Home of Steve, Christine, Katherine, Ally, Rosebud, and Rex
SHHHH…
Well, it’s over for Katherine. This morning as we were getting ready for school, Katherine called to me from across the bathroom, “Mom…Santa isn’t real. You and Dad are Santa!”
Allison has already started to clue into this, asking me the other day, “Mama, is Santa real, or is he just a man dressed up?”
Nonetheless, I shushed Katherine and told her to please not to talk about this in front of her sister who was downstairs. Katherine sagely nodded and looked very pleased with herself.
Katherine’s First Search
Tonight, as I was cleaning up from another day of renovation fun, Steve called out to me, “Hey, guess what Katherine did!”
Katherine had climbed onto Steve’s den chair, used the mouse to put her cursor on the Live Search toolbar box, and typed “Lamby.”
This, of course, is the name of her much beloved and very ratty looking stuffed animal.
Live Search returned a Target web site with an Lamby layette collection. Allison and Katherine clicked all around the site, looking at lamb pillows, crib bumpers and wall hangings. Katherine ran off to find her official Santa list and add this to her list. Allison provided a running commentary, “How Beeeautiful…Mama you have to see this!”
Our philosophy on computer literacy has been to limit the girls’ computer exposure to MS Paint. Katherine uses a mouse to draw lambs and such and the keyboard to type names and words into her pictures. However, she tries to mimic our use, typing an email to Lamby the other day (addressed to me).
She has also gotten a hold of Steve’s iPhone and figured out how to activate it…Reading the phone, “Swwwipppe to staarrt” she took her finger and swiped it across the phone. That sure got Steve’s attention!
Thanksgiving
We had a very nice Thanksgiving, with Sharon and Jamey visiting from Boston. My mom was gracious enough to host us two evenings – once for Thanksgiving hot pot and once for my birthday dinner. Lacking a stove, inside refrigerator and oven, we ate out the rest of the time.
Our kitchen is almost assembled now. It has cabinets, subtop, granite, sink, stove and fridge installed. No faucet or dishwasher or oven yet. Fingers crossed we don’t have to make fudge for our upcoming cookie exchange!
The bathrooms are still in progress. Cabinets, subtops and granite/limestone all are in. We’re still awaiting our backordered faucets, new tile, shower, etc.
Our goal – Finish Before Christmas.
Finally Pictures…
Here are pictures from Katherine’s birthday, Halloween, and other activities this month.
Busy Month
This has been an extraordinarily busy month. It started with Steve and I taking a much awaited cycling trip to Sicily. Indeed, it was a very hily ride; a common phrase from the guides was “gently rolling hills”. We did a lot of low grade hills that kept going and a couple steeper climbs. I averaged 25-30-35 miles a day; Steve took a couple extra extensions. Unfortunately, due to rain and a high guide ratio (11:1), he wasn’t able to complete a European century. But, we enjoyed a LOT of food during 3 hour lunches (seriously), wine and very nice hotels. We did some cool local tours – to watch a family make ricotta cheese, a walking tour, wine tastings and pasta making. Steve is working on publishing the Sicily pictures, the bike routes, etc.
Right after we got back, we celebrated Steve’s birthday, and I started up a consulting gig. The kids geared up for two Halloween parties and trick or treating. At school, the teachers requested that the kids dress up as people in the community. Allison chose to be a firefighter, and Katherine a doctor. After school, they turned into Tinkerbells for a potluck party and then trick or treating.
Since Halloween, Katherine caught a bad cold circulating through her classroom – and stayed home from school for three days. She’s still coughing a lot, occasionally having coughing spasms. Allison, Steve and I haven’t caught it yet…
Learning about World Affairs
As part of Halloween and their world learning at school, the pre-elementary kids trick or treat for UNICEF. The teachers explained UNICEF in circle and provided the orange boxes to the kids. Allison came home proudly with her box and told us the following:
Mom: Allison, do you know why your collecting money for UNICEF?
Allison: Because…some children don’t have clean water. They will buy new pumps. If they drink dirty water, they will get sick.
Katherine has been collecting money for a couple weeks from friends’ parents – taking over $39 to school for UNICEF.
The kids also have taken an interest in politics. Thru the fall, they’ve watched debates, provided commentary and even did a victory dance chanting “Obama Obama…” last Tuesdsay. Katherine asked us last week unprompted, “Why does the radio keep talking about Joe the Plumber??” She thought it was really funny that CNN and NPR would talk about some plumber as part of the presidential election.
