LaLa You Got Some Splainin' To Do

Clearly the public service announcements or school drills or last years' storms have taken ... root?
I mean, her explanation is factually correct as long as you drop the word "tomato" and substitute "acorn squash".
I'm glad they're drilling on vegetable disasters, especially since the local news can just inflate these forecasts to gazpacho proportions.

Hand Talk

A few weeks ago, Olivia approached me in the kitchen while I was setting the table for dinner.

"Can you get me that thing up there by the fridge?" she asked while holding her hand flat on it's side and gesturing up and down.

"What thing is that, honey?"

"That thing up there...the orange and colored things..." all with the little hand gesture, and increased frustration.

From the dining room, Mommy: "She means the vitamins."

I laughed for quite a while, realizing that this was just the first demonstrated inheritance of her mother's "hand discourse" skills. Which have nothing at all to do with the sign language I described tonight for the babies in another post. Nor usually do the gestures have anything to do with the things either Olivia or Melissa are trying to indicate or describe. It is truly endearing.

And like the gestures, these pictures have nothing to do with the story I am describing here in text. The sleeping photo is the way we found her one night hours after we thought we had put her to sleep in bed. She brought these three of her friends down to the floor with her.

They are truly dedicated toys.

And the other photo is just one I like.

The photos are from late January and early February, 2010.

Winter Extravaganza

A difficult word to say, became a really wonderful charitable-donation-raising performance.

In the Iowa City Public Library this year, on Monday night, February 22, 2010, with extensive preparation and dedication from the Apple Tree faculty. Especially the two beautiful ladies pictured, Olivia's teachers Stephanie Paulsen and Megan Sieverding. You have our sincere gratitude and admiration.

Olivia was an Owl that decided to crawl into a lost mitten to escape the cold, along with 15 or so other animals, from the beautiful Jan Brett story "The Mitten". She left her costume on very well as long as was necessary, then went on to give dance and sight-reading performances with her Kindermusick class, led by her extremely talented teacher Jodi Landeros. That's right, sight reading. Rhythms of eighth and quarter notes, with rests, but still. I am extremely impressed.

Olivia was, and continues to be, wonderful. We were so proud of her.

Sledding

Just some photos to catch up with LaLa a bit. From a month ago, February 13. Our last big snows and cold, which made for nice sledding at the grade school a block away.