It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas...

... thanks to wonderful Christmas programs! Here's Drake's:

I love the twirling! And the little bow at the end!

Gracie's Christmas Recital

Gracie was absolutely thrilled when she learned how to play Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." And it was the first song she picked to play in her Christmas recital. She was less thrilled when her piano teacher mentioned that she could bow after she finished playing. In fact, this completely unglued her. It was as if *this* were the thing that finally made her realize that, hey, maybe she'll get this thing called Stage Fright. She completely fell apart. She wasn't going - AT ALL.

After we talked her down (and I maybe pushed her a little bit towards the piano), she did fine.

UC Davis

I often wonder how to explain political ideas to Gracie. Do I show her the injustice in the world? How will she react? Will I be sorry I showed her that the world is not all wonderful?

I was cruising Facebook when she wandered over. So we watched this video about the protest at UC Davis together, and though I paused it about 5 times to explain, she really seemed to get it. Her confused response after seeing the campus police spray tear gas on the protesters: "But... I thought we were allowed to do that in America?" I explained to her that even police make mistakes. How else to explain it? That people in power sometimes abuse that power?

It certainly makes one think.

What to do at night, instead of sleeping...

Last night I was checking on the kids and I found this:

Hmm, a secret message, I thought. I wonder if Gracie was reading a story about codes? So I looked through the book she'd been reading. Nope, no secret codes. So I asked her about it the next morning.

"Oh. You found that?" she replied, a bit uneasily. No doubt worried she was going to get in trouble for not going to sleep.

"Yeah, what is it?"
"It's a secret message. Hippo taught it to me." Hippo is her beloved stuffed animal.

"What?" This was getting more and more interesting.
"Hippo taught me how to write in her language, and I wrote her a note."

So last night, instead of going to sleep, Gracie created her very own cipher (and quite a good one, I might add), and then used it to write an entire letter.

Ross made a quick attempt to decode the letter. "Ah, I can see that that is a T!" Without even looking at her key, she says "Daddy! That's not a T! That's an N!" So not only did she create the code, she memorized it - in one night.

She never ceases to amaze us...

PS - If you want to figure it out, you may find this helpful. Hint: there are some misspellings, which, if you think about it, are just clever ways to make your code even more encrypted!

Halloween

The Most Interesting Man in the World and a Black Cat, to go with...

A witch and Buzz Lightyear (or, as he used to call him: Bud Light Beer. HAHAHA!)
Pop Quiz: Can you guess who's costume was the most expensive? Hint: It looks *so* real! :-)

Creativity...

....is not what it's cracked up to be.

"Drakey, what's that blue on your legs?" "We painted!" Oh no...

The kids are really good at keeping themselves entertained. Granted, the results may not be expected and/or desired. Example: while I was at church this am (kids still sleeping!) and Ross was still in bed, they woke up and decided to play finger paints. Thankfully, they decided to do this in the bathtub, which I was very excited about. "What a good decision!" Hey, maybe this won't be too bad!

Then I went into the bathroom to check it out.

1) It was an effing DISASTER; paint was everywhere.

2) This was not finger paint. It was tempura paint. Much harder to scrub off.

So I armed them with scrubbies and baking soda and told them to get busy. And I armed myself against the complaints, which were predictably numerous. This is what I get for encouraging creativity.

I thought about taking a picture, but didn't want to appear to be enjoying their misery. So instead, here's a picture of their other activity for the morning: getting their own breakfast. They were in the middle of this when I got back from church. Note their angelic expressions. This was before I knew about the painting. Note also the little pile of raisins to the side. Apparently, they don't like raisins in their Raisin Bran.

Stoogents

I admit it: this is a reenactment of actual events. The morning of the kids' first day of school was rainy and and rather dismal. Very un-San Diego. So I couldn't be bothered to take the mandatory first-day-of-school photo. By the afternoon, it had cleared up and was beautiful. So I made the kids get their school stuff, and even their rain boots to pose on the front lawn.

Thanks for humoring mama, kids!

After I took the picture, I took some video , and I was trying to prompt Drake to say something, "Drakey! Show me what a student would look like!" I love how you can see his confusion between his response and Gracie's response to take out her school supplies.

Stoogents: such a wonderful portmanteau for these guys!