Visitors, etc.

The big news, I think, is that Sam has started reading on his own! Susan got him a collection of early readers put out by Usborn. The start nice and easy, with the parent reading the text on the left page and the child the simpler text on the right. He's on his twelfth of these and the words and sentences are more complex and he's doing all the reading. He felt very proud to be reading! I mentioned recently that I haven't wanted this day to come, but it's worth it to see how satisfying it is for him to sound out words on his own.

We have snow on the ground (not shown) and temps in the 20s. But it must be spring, as Sam keeps wanting to go outside and swing or play near the stream.

Last weekend Susan made ebelskivers, which are little pastries made in a special cast-iron pan. We all enjoyed them.

Jess and Lanse, our neighbors when we lived in our previous house, are visiting Rochester this week. Yesterday Jess came over and we had a great time catching up. (In the photo of Jess, notice the vacuum hose on the floor. Sure evidence we vacuum occasionally... right?)

More and more Sam plays by himself. Today after church we told him to go play while we prepared lunch. Yesterday Sam and Susan had made a cardboard "house" together. Today he attached a clear plastic... turret? Helmet? Observation tower? to it.

What else is there to say? Two weeks ago I went to Sam's school to do a science demo. Not a science experiment, exactly, but not just a magic show either. These lines get blurry. Last time it involved mixing chemicals to make them change color.

This time, at the end of the week, I have a hodge podge of loosely connected demos. I'll suck an egg into a glass bottle by dropping some lit matches in and using the shelled, hard-boiled egg to seal the opening just before the air inside cools and contracts. I'll also show how you can invert a full glass of water without having the water pour out, so long as you have a piece of cardboard over the opening. (No tape, glue, etc.!)

I had planned to show how you can pierce a balloon with a metal skewer without it popping, but despite endless youtube demos, I can't get it to work. Instead I will show how you can poke a large number of pencils through a ziplock bag filled with water without the water pouring out. (The concept here being, as in the case of the inverted glass of water, that unless air can come in to replace the water, the water can't leave. For the glass, adhesion makes a sufficient seal, as with a suction cup. For the ziplock bag demo, because the hole made by the pencil is the same size and shape as the pencil, water can't escape.

Finally, I will show that if you put a few tablespoons of water in a balloon before you blow it up, you can hold it over a candle and the flame won't make it burst. This is because the water inside the balloon (having a much higher heat capacity than the balloon or the air inside it) absorbs all the heat leaving the plastic intact.

These four ought to be sufficient to turn an otherwise drab 45 minutes on a Friday afternoon into something a little more interesting. I'd like to talk about siphoning, but I really need a 50' string of beads... anyone have a 50' string of beads? :-)

Winter Poem About Snow

The snow is so white
It's a happy sight.
And I hope you like this poem
And in this home
We are nice and cozy warm.
The End.

Susan provided a list of rhymes for poem--otherwise it's straight from the mind of Sam. :-) It is dedicated to Xochitl, who will receive the original in the mail.

Photos from Friday Gym Frolics.

Quiet weekend. Ate at a Mehican restaurant with friends and with Sam in tow! Worked, too. Susan got a special book of placemats called Chicken Doodle Soup. Each placemat has a funny drawing on it of a food/animal pun (like chimps holding a piece of macaroni for Macaroni and Chimpanzees, or a snake looking like a straw in Strawberry Milksnakes), and then gives steps for doing the drawing yourself. A great diversion.


Sam had waffles twice today. Susan made Ebelskivers (she's sure to have a blog post on this soon). We played Chinese Checkers (Susan won--she's a shark. She also made him run laps in between turns to burn off energy). Napped while Sam watched a disk of Superfriends (I swear, I didn't make him watch it. He actually enjoys it). I did a failed science "experiment" while Sam used a wooden spoon to play eight tumblers with varying amounts of water in each. Oh--he went to a birthday party yesterday. It was actually in a home, which is a nice change. And despite being from 3-5 pm, the hostess made an incredible spread. Wow. Read some fun new books. Also read some from an old Tintin book. Those are a little harder. Slow moving and with layers which Sam doesn't really get. May hide that one in the hope he forgets about it.

More news as more events occur. (Guess that was obvious.)

