These silly guys are what I love most about life. 

I didn't grow up dreaming of being a mommy.  I never put much thought about what it would actually be like to pack my kindergartners lunch every morning or read books about princesses snuggled up to my 2 year old. But boy, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Elsie's baby name ideas for the week were

1)'Jesus-Joe'   (if its a boy)   and 2) 'Ee-oo' (if it's a girl) - way to think outside the box Else.

 

academic success, getting in the club

 Yesterday we lived it up like we were rich and wildly successful.  We ate at our favorite Georgetown restaurant (sans children!), strolled down ritzy D.C. streets, and celebrated Brady's first major peer review publication.   This paper, with Brady its '1st author' (meaning his ideas and his name to be cited) was accepted at the Academy of Management Journal, a top "A" rated journal. It is a feat that even makes his professors envious and we couldn't help but celebrate.

 As soon as his publication was 'in press' a congratulatory department- wide email went out to break the news, followed by pats on the back from faculty and students, a bonus, and ultimately a shift in his status. Getting a paper to your name, in a widely read journal, as a Phd student is a B-I-G deal.

It makes the difference between getting to choose  your next job and having to just take what positions and salaries are left over.  It means the difference between getting into the club of tenure-track "professors" and being a just a 'lecturer' with little university influence, no job security, and half the pay.

The process to create a scientifically sound, convincing, paper published is a long suckie road. It's not always fruitful. But this time, years of hard work paid off. Congrats Brady, I'm proud of you.

Valentine's

 

Cookies are one of my favorite "love languages." I have lots of nostalgic memories of people feeding me cookies- friends showing up on my doorstep with chewy treats, baking with my grandma and such. As a kid my mom celebrated holidays with soft, perfectly crafted, sugar cookies, using a recipe with a secret ingredient and lots of love.  Now I'm not much of a baker- my lase-fair method of following directions gets in the way. But rarely do I let a holiday pass without taking out my cookie cutters. These hearts were made for a few friends and Liam's class party.

I'm a big believer in Valentines Day.  I think it's good for the soul.  It's nice to have one happy-go- lucky day in the dead of winter where people go around doing fanciful, inconsequential but nice,  things for each other.

 Elsie recieved pink paints for Valentines Day, Liam got a Ninja Turtle movie. Elsie was happy to wake up to a day dedicated to pink- her pink painted hearts were taped to the walls, her food was pink, her cards were pink. It was fun to see Liam labeling his class valentines and putting them into piles of those who he thought liked Kung Fu Panda cards and those who would find them distastefully violent (mainly the girls) and needed an alternate.

 

 milk goatee

kindergarten winners . . . (and losers)

Now we're 'proud honor roll parent's we understand why some people plaster their mini-van bumpers with elementary school stickers. Having your kid excel is exciting. As the parent it only makes sense that the entire world should be metaphorically patting your kid on the back.

 

I went to Liam's award ceremony this morning and as happy I was to see my kid with a yellow-starred certificate, I felt really bad for those kids that didn't quite make the cut.  Before the awards started they made it very clear that although everyone would get some kind of paper to bring home, at least for 'effort', the honor roll awards were just for the kids that averaged 90-100% on their quarter grades. It makes me a little uncomfortable to have kids ranked and categorized at such a young age. I know that's part of life- some people race ahead, some lag, and some just take their own path entirely- but can't everyone be equally a winner in kindergarten? I guess it all has to start sometime.









Liam's 'star of the week' poster

This is a video clip of Liam's class.  He is really easy to spot out in this video, for obvious reasons :). (Also look for the spontaneous background dancer) Yep, it's a multi-ethnic, ALL in French, kindergarten experience.  His kindergarten experience is a bold contrast to the cushy one I experienced in Eagle River, Alaska, but we're all happy with it.  His school was the only one of 204 schools in their district to be awarded the "School of the Year" distinction from the Maryland Board of Education. About 1/3 of the kids have a parent that speaks French (African, French, Haitian . . .) All their math, reading, writing, science is all done in French. To me it seems disorienting and exhausting, to Liam it feels normal (although if he had a choice he would prefer English.)

The dog experiment

Wouldn't it be nice if before people made big life decisions -getting married, buying a car, having a baby, accepting a new job- if first they got a 9 day take-it-or-leave-it trial. You know, if you tried it out for 9 days and didn't absolutely love it (the new house, infant, or dog) it just goes back. Well that's kinda how I'd sum up our dog sitting experiment.

Our kids are crazy about dogs.  We keep a box of dog bones in our cupboard at all times, even though we have never had a dog, just in case.  So Brady and I thought that maybe, as considerate parents, we needed a pup of our own.  In the meantime our friends went to Cali for a 9 day vacation and asked us to dog-sit. As a dog-hungry family, we were happy to help.

