A Busy Week . . .

Left: Familiar Logo

Below: Our Little Tikes Tap-A-Tune Drum

Frodo says that this toy drum and the piece of paper below were brought to you today by "the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Viewers Like You. Thank You!"

I'm not kidding. She said that.

I think I've neglected my kids this week. Good thing we don't have cable!

In other news, Happy 40th Anniversary, Sesame Street! You are a whole two years older than me but still teaching and entertaining and keeping up with trends. I can't tell you how much I've appreciated you all these years!

Can I offer a little advice, though, even if you're older? It's time to mellow. You seem like you've gotten significantly more frantic as the years have gone by, as if you're just trying too hard to stay cool. Why not lower the pitch and slow the pace back down a bit? Jumping around screaming because you think that's the only thing that will make little kids look only creates little kids who will only look when you jump around and scream, if you get me. Remember segments like this?

I don't think there's anything wrong with taking it a little Old School, you know? These days I'm afraid that bit would have frantic Murray and his Little Lamb zooming through the air and yelling about cows in both Spanish and English. Just sayin'.

Anyway, a big shout out to my long-time favorites Bert, Ernie, Cookie, Grover, the Count, and even Frodo's favorite victim--"Mr. Johnson" aka "Fat Blue" (still waiting for the bus to Cincinnati, right).

In other news, water on the moon! Wow. I'm so totally going there now, and I'm so totally bringing my Cup-a-Soup.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Sam chose to be Hermione from that book about the boy--you know . . . he's magic or something?

Frodo is in the background as Grubby Autistic Child Who Hates Halloween But Gimme More M&Ms Now Please Now M&Ms Now More M&Ms Now.

Little Two Eyes, Are You Asleep?

Sam woke me up in the middle of the night. She'd had a bad dream. I told her to crawl in beside me and think of bunnies (my answer to everything--unless your bad dream was about bunnies, I suppose).

This morning as we walked to school, I asked her what her dream had been about.

"Well, I was in the Muppet Theater and I sat down next to Bob Hope, who was the guest star," she started.

I cracked up. Who knew modern-day nine-year-olds were dreaming about Bob Hope?

Anyway, it turned out there was this Other Kermit in her dream and he was pretty creepy. Don't worry--the bunnies got him.

After that, we saw and talked about the neighbor's cat, who was sitting on their garden wall. Sam said it reminded her of the tabby in the first Harry Potter book, which she's just started reading.

After I dropped her at school, I thought about how this is one reason I love writing for kids. When I'm not just having fun, I love sharing my perspective and outlook, the way all those children's authors (and the real Not-Creepy Kermit) did for me.

Sam is getting bigger all the time, but she's carrying around inside her all those little scraps of what she reads and sees and learns at school. I love that she's gathering a way of looking at the world with fun and mystery--and Hope!

Not A Word--Or Is It?

Ever see a word in general use that's not really a word? Something that just GRATES on your nerves like word-fingernails on the word-blackboard of your mind? Something even worse than "a whole nother" or "chester drawers"?

I've been seeing this one all over lately--in student essays, some, but mostly online.

addicting

As in This iPhone app is great! It is so addicting!

There is no such adjective as "addicting," people. The word is "addictive." Look it up. There's addict, addiction, addictive, but no addicting.

Unless--you are using the "ing" verb form, right? As in Scott would be cool to hang out with if only he'd stop addicting himself to all these iPhone apps.

But in that case, wouldn't we say "becoming addicted to"? Because you don't purposefully addict yourself to things, do you? It just happens.

This is my way of telling you that I am rapidly becoming addicted to the many addictive iPhone apps.

And also my way of ranting once more about something meaningless I can't control.

Addicting. Not an adjective. But Google it and you will find 6,600,000 instances of people using it as one.

::screech::

P.S.--If you can find it in a reliable dictionary (not the Urban one), please let me know!

Strides

So you'll forgive me if I post another "Gee, aren't my kids cute?" entry, right? Sure you will.

Just nod.

Last weekend, Generous Aunt purchased a stack of Manila paper for Sam to draw on. Sam loves to draw and for a long time now, I've been her biggest fan. Her pencil seems to be able to do what her brain tells it to do and her characters are always so expressive! Sam and My Precious used the paper to make a newspaper written by Webkinz.

Anyhow, as is the way of things in our house, the manila paper got left on the table. When we next looked, there were drawings there. Not Sam drawings. Frodo ones!

Time out for me to try and describe what it's like when Frodo suddenly makes strides. It's a true cause for celebration around here. Miracle City! We, her admiring family stand around in shock. Did you hear what she said? Did you see what she did? Did you know she could do that? Neither did I.

Suddenly she can read more. Suddenly she can write. Just look at this commercial, if you will:

Yeah, baby! She can spell "Einstein." Most of my college students can't spell "Einstein."

Then there was a series of drawings she'd appropriately labeled.

There are too many boat pictures to share (though I made her grandfather look at every last one!). But let me just say that as the boats went on they picked up passengers--passengers who were shapes. In one drawing we see circle, square, and triangle out for a jaunt.

After that, they gained some friends and even hoisted a flag.

When you have a child whose inner thoughts and feelings have a hard time getting out (in a constructive way), seeing something like this is a real treat. I love imagining the story she was telling herself as she drew boat after boat.

"It's time for a snack. Who wants a doughnut?" said Circle.

"I've got rice crispy squares," said Square.

"Where are the pizza slices, Triangle?"

"They accidentally went in my mouth and I ated them," said Triangle.

Ah, me. Giddy mom signing off.

A Good Morning!

I'm trying something new this month. I've decided to try and let go of the bad feelings, such as guilt, doubt, etc., that keep me in a very subtle way from enjoying my days.

For example, I have quite a ton of schoolwork to take care of right now. Grading quizzes and writing assignments, recording and filing the same. I know I'll feel better when I've got it all done. But part of me wants to enjoy today--my one day off for Fall Break--and do some actual writing while the kids are in school.

I've decided that whatever I decide to do--grade or not grade--I'm not going to spend a lot of time worrying over it. Either I grade or I don't, but I'm not going to be held back by wondering, waiting, and second guessing. It's time to be a bit more decisive and brave.

On that note, Happy Birthday to one of my favorite people ever--Mohandas Gandhi.

Think I'm In Love

In the spirit of true maturity, I got up early this morning to play with my birthday present.

Sorry for the terrible picture, but it's quite overcast here and my office ceiling light is out. It's an iPod Touch! I get to be super cool, pinching and tapping and shaking. Yay, me!

Quite appropriate that the song I was listening to when I snapped this picture was "Think I'm In Love" (Beck). The actual screen looks ever so much better than this, of course--the Earth isn't all blurry like that. Anyway, I'm having the most fun surfing the web, emailing, watching YouTube, etc. on this thing. If you know me, you know I've got a huge grin on my face.

Thanks, Dad!