Who are your favorite children's authors?

As much for posterity as anything else, I thought it would be fun to list the authors I hunt for when I go to the library. I know I'll forget these names in a few years (unless we have a second), and it would be nice to remember them. Who knows, one day we might be buying them for grand kids?

So, in no order, here are the authors of children's books I enjoy the most. Some of them--most?--are famous and well known to those who have put in the hours at the library or book store.

Please add to the list! I'd love to be surprised by more excellent authors. I'm already grateful for those Sue has shown and given us, and the many great books we've gotten from Mom and Dad and Amy and Aunt Ruth and others. I'll keep adding as I remember them. I am certain I am not remembering even half the ones which have been important to us.

Kevin Henkes: Sheila Rae, The Brave is a great example of his top-notch work. Just about everything he did is excellent.

Mark Teague: The How Does a Dinosaur series with Jane Yolen is fantasic. He also contributed some great art for the Poppleton series with Cynthia Rylant. Not to be missed; they are some of my favorite books of all time.

You'll notice I haven't mentioned Dr. Suess. I'll come clean. I really dislike his artwork. Hasn't anyone noticed that he can't really draw? And his wacky worlds just drive me nuts. Horton Hears a Who and Is Convicted of Trumped-Up Charges by a Kangaroo Court paints a bleak picture of human nature no less than Henry Fonda's great The Oxbow Incident. The Cat in the Hat has distinct resonances with that children's horror classic Pinocchio or David Mamet's House of Games: Everything goes worse and worse and worse, rules are broken, and for what? The vicarious thrill of watching someone's life broken, their hope of a good night's sleep dashed? For those who like any sort of order or reason, it's torture.

I know this is like insulting a favorite uncle, but there it is. Not to say Sam doesn't like his books.

Cynthia Rylant: The Henry and Mudge books and much more. She's a machine. We can all learn something from Poppleton and his adventures.

David Small: Great artwork and quirky plots. George Washington's Cows is as good a place to start as any. Or even better: Paper John, which has a great conflict with a demon, not to be missed.

Tomie dePaola: Oh, he's excellent. Some of his books deal with religious topics, quite nicely. Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile (thanks, Amy!) is a great place to start.

David Shannon: A smaller body of work but some great books, such as Pirates Don't Change Diapers (written by Melinda Long).

Arnold Lobel: The Frog and Toad books, Uncle Elephant, Mouse Tales, etc. Just delightful.

Mark Tolen for the Arthur series. Sandra Boynton for her many classics. Richard Scarry's books can't be forgotten either. (Loved finding Goldbug!) And if you like Richard Scarry, try A Year in a Castle by Rachel Coombs. Great art, great detail. For that matter, just about everything in the great collection The 20th-Century Children's Book Treasury really is amazing. That's worth owning.

Lauren Child: Every Charlie and Lola book ever done, plus classics like Beware of the Storybook Wolves.

Don and Audrey Wood: The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Bug Hungry Bear, etc. This one was given to Sam by his birth father long ago, and it's excellent. Piggies is classic, and King Bidgood's in the Bathtub--but if you are up for an adventurous graphic novel, try Intro the Volcano. Very well done. And Audrey produced such classics as Silly Sally.

Since I've mentioned graphic novels, I'll add Susan Schade and Jon Buller's series beginning with Travels of Thelonious. It's set in a post-apocalyptic world where animals have thumbs and human-level intelligence, and humans are almost entirely wiped out. These books are real page-turners, but not too sophisticated or scary for a 4 or 5-year-old.

In that vein, there are the Saltwater Taffy graphic novels by Matthew Loux which are a lot of good, innocent fun. Wish there were more. We've found various other comic-booky adaptations of classics, from Greek myths to Sherlock Holmes. I am not sure whether it's a bad idea for him to learn the story and its surprised in that format first. Will this ruin it for him when he's older and tries to read them in book form? Guess we'll see.

Margaret Wise Brown: Good Night Moon and Runaway Bunny, of course, but have you tried Big Red Barn? See if you can find the unintended, impossible reflection in a bucket of water.

And the authors who have only one book we've read, but it's one we love:

Peggy Rathman for Good Night, Gorilla. Follow the balloon on each page if you haven't already.

