Post-spring-break doldrums

After a wonderful wedding and a weekend of spending time with family, the kids and I went to California for spring break.

I'm still tired.

I'm procrastinating even more heavily now than I was before the festivities.

I don't feel like blogging. Not today.

Maybe tomorrow.

Dr. Seuss week

This week Elizabeth's school has been celebrating Dr. Seuss.  Today was Dress Up day, and working through my sleep-deprived fog and total lack of preparedness, I managed to whomp up the following:

Looped braids and homemade antennae.  Not a great Cindy Lou Who, but certainly a passable one, and she sure looked cute (except, in this picture, she is both flinching from the flash and getting pressured to get out the door to school).  Every time I looked at her, I thought she was just adorable.  

Angela has antennae also, but since only one girl in our household had her hair combed or done at ALL today, no photographic evidence exists of hers.  Not yet.

And besides, the little one informs me that she is a butterfly, not a Who.

Still, I'm fully in the Seuss spirit.  Here is a snippet from my very favorite Seuss book:

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own.  And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

So, with our heads full of brains and our shoes full of feet, I say...

Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!

The little dears...

Moving is stressful, even if it's just down the block.  Fortunately, we have enjoyed a few laughs.

On one particularly stressful afternoon, with Angela jumping around me, constantly demanding my attention ("Watch me, Mama!"  "Watch me do THIS!" "Now watch me do it sideways!"), I finally lost my nerve:

Angela: Mama!

Me: WHAAAAAT?!?!

Angela, after a short, dignified pause: I'm only talking to you so much because I love you.

And then, a few days ago, was this little exchange:

Robert: If we gave out trophies for helpfulness, I think it would go to Mama.

Angela: Um, do you mean me?

How Kindergarteners Celebrate Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day hair!

See the heart?



OK, it's a little goofy, but I liked it, and so did Elizabeth.



She made her own valentines for her classmates. Below is a slide show of my favorites. She wrote these with no help!

"I know my own needs..."

Love Ricardo Montalban?  Watch the clip below and you'll love him more.

Don't know who he is?  He is the voice and actor behind this little gem:

Birthday questions

Elizabeth brought home a page of questions for her birthday poster at school.  Angela, of course, wanted to answer them, too.

Here are their responses:

ELIZABETH

My favorite color is Pink.

My favorite food is Cake and cookies and Jello.

My favorite thing to do at school is Swing.

I really don't like to Go to bed and clean my room.

I love to Wrestle with my family.

Someday I dream of Being a fairy.

ANGELA

My favorite color is Almost all of them.

My favorite food is Corn at dinner, and peas and broccoli.

My favorite thing to do at school is Work.

I really don't like to Clean my room.

I love to Clean the house when it's dirty and when it's a different season like after Christmas.

Someday I dream of Being a fairy or a mermaid.

Living inside of the dog*

So, what do you do when your kid is sick?

You read books.

I have three lists of books to read before I die, totalling around 250 titles.  Most of them are classics I should have read either in high school or in college as an English major.  

So I've been searching on the library website for the books I'd like to read, seeing what is available here and reserving copies.  

It's rather discouraging.  Hardly any William S. Burroughs, scant Huxley, Nabokov, or Spark, and it's as if Miller, Percy, Bowen, and Ford never existed.  

Maybe it isn't a huge priority for this small-town library to keep a stock of all the classics, especially the more controversial things.

But it still puzzles me.  I've wondered about buying copies of the missing books to stock our local library a bit better.  

Then I think...isn't that their job??

*This is an allusion to a famous quote; who gets the reference?