Idioms: Piece of Cake

We talked about idioms for family home evening. And, of course, made a movie for the activity:

Wiggles, Be Gone!

Calvin's preschool group took a field trip to the Children's Museum today. One of my favorite parts of the day occurred on the way there when Calvin made a remark about the "Eiffel" bridge to his little friend Julianna (the Zakim bridge). Calvin liked the waterfalls we passed on the walk into the museum, created by the warm day melting the snow down the rain gutters in rushing torrents. Ivy enjoyed all the ball offerings to be had inside the museum.

BFF Cousins

We are privileged to spend a few days a week with my charming niece Squiggles. Ivy has been thrilled with this arrangement from the start and has always (okay, mostly) been good to share her things and her "ma-mom" with her cousin, but today she took her helpfulness to a new level...

Peter (off to school)

He always looks so dashing.

A Year without Candy and Sugared Drinks

Today is the end of a one year experiment in which I stopped eating candy and drinks with added sugar (naturally occurring fruit sugars in 100% juice were okay).

I stopped eating candy because I realized that I'm a compulsive candy eater (I see it, I eat it). And I decided to kick off drinks with added sugar just for fun. I don't even like soda all that much, so this wasn't hard.

Observations/results:

* I don't like candy as much as I thought I did. In fact, it's mostly disgusting with few exceptions. I'm going to keep avoiding it.

* I consider drinks with added sugar (especially soda) an evil in our society perpetuated by big food manufacturers, and will continue avoiding them like the plague of humanity that they are. Except chocolate milk and hot chocolate. Wow, I didn't think that one through before vowing them off. I'm going to have a frothy cold drink of chocolate milk tomorrow.

* Even chocolate, which I thought I've been missing, is really not that good. I bought a small box of Lindt chocolates tonight to celebrate the end, and was quite disappointed. So I think I'll keep eschewing chocolate unless it's really fabulous made-fresh keep-it-in-the-fridge-or-it-will-spoil to-die for chocolate.

* My teeth still get cavities. But maybe they all would have fallen out this year if not for my hiatus.

* It was very easy to avoid candy and sugared drinks once I made the goal. It's not like all sweets were off the table, which would have been a different story. Perhaps one I'll tell in a year or two when I get brave enough to try a year with (ominous duh duh duh) cookies.

+5 points for the Johnsons

Who correctly described the icicle phenomenon in the previous post:

"They started growing straight down, but then because of the weight (or some other perturbation), the branch they are growing on was bent, and the icicles got pointed a different direction (and you can see that now they are continuing to grow straight down)."

Water Flows Downward

But icicles don't always end up vertical. 5 points if you can explain the shape of the icicles in the second photo.

Technology Hurts

This young lady spent an obscene amount of time on her snow day off of school this week trying to make it into the top ten of the toilet paper dragging app on my iPod Touch.
She succeeded (and even came in 2nd), but later discovered the price of that glory:

iBlister.

Kicks from Calvin

Calvin was playing a computer game but Peter sent him off to get ready for bed. I took advantage of the vacated computer by opening a new tab to check my email. Calvin raced back in his pajamas and skidded to a stop with a look of extreme dismay when he saw me and NOT his game. The following conversation ensued:

Me: Don't worry Calvin, your game is still here [toggle to the other screen to show him]. I'll be just another minute.

Calvin: [through gritted teeth] That makes me really want to kick you.

Me: Well, if you do kick me, you won't get to use the computer at all tonight. And you'll have a big timeout.

Calvin: [after considering this] And maybe even a big FAT timeout if I kick you hard in the tummy [where he knows my incisions are healing] or something.

Me: Yeeeessssss.

Calvin: Hmmm. Then I better just wait patiently, huh.?.

Me: Good idea.

And he did.

The whole thing was Runaway Bunny-esque.

***

In other Calvin news, he often gets bored and asks for something to do. Yesterday, I gave him a blank piece of paper and told him to draw a picture of a toy he really wanted, stipulating that it could only be one toy. He drew this and labelled it (which tickled me pink):"A robot that can get me toys"
My favorite is "gyit" for get.

The Trouble with Angels

The trouble with angels is that sometimes they develop a stubborn streak. This little angel decided to throw a whole crop of sleeping troubles at us this week after 20 blissful months of near-perfection in the sleep department. Now we're dealing with refusal to take naps, refusal to go to sleep at night without a fight, night wakings galore, and way too early wake up time.

I hope to be able to report progress soon. But in the meantime, enjoy photos of the cutest angel jammies ever, followed by the cutest footwear picked out by a toddler ever, and I'll remind myself that she really is still an angel.

She brought me these mismatched socks (mine) and her moon boots, so I put them on her and she pranced around for a whole afternoon.