Huck’s never heard it, Rilla barely remembers. Huck is appalled by the ending, how the fox promises to carry the gingerbread man safely across the river, and then halfway there he snaps him up and gobbles him down.
Huck, distressed: “I don’t LIKE that fox!”
Rilla, eyes narrowed in a kind of scheming appreciation: “I do. I’d have done the same thing.”
Books we read today:
The Legend of Old Befana by Tomie de Paola
Freight Train by Donald Crews
The dearest sight today was Rilla leading Huck to her room, each carrying a book (Huck balancing his on his head), for her to read to him. From the next room, I could hear her high, piping voice going up and down, just the melody of it, not the words. They were my books, which makes it extra dear, but it would have been a sweet sight no matter what the books. Huck is not of an age to sit still for much of anything, but he lay there beside Rilla on her little low bed, listening intently.
***
Read this on Writer’s Almanac this evening:
Rilke wrote: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue […] Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers.”
It reminds me of something my friend Sarah might say.
***
An app to share:
Marble Math Multiplication—the lite version is free. I wrote about the other Marble Math apps a while back; all are quite good.
December 4, 2012 @ 3:04 pm | Filed under:
Art,
Rilla 
Rilla made a book of drawings this morning, several pages stapled together. “Chibi and Non-Chibi Drawings,” she wrote on the front, explaining that the chibi ones were traced from her favorite drawing book, and the non-chibi ones, like the little fellow above, were not traced, “just drawn regular.”
The little ruffly breast-feathers just melt me.
The other end of the doll shelf.
***
This morning I glanced out my bedroom window and thought for a moment that someone had put Christmas lights up in the big pine tree behind our back fence–a string of large orange lights, so pretty. Then I realized I was just seeing the blossoms of the Cape honeysuckle in front of the pine. (“Just.”) Now when I look, I can’t not see the lights. Guess our yard is going to do its own decorating this year.
***
Books we read today:
Big Bad Bunny
Hanna’s Christmas (Rilla picked it, I swear)
The Christmas Trolls
Backseat A-B-See
As the Crow Flies (love this book so much—crows, our favorite!)