 So we took in a sweet, 1 year old, lab-poodle named Osa. . . with ADHD.  She likes kids but she also loves toppling them over. It was fun taking her on walks but it was just too much for her to see all the kids get off at Liam's bus stop and resist jumping and catching them.  Liam and Elsie enjoyed taking turns feeding her but also discovered that she likes eating crayons, chapstick, styrofoam, and Buzz light year rocketships. She was pretty well potty trained, well, except for the 7-8 times she wasn't.  (Including when she peed inside right in front of our landlord during our yearly rental inspection.)

Yet despite this and all the times Elsie said " Is she going to EAT me ?" it seems really quiet around here and we all kinda miss Osa- the crazy, lovable dog.
 Luckily, not enough to replace her.

random, silly kid ramblings

(Elsie and Liam were playing make-up. Elsie was thrilled with the results, up until she did the eyeliner on her nose.)

 Liam is certain that we are having a baby boy.  He says that it is the only thing that makes sense considering the family pattern we have in place, starting with dad (boy/ girl/boy/girl. . . boy)
Elsie wants a pink baby, preferably a baby sister, but definitely not one that will take her mermaids.

Liam's top name choices are:
 Ninja- if it's a boy
 Princess- if it's a girl. (There is actually a girl with this name in his kindergarten class)

Elsie's top choice:
 "Baby Elsie"   Never-mind it being her own name, and redundant, it's her favorite name ever.

Liam quote of the week- "Too bad they can't rename my school from 'Goddard French Immersion School' to 'Goddard Ninja Shark."



Elsie quote of the week: "Mom, don't worry, I don't eat green boogers, only the yellow ones."

 
Elsie is an artist.  She can't resist passing by a blank piece of paper without leaving it colored.
Here she is painting a cardboard box pink (left)
& posing by her self portrait (below)

Liam's class celebrated their 100th day of kindergarten today with a counting party where they made trail mix.  School is a breeze for Liam. Here is a picture of his kindergarten homework, which he completed by himself.  I love seeing what he comes up with. . .

kids and medical misconceptions

Since my kids have been sick on and off again for the past 6 weeks we have talked a lot about preventing sickness and then how to manage  symptoms once infected. From these discussions have come some interesting comments. 

From Liam:

Liam talking to Elsie- “If kids have a fever and they don’t drink water, they’ll DISAPPEAR!!!”

-“I don’t know how the germs got me. I have really good eyes and I looked REALLY closely and I didn’t even see them. “

-“How did I get sick again? I was sleeping with a blanket over my head and even all the way over my feet so the germs couldn’t jump on me while I was sleeping.”

-“Every time I cough I am letting the germs out so there is less and less inside me.”

-“If you get sick the first thing you do is drink hot chocolate and watch movies.”

From Elsie-

-"When kids are sick they drink lots of hot chocolate. When moms are sick they drink bath water." (Looking at my herbal tea in a dark mug)

-"The pink medicine is the best cause it eats all my germs all gone."

-"The germs tried to get me and I was running SUPER fast. Like this-" Then showing 2 fingers frantically moving as fast as they could.

Presidential Inauguration

  
An inaugural kiss, downtown D.C. during the presidential inauguration. Brady didn't take an Obama flyer and a guy accused him of being a "Republican," a dirty name in this town.

You've probably noticed that none of these pictures of the presidential inauguration actually included the president.  That's because we did not actually see the president. We saw the capitol, we saw the national monument, we heard the inauguration blasted over a loud speaker, saw the secret service snipers, the tanks, but there were about a million people between us and Barack. With D.C. security, unless you know a guy, you aren't actually allowed anywhere near the president. That said, we had a fun time being downtown for the festivities.

This is a town that can't get enough Obama. He snagged a jaw dropping 96% of the vote here.  Even when it's not an election year people sing his praises year round with T-shirts, tattoos, bumper stickers, songs (that Liam sings in kindergarten.)    I visit taught a lady from church that had 2 large pictures taped to her house front window- one picture of the Obama family, the other of the Mormon temple. It's pretty indicative of how deeply, almost religiously, connected people feel to him.  He is much more than a political figure- for the black community he like is a prophet foreshadowing opportunity to come.  While I didn't vote for Obama (some of his fiscal policies don't jive with me) I appreciate what he has done to open doors and bridge the racial divide. 

Here's the official 1st lady 2013 inaugural dress, in case you're dying to see it.  I'm nearly fashion-less but the D.C. Smithsonian National History Museum has a collection of 1st lady inaugural dresses that's quite fascinating. It's a retelling of history via ballgown.  This dress will go to that collection alongside Martha Washington, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Jackie O.