From the monthly archives:

December 2008

growing like a growing thing

December 30, 2008

In other Serena news, she took a three hour nap this afternoon. On waking, she said several new words, made some new signs, and had the potty adventure mentioned before. She played happily for about two hours, then ate three cups of yogurt, drank a large glass of milk, nursed several times and collapsed back [...]

Tagged as: parenting, serena

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Adventures in Personal Hygiene

December 30, 2008

Serena has begun to signal when she needs a diaper change. Today, she went the next step and enthusiastically signalled to me that she needed the potty *before* soiling her diaper. She sat down on her little red potty and produced a single, tiny hard turd. She was so excited by this that she leapt [...]

Tagged as: parenting, serena

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Multiculturalism in action

December 23, 2008

Rio, to her goddess-mama: “You know what? One of the things of me celebrating Chanukah is me showing you our Christmas tree.” EDIT: also, to warm my heart, she did the candle-lighting and prayers with her goddess mama and closed by saying, ‘Blessed be’

Tagged as: holidays, rio

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conversations w Rio

December 23, 2008

I’m trying to lie down for a nap while the baby sleeps, and Rio has been doing her best to keep me up for an hour. Finally I lay down and she climbs on the bed with me to continue her babble-requests – I’m *still* hungry! I need a glass of water! Do you need [...]

Tagged as: rio, serena

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what is "real"?

December 10, 2008

“Does Santa have elves? I mean, are they real?” “I have never visited Santa, but it’s my understanding that he really has elves.” “Right. Because if he didn’t have elves, who would make the presents. Does he make them? Does someone else? He must have elves.” “Right.” “In the movie, he has elves. I just [...]

Tagged as: holidays, rio

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benefits of turning off the TV

December 10, 2008

“Mom, can we watch TV?” “Uh, I think the TV is broken.” (this is a lie, I know perfectly well that the TV has been fixed since the elections, but I haven’t turned it on since then and don’t want to. this is the first time she has asked). We repeat this about a dozen [...]

Tagged as: homeschooling, waldorf

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I have been waiting for this moment all of my life.

December 9, 2008

Today on homeschooling: helped Rio cross-dress her paper dolls. She has a set of paper dolls that are taken from photo images of Hawaiian royalty (who doesn’t?), and she just came to me concerned because the Queen’s dresses would not fit her husband. I helped her adjust the tabs so that the dress hung awkwardly [...]

Tagged as: homeschooling, rio

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oh noes!

December 9, 2008

“Daddy! Serena turned off Christmas! The whole Christmas!”

Tagged as: rio, serena

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felled by illness

December 3, 2008

Rio has a stomach virus. She seems fairly happy, but her belly is unstable enough that taking her out of the house is a bad idea. Which totally stalls the momentum I had on a whole bunch of great activities and projects. I just passed on our awesome gingerbread house making workshop tickets to a [...]