Dinosaurs
Every classroom at school has “units of study” – basically topics that are woven throughout different works in a section of the classroom. Allison’s classroom is studying dinosaurs. As a result, we’re also learning about dinosaurs. Apparently, Allison has been listening pretty intently to her teacher who’s been presenting this information at circle.
Allison: The tyrranasaurus rex is a very angry dinosaur. He eats other dinosaurs. He’s like the king of dinosaurs. He’s MUCH bigger than our car.
Mom: Really, what other dinosaurs have you learned about??
Allison: The brontosaurus was very afraid of the tyranasaurus rex. His favorite dishes were leaves and bushes.
Mom: Favorite dishes, hm…
Allison: And, then there’s the bracheosaurus, the allisaurus, and the stegasaurus. The stegasaurus had plates on his back and his tail. He had four plates on his tail. He used them as a weapon against the tyranasaurus rex.
Steve and I were rather dumbfounded, since dinosaurs haven’t been a major topic in our house. Katherine kept trying to interject, but Allison kep rolling along with her narrative all the way to school.
Katherine thinks that Allison is very amusing and often says, “she’s soo cute.” Allison pushes her sister sometimes, for instance wanting to play with Katherine’s new toys or counting money in Katherine’s wallet. Thankfully, Katherine is relatively patient with her sister.
“If she likes ponies”
Before the summer, Steve and I met with Katherine’s teacher to discuss progress and the upcoming summer. Her suggestion for reading: find out what she wants to read and then encourage it! “If she’s interested in ponies, then check out books about ponies.” This may seem totally intuitive, probably because its spot on.
Katherine LOVES the Disney Fairies – Tinkerbell, Beck, Fira, etc. She saves her allowance money to go to Borders and buy the big, picture Disney books. (We buy her the chapter books to read.) Her prize possessions are the Fairy Homes and Inside Pixie Hollow. She just started reading the chapter books tonight, carefully using her finger to read the small text and turning the page corner for tomorrow.
Reading Board
We finally took a picture of Katherine and her tattered reading board. We still owe her a visit to Chuck E. Cheese.
Violin Lessons
Katherine got to learn a new bowing/rhythm last week – “Ice Cream <rest> Cone” (ready change). Basically, it’s two quarters, one quarter rest, one more quarter than change string. Katherine and I have also worked on her holding her violin for 5 minutes at a time with her sand timer. She was soo excited to expand her repertoire. ๐
36.5 mpg
I’ve been mulling over the concept of improving our average mpg. So, I went over to Bellevue Honda and bought a Civic Hybrid last week. The car has steadily increased its average mpg during this week.
We are now at 36.5 mpg. What helps?
The kids seem to like the little blue car. Katherine explains that there are two engines – one regular engine and one special engine. Allison asked if the car needed special gas. I love zipping into parking spots.
Where are your manners?
Allison and I had a very amusing conversation several days ago:
Mom: Allison, where are your manners?
Allison: Someone took them.
The next day:
Mom: Allison, I hope someone didn’t take your manners.
Allison: I lost my manners.
Katherine just chuckled throughout.
Mondays at the Playground
Because Katherine and Allison are in different classrooms, they don’t often see each other at school. Monday mornings are the exception, when their recesses overlap on the playground. According to all teachers, both girls are SO happy to see each other and play together until Katherine’s classroom lines up. That’s when Allison has started to tear up, “I miss Katherine…”
Katherine still walks her little sister to the classroom. It’s very sweet.
Developmental Milestones
Katherine finally got to 100 on her reading board. She was so proud of her accomplishment. Her reading these days includes Henry and Mudge, a couple short chapters at a time, and Sammy the Seal. Allison, by comparison, is trying so hard to read. One of her favorite activities is pulling out Katherine’s old beginner flash cards and sounding out letters. Surprisingly, she eked out some simple words last week by herself- JET, HAT and a few others. Katherine and I cheered her on.
Katherine is working hard on her math these days. To help her along, we took out her old bead board. She thinks its a hoot for me to hold up a flash card and see how many she can do in a certain amount of time. She also flips over a 5-minute sand timer. Between holding up flash cards and holding Allison back from our sand timer, it gets a little crazy during math time.
Katherine and Allison are progressing with their violin studies. Katherine is now working on a new rhythm – “ice cream <rest> cone” then changing strings. Allison is learning how to hold the bow like a baby bird and not squeeze the living daylights out of it. I told her tonight that IF she could relax her right hand, we would ask Katherine’s teacher to assess her for readiness. The imagery seemed to help quite a bit; she held it delicately with no pressure for a bit – until she started squeezing again. It really is amazing how little kids can learn correct bow technique at such a young age.