Miscellaneous

• It's always humorous when your children reuse your idiosyncratic phrases. Joshua opened up a DVD from the library this evening and declared "This DVD has serious shmutz on it" and brought it to me to clean.


• This was something that made me laugh yesterday: The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks


• While checking my del.icio.us bookmarks for that URL, I just saw a blog that I had saved for looking at some more: The Jew and the Carrot. Perhaps a bit more radical than my taste, but bringing three of my interests (Judaism, food, and social responsibility).

Trick or Treating

We did trick or treating both in the afternoon (the merchants of Lexington) and in the evening (our neighbors). Much candy was gathered, although only a little consumed. So far, Joshua's favorite was his first Snickers bar; Miriam's, her first cherry Tootsie Roll. The excitement level was definitely the highest it's ever been, fueled by the expectation of candy. One can only imagine what it will be at age 8.

Costume progression:
2003 - Space alien and frankenstein
2004 - Fire truck and fire fighter
2005 - Ballerina and bumblebee
2006 - Ariel the mermaid and Lightning McQueen's pit crew

Reading

Joshua read his first sentence yesterday: "The cat sat in a hat." He has read lots of single words, and recited sentences from books, but this was an unequivocal case of sight-reading words (in this case, they were from Souperchicken. This seems momentous. And it's one of the rare things that Joshua has done before his sister (although she too is on the verge of really reading as well).

Various Thoughts

I actually had time to read much of the Sunday NYT while visiting my inlaws this weekend (partly because the second half of the paper comes on Saturday - I wish the Globe would do that for either my Sunday Globe or Sunday times).

The travel section had an article on tea in Portland, OR that made me want to go back. Robin and I had some great tea there on our honeymoon.

Then Sunday Styles made me realize: it's hip to be a librarian. And I am proudly one (even if I'm not really a practicing one). Not only am I a librarian, I'm a Guybrarian.

Lastly, a curious 21st century moment: I took the twins to see "Ratatouille" (a great movie). I had to explain to Joshua that there was no DVD playing, but rather film, and it didn't had a menu, and (most tragically) I couldn't fast-forward through the parts he found scary. Kids these days: he understands the difference between a DVR and a DVD, but doesn't have a concept of what film is.

How to Tell if You're a Robot

During bath the other day, I had been getting lots of cheap laughs by pretending to be "Robot Daddy." Later, I had this discussion with her.

Joel: How do you know I'm not a robot?

Miriam: Because you look like a human

Joel: What if I'm a robot who looks like a human?

Miriam: You can't be a robot. You have a human voice, and you don't have batteries.

I think Miriam may be the latest in the long line of Abrams lawyers.

Knock Knock Jokes

Miriam's favorite knock knock joke:

"Knock Knock"

"Who's there?"

"Policeman"

"Policeman who?"

"Policeman fire truck." (Miriam laughs hysterically).

It's amazing the way that the routine of the joke, and the idea that it's funny are there, but not yet the ability to create one. The unfolding is one of the most fun parts of parenthood.

Similarly with Passover this year: Miriam and Joshua both really got it this year. Last year, we simply tried to get them through the seder without melting down and eating as few breadish things as possible. This year, they understood parts of the seder. They know that we celebrate being free. They understand that we have matzah instead of bread, and know the names of charoset and maror. Next year in Jerusalem!

Joshua made me extremely happy yesterday by gobbling down asparagus. He's a boy who won't touch a carrot or cucumber, but eats broccoli and now, asparagus. A unique soul.

Overheard

Joshua as I was saying goodbye to go to work this morning: "Don't forget to give Mommy a kiss." And then he repeated it, just to make sure I got the message.

Fun and Games

Miriam and Joshua have a favorite game now: Cariboo. Miriam has been engaged before with board games like Chutes and Ladders or Candyland, but Joshua has never really gotten the point of them. He doesn't care if he wins or loses, so moving his piece along the board doesn't matter. On the other hand, Cariboo manages to make the game playing itself intrinsically interesting. And they both take turns and love it. There was an interesting article in the New York Times a couple of years ago (which I just looked up with Times Select) about how the company that makes Cariboo (Cranium) has a philosophy of making games where everyone wins. Two guys quit Microsoft to found it.

Miriam looked at me today and said "I like you so much."

Overheard in the Bath

From Miriam: "I'm worrying about my boo-boo. Josh, you worry about yourself. I'm worrying about myself." This from a boo-boo so small it had no visible marks. Nonetheless, a Backyardigans bandage was requested and given by a generous Daddy.

Preschoolers

We're just about recovered from two weeks of everybody having a vicious cold (knock on wood), but everyone seemed to wake up this morning relatively healthy.

Miriam was just about the last to recover, and she was having a funny day yesterday. On the one hand, she suddenly seemed to be picking up on phonics and starting to be on the verge of reading. On the other hand, she had a total meltdown in Brooks drugs because she was terribly offended by my choice of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chocolate Brownie frozen yogurt. She insisted she would NOT, categorically NOT eat it.

Joshua is showing so much more resilience. He was pooped by the end of the day, but he soldiered on through the pre-school havdalah program. He sang along, he played with the glow stick. Joshua of a year ago would have been in meltdown about this departure from routine.