Bruce Degen for Jamberry -- This is delightful and sing-songy. Hey, you know what? Turns out he illustrated the Magic School Bus series! These are educational, and Sam's just really at the age where he'll get much to all of the information out of them. Very good series.

Margaret Beames for Night Cat. Never has a possum been as dramatically scary. Little known fact: the "reveal" of Grace Poole in the Orson Welles version of Jane Eyre was based on this book. (At least, that's my theory, causality be darned.)

Soon: Children's T.V. programs and movies!

Amy Visits During Sam's Misfortune

First, Sam contemplating his Mighty Beans, and those lent him by cousin Jon. These are essentially horse-pill capsules, painted to look like a little figure, and with a small weight inside so they can stand on end.

They are collectables with no almost no intrinsic value (depending how much you value the artwork), so are perfect for little guys to collect, arrange and hoard, as in the old jewelry box sent up by Uncle Stu. (For those who are curious, the slippers are a gift from our Japanese friends Yoko and Yasuki. As I write this I am kept warm by a blanket they sent as well!)

Took Sam to the Y to extract some kinetic energy on Saturday. On the way there I played for him selections from a cd by the 80s Canadian pop group Rush. (Think "Tom Sawyer.") During an extended drum solo from their popular voiceless song "YYZ", Sam said to me, "Did adults make this?" I asked why he wanted to know, and he said it just didn't sound like it. I guess he means it sounded more like kids messing around on drums (which doesn't do Neil Pert justice but makes for a great story). I am going to take this as an effect of playing classical music for him all the time. :-) Don't worry, it's not that he doesn't appreciate rock, but it certainly doesn't all sound the same to him.

This picture of domestic tranquility is how the weekend began. Susan and I went off to small group while Amy stayed home and did a neat, original craft with Sam before reading to him and putting him to bed. Never have brads added so much to an evening! (Brads are doodads for attaching two sheets of paper while retaining a pivot point.)

Saturday night Sam, having been normal and active all day, rapidly fell ill and vomited, ending his playdate with Lexy.

Two years ago was the Year of the Croup. He had it more times than I can count, giving us many nights I'll never forget, sitting out on the "sun" porch in the moonlight so he could inhale cold winter air. The year before was the Year of the Stomach Bug. He invited in (courtesy Montessori and other playdates) ferocious bugs my body had either forgotten or never seen before, taking Susan and me down with him into the vortex of stomach-clenching heaves.

This year hasn't had a theme yet. Last week he had strep so entrenched it could light up the throat culture strip (is it a strip?) from a foot away. I announced with a perverse pride that he'd thrown up nine times.

Now I am sorry to have wasted your time with such an amateurish display. This weekend he caught what the doc thinks is a stomach bug. His Sunday school teacher had said the week before that Sam had probably in that one day (the strep day) exceeded the total number of regurgitations her daughters had experience during their entire childhoods. I guess there is a real range. Susan and I certainly never experienced a night like Sam had last night.

Without going into any further detail (really, I am just running out of synonyms), he was emptying his stomach every 10-20 minutes throughout the night. He was so tired he would claim, while heaving, that he was actually done and should be allowed to lie down and go to sleep.

Today's been much better-just once. We installed him in the family room, in the fold-out love-seat we got from Stu and Sue's hotel (or it should be theirs!), and it's a measure of his illness that he didn't just watch t.v. all day. Happily, he got really interested in the Planet Earth series, in addition to his well established enjoyment of Scooby Doo and the Loch Ness Monster.

Aunt Amy displayed into-the-valley-of-death courage, keeping us company while Sam was in rapid decay. She even made Sam two "love bugs" to cheer him up, shown above.

So Sam's home from school tomorrow. Say a prayer for him and for Susan, whose deadlines don't change despite these vicissitudes.

weekday update on different degrees of goodness

Susan: How was your day at school?
Sam : I painted!
Susan: Really, was that fun?
Sam: I felt proud of myself today.
Susan: Because you painted well?
Sam: No, Because I was so good.
Susan: I thought you were usually pretty good.
Sam: Not this good!
Susan: How do you behave when you're good? Do you work well?
Sam: I did some good math.