Snickerdoodles

November 27, 2007

After a quick dinner, I picked up a copy of the Family Fun magazine that Melissa recently subscribed to. Right there on the cover was a little girl displaying a red plate full of chocolate cookies that she supposedly just made with her mommy. That gave me the idea to make some snickerdoodle cookies with Katie. I figured they'd be like a craft she can eat. Making sure we had all the ingredients (cream of tartar? - Got it!), I asked Katie if she'd like to assist me while I made up a batch of cookies. But, of course! As I measured out each ingredient, her role was to dump the contents into the mixing bowl. It was a task she seemed to enjoy. Once the cookie dough was all prepared, she then watched me demonstrate how to role a dough ball into the cinnamon/sugar mixture. That was her next job. Again, she seemed to enjoy the process of ensuring that each little dough ball was completely covered with cinnamon and sugar.

Both cookie sheets that we prepared baked up perfectly. We then allowed her to sit and watch a "Charlie Brown Christmas" and nibble on her edible craft.

Cheap Entertainment

November 26, 2007

It's now dark by the time I get home. And cold. Taking an evening stroll with Katie just isn't palatable now because of the darkness and the cold. So we now have to be innovative and create some indoor fun. Sometimes coming up with instant fun is tough to do. But thanks to the new Wal-Mart that just opened up less than three miles from our house, we have that big box store to occupy our time. And it's just minutes away. Tonight, after dinner, we took advantage of the brand new Wal-Mart by allowing Katie to watch the fishes in their tanks, roam the toys, peruse the children's DVD choices, and eyeball the cakes and cookies. While I trust we won't spend every night there, it made for a quasi-fun evening.

Pizza Inn Art Exhibition

November 9, 2007

When asked for her Friday evening restaurant selection, Katie offered up Pizza Inn. Good one, Katie! One of our favorites. We arrived to find the place packed and had to wait in line momentarily.

As she often does during these brief waits, Katie perused the dividing wall onto which the owners tape up coloring sheets completed by children. Being the expert artist that she is, Katie enjoys checking out the colored bears, puppies, kittens, etc. and explaining which ones are "good art" and why the bad pictures can't be classified as "good."

After finishing her slice of cheese pizza, bowl of steaming broccoli soup, and chocolate chip pizzert, I corraled a coloring sheet and crayons for her so that she, too, could contribute to the art wall. She found this especially exciting.

Her first gallery piece was a puppy wearing a party hat. When finished, she walked with me to the front of the restaurant and got the attention of one of the employees. The lady gave her a piece of tape that we then applied to the top of her sheet. Katie proudly stuck her "good art" to the wall. I guess she's now officially an artist with exhibition experience.

Pleasant Evening

November 7, 2007

I walked in the door after a day at work to find Katie proudly displaying some of her artistic work in her newest coloring book. A duck or something. Whatever it was, she was really proud of her efforts. Melissa was putting the finishing touches on a tater tot casserole.

Katie has been promising that she'd eat tater tot casserole if Melissa would only prepare it for her. She also promised to eat a miniature banana if Melissa would just buy some. At dinner, she was served both but then stated that she'd be eating neither of them. Through some creative coaxing, we finally got her to eat some of the casserole and all of the mini banana.

Katie now sings the dinner blessing. And each night, she offers up a different version. She improvises each song, but they're always respectful and sweet.

After dinner, she and I played several different little games while Melissa relaxed. We also read "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Thumbelina." "Jack" was the better read. Stories are just more exciting when there's a giant who chases after the hero. Katie kept trying to speed me along when I was reading "Thumbelina." No giant, after all.

I watched Katie draw the following creations....


It's a mouse (or rat?) and a couple of crabs. I don't think I've seen her draw the crabs before, so I think she's just drawing what she visualizes. She's got some skill.


More detail...

From the Archives

Pillows of Terror!

This is one of my favorite videos of Tiny, when she was still tiny. The captured action occured in the Monterey Bay resort in Myrtle Beach. It was a brutal cold night in March of 2005 and we were holed up for the night. I suppose we were getting ready for bed and were letting Tiny burn out as much energy as she could when she found that she really enjoyed falling backwards off a pillow. To boost the thrill for her a bit, I added another pillow to the stack. And voila!, the "Pillows of Terror" were created. My original fleeting thought was "Pillows of Death," but that just didn't seem appropriate.

I've lost track of how many times I've watched this video:

Election Day

November 6, 2007

Some fun tonight after dinner and a chocolate-dipped creme puff (liked the chocolatey puff part, but not the creme part!). We boarded the van and headed to town hall to perform our civic duty by voting. I explained the concept of voting to Katie on the short trip to the polls (there's a few people who want to make the rules, so we pick the ones we want). Melissa and I inked in the circles of a couple of town counselperson candidates. For that, we received a couple of "I voted" stickers, which, of course, were handed over to Katie to adorn her clothes.

Back home, I worked with Katie on writing all the letters of the alphabet. She can write all the letters now, but needs some ongoing help with the "R" and "Z."

New additions to her vocabulary were "pedestrian," and "cacophony."

From Nov 07

Artist

For the past year or so, Melissa and I have been watching Katie's development as an artist. We're convinced that she's been blessed with some serious artistic skill. After all, she draws better than the both of us. Seriously. She learned to write her name about two months ago, but we just had her learn the basic, Helvetica font. Nothing fancy at this point in her life because she'll start getting creative with writing her name when she's in 5th grade, right?

I came home one night this week to see that she's been practicing writing her name like this:



We don't know where she learned to write like that.

Halloween

October 31, 2007

So this year's costume we found at what would seem to be the most unlikely place for finding a Halloween costume: Cracker Barrel. Who knew?

Nana and Melissa spotted a ladybug costume at the Cracker Barrel during a recent dinner there when what we were really looking for was a tasty country-fried steak dinner with the sawmill gravy. And we got our money's worth out of the costume. There was the neighborhood Halloween party, the preschool party, and then the main event.

Nana joined the three of us for a pizza dinner prior to taking to the street. After dinner and fitting Katie once again into the costume, we all headed outside where we...took some pictures. Some good ones, too. And then...a group picture with the kids on our street. By this time, Katie's patience was thinning. The night was supposed to be about filling that orange pumpkin bucket with candy, right?

Yes, it was time to start the candy harvest. But in our neighborhood, most of the folks just leave big bowls of candy on the front porch with a sign saying something like "Take two pieces." While we also left a bowl of candy, we didn't leave the sign....

At first, Katie was just excited to be filling the pumpkin bucket with candy, but as we progressed, she'd examine the candy as soon as it was placed into the bucket. To the nice people who didn't favor Miss Ladybug with some chocolate of some sort, Katie fearlessly announced "I don't really like that candy." With some immediate politeness training from Melissa and me, Katie amended her "trick-or-treat" greeting to "Trick or Treat! Give me some candy I like!"

Clever, but not exactly what her mother and I had in mind.

A couple of houses later, she again examined the candy after it had been dropped into the bucket and gleefully exclaimed "Thank you for giving me candy I like." What every candy giver wants to hear.

Our neighborhood is huge but it's immensity is not so obvious until Halloween. It seemingly takes an hour to get around just our block. And that one block seems like enough. The bucket was filled and we were tired. In fact, Katie had been ready to quit about 20 houses prior to our final stop.

And then we returned home to learn that some of the big kids emptied the cauldron of candy we had left for the trick-or-treaters, leaving crumbs for those who'd follow. They apparently needed the guidance of a "Take two pieces" sign. Next year, that's what they'll get.

From Oct 07

From Oct 07

From Oct 07