Marbles

Looking attentively into my eyes D says " Mommy, your eyes look like marbles, ...with me inside them." And back he goes to play with his cars.

Bath time

Daniel has the cutest way of asking for a bath:
"Mommy, can you take me a bath?"

We've all tried to tell him that the 'correct' way to say it is Can you give me a bath? No success, he is convinced his way is the way, so we just let it be.

A "Big" Christmas Tree

I decided this year that I'd get a small 5.5-foot Christmas tree so the kids could trim it and reach all the way to the top. They were super excited when it came home a couple couple of weeks ago. We set off to decorate it together with small ornaments, ornaments they had made, we added lights, a few red globes and we were mostly done. Over the course of two weeks we've added a few more pieces as they've made additional ornaments at school and at home.

Yesterday, I was talking to Daniel's teacher and told her that I had chosen a small tree this year. Well, she told me that Daniel said that he had a BIG Christmas tree at his house. I guess it's all a matter of perspective and relative size!

Daniel is responsible for supplying the tree with water every morning. Our tree drinks about a cup of water a day.

Happiness

There is nothing like hearing your kids laugh spontaneously and worry-free. We had a great weekend!

Caroling

Daniel was super excited about Christmas caroling yesterday with his class. We were treated to Jingle Bells, The Dreidel, The Twelve Days of Christmas, Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeeer, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town - and yes... a surprise visit from Santa!

Rudolf was the most enthusiastic one for Daniel, we practiced it a lot the last couple of weeks at home and on our ride to school.

The Story of the Orchestra

On my shopping list for the kids - The Story of the Orchestra by Robert Lavine. The book discusses the history of orchestral music, famous composers and instruments of the orchestra. A CD accompanies the book with selected pieces paired to specific pages. Beautifully illustrated by Meredith Hamilton.

The Nutcracker & Dreidels

A traditional Christmas ballet and a party for the kids to play dreidels - that started our holiday season this Saturday.

The kids attended their first Nutcracker performance. Kaila and Daniel were completely enchanted by the music, the dance and the story. The first act went by pretty quickly. The Christmas tree scenario was beautiful making the living room setting come to life. The children playing on stage added fast movement and interest. The Nutcracker becomes a prince after saving Clara from huge mice that invade her room. Intermission and act 2 begins. Clara and the Nutcracker Prince travel to the 'Kingdom of Sweets' and a series of dances begin - Arabian, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, ...and it went on as Daniel falls asleep in my arms 3/4 of the way through and Kaila starts to want to go home...at this point I shift Kaila's focus by asking her to watch the ballerinas' feet very closely to see their movement. That did it pretty well - a few minutes into it she says very quietly, "How can they do that without bars?!" And by 'that' she meant all the footwork and arm positions she started learning in ballet class. That exercise took us through the last 10 minutes of the performance and everyone was happy. The Sugar Plum Fairy and the Nutcracker Prince dance beautifully and as the celebration ends in the enchanted land, Clara finds herself back at home drifting off to sleep and Nutcracker salutes everyone goodnight.

A game of dreidels followed at a friends house. The kids played for pistachios and were treated at the end to making their own marshmallow dreidels decorated with pretzel sticks and raisins!

A fun afternoon for everyone.

Photo Credits (www.HoustonBallet.org)
Ballet: The Nutcracker
Dancers: Amy Fote and Nicholas Leschke
Photo by: Amitava Sarkar

Martha Stewart Punchers

Quick note cards are easy to make with edge punchers. I used a monarch butterfly figure and bubble punches for the kids' birthday "thank you bookmarks".

I just discovered while shopping this weekend the new "punch everywhere". The top and base separate allowing a punch to be made anywhere in the page, not just at the edges! There is a heart that will be really neat for Valentines and a set of stars that I fell in love with (and, of course, not to be found at the store!). Will check back in a couple of weeks...

The Butterfly Project

One and a half million innocent children lost their lives in the Holocaust. In an effort to remember them, Holocaust Museum Houston is collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies to be setup in an exhibition scheduled for Spring 2013.

If you'd like to participate, create as many butterflies as you wish and send them to The Butterfly Project.

The Blues...

Blueberries any one? We picked close to 20lbs of blueberries this morning! The kids had a blast - and my bucket was always the least full. Kaila and Daniel picked berries from the bushes and from my bucket... They had a big laugh seeing Daddy eat straight off the high branches like a giraffe.

It reminded us of our trip to Alaska a couple of years ago. The best part of our hikes, scenery aside, was picking wild blueberries and salmonberries along the way. One big difference, 60's and 70's F in the AK summer versus 80's and 90's F here in TX.

Oh, and Kaila did not "allow" me to take too many pictures. It degraded productivity. "Mommy, you're not picking your blueberries! You're just taking pictures!!!"

