Challah, taiko drumming, Aviva's meetings

Noah made these beautiful challas last night with Nana and Papa! These are extra things Noah put in them: 

This is the suitcase that Aviva brings to her meetings.

There was a taiko drum performance at the library on Saturday, and the kids got to play the drums also.

meetings

Evidently, I go to to many meetings. Josh

A: Ok, I'm going to a meeting. Bye. See you later. 

Y: OK, have fun

Goes to the other room and comes back

A: I'm back. 

Y: How was your meeting

A: Good. 

Y: What is your meeting about?

A: Moana. 

Y: Oh, did you watch the movie. 

A: The meeting was called Moana. There was a little time there and a little movie

gifts

Noah thinks that a clicker to advance powerpoint presentations might be a good gift for him when he graduates college, assuming he has a computer. 

Noah likes to sleep with his panda

January news and notes

As described to me last night by Noah:

If you could put a camera in Noah's nose, you would see nose hairs which catch the tiny germs and don't make him sick. But if you made the germs into beans, and the nose hairs into clay, then the clay would catch the beans and squash them. Just think of all those beans.

Aviva and I were talking about how our friend Dorian is going to get a kitten and I'm very excited. I said it was going to happen soon. Aviva asked when, more specifically, and I said "in a week or two." Then Aviva said, "But I thought you said 'soon!' " Different definitions...

Noah did something difficult, and he wanted a reward. I think the difficult thing was peeing in a new place. In any case, he thought he deserved a reward. He kept talking about it and asking what the reward would be. We went to an Asian supermarket that had lots of little vending machine toys (like rubber balls and stickers and gumballs) for a quarter or for a dollar. We had a very long and heated discussion about how much he was allowed to get and how much he deserved. It was so heated that it was a fit, basically. Tears and insisting - it was really important to him. He finally got a glittery tattoo, after a lot of back-and-forth. He got the tattoo, and later on the car ride home, he said, "You know, I think Elisabeth would like this tattoo. I'm going to give it to her." Sadness and desperation forgotten.

While the kids brush their teeth, they can watch a video. The other night was a video about the word "jealous." Two cartoon kids were talking about what it meant, and how it feels. As I was putting Noah to bed and we were snuggling in his bed, I wanted to ask him if he could articulate his jealousy of Aviva, or that he sometimes feels jealous (of the attention she gets, or the amount of dinner, etc.). As I was talking, I made a last minute decision to start the other way. I told Noah that sometimes Aviva feel jealous of him, because he's older and can do a lot of things. He understood and said he would try to be extra nice to her. I'm happy with how the conversation went, and we left it at that. 

January news

Kids doing science kits

Aviva is 4

parties

Aviva had her birthday party at preschool today. She was a little confused if she was 5, because she had her party at home a few days earlier. We talked about how she's going to be 4 at her birthday, and then at the next birthday she will be 5. So, since we had a second one, she thinks she's 5 now. The school's party was nice. The kids all helped make a cake (chocolate, of course). We sang songs and lifted her up in her chair. She also made a posterboard with pictures and showed it to the class.

The party at home went well also. Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting with chocolate chips, just as she wanted. We forgot to invite other kids so it was just Elizabeth from down the street and Declan from downstairs. They were joined by Dorian, the fam, some neighbors, and the elders. It went well. Aviva enjoyed it, which was the important thing.

piggy

Aviva reports that piggy is having a fussy day

Cute kids

2635 Benvenue as of late

Aviva has been talking a lot about being a kitty cat. She wants to eat rice and ice cream, mixed, both chocolate. She would eat it with her paws which are on her hands.

Aviva's holding Owie, her tried and true

What a cute little kitty cat - many times a day, Aviva pretends to be a kitty cat. Sometimes a mean one, usually a nice one.

Noah and I were talking the other day about weapons. We were looking at a book of weapons from the beginning of time, starting with rocks and sticks. When we got to cannons and missiles, he wanted to understand why people would use them. I started to explain that sometimes people are really angry at each other. But that didn't explain it all and he asked, "Why are people so mean?" He was fascinated by pictures of tanks, and how they could damage a building.

He has been very concerned lately about fairness. It's really important to him that things are fair, and that means EQUAL. If Aviva hits him, he has to hit her back to make it fair. Any vice that Aviva gets away with, has to be committed by him also. And time spent with parents needs to be equal. Yesterday he was very upset that he's a boy so he can't have a baby. It's not fair. And Aviva has 5 letters in her name, and that's not fair. And she got more rice at dinner and that's not fair. 

Equal amounts of food has been a big topic for him. Regarding the rice, he really would have wanted to count the grains of rice. As I was serving him something, he said he wanted to have more than me (I hadn't served myself yet). Also important are the sizes of the slices of bread, and the number of scoops of the spinach paneer, and how many pieces of paneer he got... I told him yesterday that since Aviva can't ride a bike yet, the fair thing would be for Noah to not ride a bike until she can also. I hoped that would bother him and he would drop the fairness issue. But he was okay with that. I'm trying to think of other privileges that he enjoys because he's older, but I haven't found any yet that he would miss. I think what we need to do is spend individual time with the kids and talk about their differences, and how these differences are a good thing. I'm open to others' ideas.... 

. 

Noah made this mask and cuff and added all the decorations. This is the facial expression and body language that he thinks goes along with it. Notice his cowboy boots.

Noah reports

Noah reports that there is something very unusual about his body but he forgets what. 

Winter Concert