Antsy Pantsy Dance

There's a couple interesting things about this video. One is Yordi's ability to play soccer without losing the rhythm. The other is the way she takes her brother (in orange) to school while doing so.
Apologies in advance for the video quality. My phone lens was smudged and shoots in SuprCrap on good days anyway... What's not audible is the iPod pumping out vintage Michael Jackson in the background, but you'll get the idea.

Whiny the Clown

After reading about Junie B. Jones dressing up like "Screamy the Clown", Yordanos was inspired to do this:

She called herself "Whiny the Clown" and ran around the house trying to scare us.  Sometimes you just have to shake your head, don't you? 

Out of Phase

I can only assume, by these photos, that my niece is out of phase with the rest of us.  Is she partly in our world, but partly in sub-space?  Is she a baby Nosferatu?  I only notice this phenomenon in pictures... well, that's not strictly true... one minute she'll be there, and you blink, and she's GONE. 

 

Thriller Christmas

 I'm so glad nobody over-reacted this Christmas.  Oh. Um. Er.  Maybe one of us did.

 

 

In case you didn't know, the Michael Jackson Wii dance game comes with a sparkly glove... in case you didn't get yours back in the 80's.

Daily Snippet...

Yordanos is down to her last 4 baby teeth, and 3 of them are currently loose.  She showed me one of them that was hurting, and got more and more frustrated about it.

"It is hurting my law... my... law... my... JAW... my mouth... MY PIE-HOLE.  WhatEVER."

Still has me laughing.

We got back to school today, and for a Monday (not only a Monday, but a Monday after a 12 day break), I have to say it went very well. They didn't forget too much... we did some math review, but everything else was fine.  In fact, I've noticed that after taking vacations, Habtamu's reading seems to get better.   Don't tell him, because we can't be taking breaks all the time, but it's good to know that with the reading he does on his own is bearing fruit.  Yordanos and I concentrated on some gaps in mathematical understanding that I've noticed.  We played with manipulatives until she saw the pattern I was trying to teach.  We'll have to go over it some more tomorrow, but she catches on quickly. 

After school, the children seemed to not be able (willing?) to stop bothering, annoying, poking, touching, etc. each other.  I heard Habtamu say "Stop-uh!" for the 87th time to Yordanos, and I said, "Oh, did she pick your nose for you?"  He snorted, then quickly remembered he was trying to be angry.  I kept right on saying, with a straight face, how I can understand the frustration of somebody else picking your nose without your permission, and how HORRIBLE it must have been.  Meanwhile, Yordanos is laughing so hard she's crying, and I walked out of the room before I broke character.

Ah, a day in the life.

Tis the Season for Sledding

Star Wars: More influential than Rome

So the other evening at dinner I asked my son what he was studying in math. He told me he was doing decimals and Star Wars numbers.

"Star Wars numbers?" I asked, "What do you mean?"

"You know," he said, "like Star Wars Eye and Star Wars Ivy. I can count to 1000."

...?

"Oh, gotcha. Star Wars I, and Star Wars IV," I said, "Yes, those are important to learn."

-------
PS) It's also notable that Star Wars math has it's limitations, other than just missing a 'zero.' For instance Star Wars II + Star Wars III does not equal Star Wars V. Just ask my wife.

What's black and fuzzy and can't stop smiling?

Here's a little Monday morning warm fuzzy.
So this little Sesame Street video got it's 15 minutes of fame on the internet recently.  If you haven't seen "I love my hair" here it is:


 (Pardon the video formating, I'm new at this...)

Of course, the most interesting part of the sketch for me is the story behind it.  Just to spoil it, one of the head writers wrote it for his adopted Ethiopian daughter (as if I wasn't all misty already.)
Click here for the interview.

Daddy wasn't born yesterday

I was in the bathroom this morning when Yordi waltzed in.  She saw me preening in the mirror and told me that I looked great. I said I would be finished as soon as I yanked this one particularly irritating hair.

"Really, Dad, your hair looks fine as it is," she smiles.

"Thanks, but this one is grey and it's bugging me."

"Gah... Dad.  Everybody at church has grey hair.  It's okay." She smiles and bats her eyes reassuringly.

"Um... that's very thoughtful honey.  Wait.  You just want me out of the bathroom don't you?"

"Yeah, I need to brush my teeth."

Sleeping in Seattle

Lee and I recently got a week long vacation in Seattle, without the children.  I KNOW, right?  Well, it was wonderful.  We walked and talked and finished sentences, had whole conversations, picked up ideas from the day before and, in general, remembered why we liked each other.  It's so easy for that core of the relationship to get buried with all the needs and demands of the OTHER PEOPLE that live in our house. 

I was a little worried about flying.  The last time I was on an airplane was coming back from Ethiopia, and that was a horrible trip... worth it, don't get me wrong... but, horrible.  The flight to Seattle was reasonably set at 4 hours... instead of 16... so that helped.  Lee got me a window seat, which I didn't want... me of the tiny bladder... but it turned out to be really nice.  The whole flight was clear and blue, and seeing the horizon curving pleased me.  From up there, water towers looked like jellyfish and wind turbines looked like wispy flowers.  I loved watching the land undulate across the country. (I think we were in Canadian airspace at least part of the time.) Here is where the mountains stopped for a bit.

 

The reason for our visit to Seattle was a conference that Lee was attending.  With the conference, we got a dinner in the Space Needle at dusk.  The people we were with had speculative conversations about whether the top portion actually was rotating or not.  I'm sure the open bar had nothing to do with that particular line of reasoning.

 

And here's the city as the sun was setting.  I took plenty of pictures of this as the evening wore on.  I kept walking around and around the circle.  It was mesmerizing.

 

 More later.  Possibly. Probably.