I'll have to try making some blueberry jam, blueberry cobbler, blueberry pancake...courtesy of http://www.moorheadsblueberryfarm.com/. I'm glad they supplied us with some yummy sounding recipes.

I love you, too.

Happy Valentine's Day - Daniel. February 14, 2010.

Why are words so long....?

That seems to be the question on Daniel's mind this week. He has been experimenting with shortening the words as he talks. Tomorrow became "tomah", Lightning McQueen is "Light", guacamole is "guacamah".

- Can I watch Light tomah? I don't want guacamah today.

It's been a fun couple of days, deciphering his new shortened language.

I vaguely remember Kaila going through this same thing a couple of years ago. I wish I had made some notes of her expressions then.

No soccer ball?

There is a reason Brazilians are so good at soccer. Every place you visit in Brazil no matter the size of the town or how remote it may be, you'll find a soccer field. It might not be fancy, but there will be one. It would be nice to always have a real leather ball, but when one is not available, a ball is improvised.

To my amusement, this past December, I found my 3-year old son playing soccer with a coconut. We were visiting a coconut plantation and as I turned around there was Daniel with his 'ball' . His brand new white running shoes - instantly transformed into dark brown with dust and mud, by the way... but an expression of pure joy on his face as he chased his coconut around the trees. It must be in the genes.

On second thought, balls are known to make really good friends. "Wilson", a volleyball, that I could've sworn was a coconut - that's how good my movie memory is..., grew to international fame as it co-starred with no one other than Tom Hanks in "Cast Away".

New workout partner

Today Daniel and I went on a short 2-mile walk. Not a single time did he ask to be carried. He´s a real trouper and loves to come along for a stroll.

Holidays

It's that time of year again when families get together and children get totally spoiled by grandparents. My kids are certainly enjoying the all the attention and new experiences that only grandparents can provide. There is a bright light in their eyes when they smile and a deep innocence in their laugh - these are priceless moments.

Being with my family and enjoying it are part of the true blessings of the Holidays for me!

Banana Bread

I promised Daniel we'll do some cooking/baking this weekend. Banana bread sounds good right this minute... I like this recipe from Betty Crocker - last time, we used star shaped pans for an extra special look.

Banana Bread

Prep Time: 15 min
Total Time: 3 hours 25 min
Makes: 2 loaves

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (3 to 4 medium)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts, if desired

1. Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans, 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2 inches, or 1 loaf pan, 9x5x3 inches.
2. Mix sugar and butter in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Add bananas, buttermilk and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt just until moistened. Stir in nuts. Pour into pans.
3. Bake 8-inch loaves about 1 hour, 9-inch loaf about 1 1/4 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack. Cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.

Substitution
If using self-rising flour, there is no need to add baking soda and salt.
No buttermilk on hand? Mix 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice or white vinegar and enough milk to make 1/2 cup. Or substitute 1/2 cup plain yogurt.

String?

Nothing like jumping on the bed listening to good music. Yes, a favorite of my kids. Last week I bought them a new tape with children's songs and they were having a blast. The tape ended and there was quiet for a little while.

"Bath time...", I call. As Kaila comes to meet me she asks, "Mommy, what's all that string for?"
"String? What string, Kaila?"
"Come see...", she says.

I get to her room and Daniel is happily pulling the ribbon off the cassette. The 'string' is pooled by his side! Luckily the tape was not torn and after a few minutes of manually rewinding the 'string' back into the cassette, we had music again.

One of the reasons I purchased the old-tech cassette tape was to show the kids how the tape deck in their little boom box worked. I guess they got that and a little more. It's fun to see Kaila FF and wait for the tape to get to the next song - rather than just pushing one button in the CD player for the immediate gratification of her next favorite song.

Atchung!

Today Daniel sneezed and before we could say anything he went "Bless you, Daniel!". It was too funny and sweet.

Picnic in the Park

The kids enjoyed a picnic in the park today. The second day of Fall brought us the first cool evening to Houston since early Spring.

Kaila insisted on sitting on a blanket on the grass - "because when we have a picnic, we sit on the ground not on tables."

Daniel was delighted to have all his favorite foods and family together - "Mommy, we have every thing we need!" He said this very same thing on 3 or 4 occasions during our outting. It was pretty sweet. It's nice to hear from a 2-year old that life is just perfect at that very moment.

What do you see?

Earlier this year there was at lot of discussion and controversy around Wikipedia publishing the Rorschach plates and their interpretations.

Well, Daniel's class had a perfect answer to the whole thing with their art project "My Little Alien". They created their own Rorschach plates - or so I say.

This one is Daniel's piece. What do you see?!