Tuesday, August 30, 2011
More fun.
The daughter is back from staying by herself with the grandparents ("by herself" meaning no parents). Overheard from the other room: "No, I don't think we can wear swim flippers to bed..."
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Catch-up
Since I discovered FaceBook, I've been using it as a much more convenient posting of random fast observations and recollections. It has been pointed out that I'm neglecting some of Gaz's best bits here, and there's a segment of the audience that doesn't use FB. Therefore, let me go through and see what I can mine.Wife: (upon Daughter's discussion of something objectionable) Let's not talk about that at the dinner table.---
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Daughter was reading parts of her homework aloud, and doing it in weird voices from word to word.---
I hate to always make these posts about Gaz, but honestly, she's the most significant thing that happens to me on a daily basis. Today we did our shopping while she was dressed as Batgirl, with the mask and everything. And she insisted on hitting the comic shop to show off.---
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(while watching animated Thor put the smack-down on some Frost Giants with lightning)
Daughter: Wow, those guys are really dead!
Me: Actually, they could just be shocked unconscious. Frost giants are pretty tough, you know.
Daughter: (singing a sprightly tune)
They are so deaaaad
Hooray they are deaaaad
We'resohappyyou're deaaaad---
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Since then, we've seen The Two Towers, and this afternoon, while G sleeps off some of her icky feeling, we're looking at the Return of the King. Well, I am. There's a lot of talky stuff, so Gaz is fidgeting with a Mr. Bump cooler that's been left out. She'll get more familiar with this stuff later, I'm sure.
Hope that catches everyone up!
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Daughter was reading parts of her homework aloud, and doing it in weird voices from word to word.---
I hate to always make these posts about Gaz, but honestly, she's the most significant thing that happens to me on a daily basis. Today we did our shopping while she was dressed as Batgirl, with the mask and everything. And she insisted on hitting the comic shop to show off.---
---
---
---
(while watching animated Thor put the smack-down on some Frost Giants with lightning)
Daughter: Wow, those guys are really dead!
Me: Actually, they could just be shocked unconscious. Frost giants are pretty tough, you know.
Daughter: (singing a sprightly tune)
They are so deaaaad
Hooray they are deaaaad
We'resohappyyou're deaaaad---
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Since then, we've seen The Two Towers, and this afternoon, while G sleeps off some of her icky feeling, we're looking at the Return of the King. Well, I am. There's a lot of talky stuff, so Gaz is fidgeting with a Mr. Bump cooler that's been left out. She'll get more familiar with this stuff later, I'm sure.
Hope that catches everyone up!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Stop the Presses!
I finally uploaded pictures! Not a lot (I haven't taken many the past few months), but they're all good. The link just goes to the Gaz set, but if you like pictures of clouds and trees, you might want to check out the rest of my photostream.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
School and other things
School's been out for a few weeks now, but I wanted to recap some items from the kindergarten year:
Gaz has been promoted to the gifted class, along with a number of her friends. We are all excited and relieved. Two of the neighbor kids have already gone through this class with this teacher, so we know in advance that she's pretty tough and doesn't have much patience for silliness in the kids. I think this will be good, if difficult at first, for Gaz. She's smart, but easily distracted. With the whip being cracked on everyone, and the less-than-interested-in-learning being removed from the classroom equation, I hope she'll improve her focus and learn to reign in her own goofiness, at least at school.
Right now we're enjoying day camp. It cramps our travel plans, but she's having a great time, making new friends, and she gets to go on a field trip every week and has pool time every day, weather permitting. She keeps calling it school, though, and that's a bit strange to me. But considering that it runs identical hours to actual school, I suppose it makes sense. It's a little culture-shocky, despite its fun, though. At school she's the ethnic minority, but at camp . . . let's just say that there's not one but two Madisons in her age group. Strange that there's not more of the younger neighborhood kids at camp. We do see a number of her school friends after camp lets out, and they usually cavort together on the playground for a while.
And with that, I better post this before I forget again.
- Having volunteered a few times both in the classroom and at mealtimes, I can say that Mrs. K. did a hell of a job in light of the kids and their various behavior issues, and that she was a much more fair judge of Gaz's academic and social situation than I was (more on this in a bit).
- The kids really don't have time enough to eat either breakfast (seven minutes) or lunch (12 minutes). I hope that Mayor Emmanuel's plan to extend the school day gives at least a few minutes more to either meal, preferably lunch.
- It only took me most of the school year to figure out that most of our after-school meltdowns were on days when I let Gaz play for more than 15 minutes on the playground after school. She needs to run and climb and hang out with her friends, but she also needs a substantial recharge period after the stresses of the day. Now I know to show up with a proteiny snack and get us heading toward home after 10-15 minutes of play. She has many opportunities to play with the neighbor kids, so she's really not being deprived.
- The final report card? Perfect.
Gaz has been promoted to the gifted class, along with a number of her friends. We are all excited and relieved. Two of the neighbor kids have already gone through this class with this teacher, so we know in advance that she's pretty tough and doesn't have much patience for silliness in the kids. I think this will be good, if difficult at first, for Gaz. She's smart, but easily distracted. With the whip being cracked on everyone, and the less-than-interested-in-learning being removed from the classroom equation, I hope she'll improve her focus and learn to reign in her own goofiness, at least at school.
Right now we're enjoying day camp. It cramps our travel plans, but she's having a great time, making new friends, and she gets to go on a field trip every week and has pool time every day, weather permitting. She keeps calling it school, though, and that's a bit strange to me. But considering that it runs identical hours to actual school, I suppose it makes sense. It's a little culture-shocky, despite its fun, though. At school she's the ethnic minority, but at camp . . . let's just say that there's not one but two Madisons in her age group. Strange that there's not more of the younger neighborhood kids at camp. We do see a number of her school friends after camp lets out, and they usually cavort together on the playground for a while.
And with that, I better post this before I forget again.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Travelin'
So, we're up at Aunt Emily's for the weekend, and the Intrepid Screaming Nieces (tm) are all clamoring to sleepover with Gaz. The two elder are going to be overnight with their father tomorrow, though, so they get priority tonight, while the youngest will have full run of Gaz tomorrow night. Whee!
The drive was... crazy. What is it about people on the highway that makes them bad drivers? I mean, we're all adults, someone changing lanes ought not to make the entire lane of traffic behind them stop. What are we, fresh out of driver's ed? Fully stopped in the fast lane no less than seven times (probably more) and only ONCE was there a lane closure, and no accidents or someone pulled over. I bring this up on the Gaz blog because we were not even out of Chicago, much less Illinois, before Gaz starts asking if we were almost there. Oh, no, sweetheart, we've got six more hours, because of this traffic. Time was, the trip would take six hours total, but not on this weekend!
She watched some stuff on the way up, though. A Kim Possible movie which she hadn't seen in months, and her favorite disc of Samurai Jack (the one that starts with the "Jump good!" episode). She got involved and excited about the story, which didn't help George's headache any (she's been under the weather a bit this past couple of days), but I liked the fact that she was staying interested in a narrative. That generally means a lengthening of attention span, and that's good! She was pretty quiet on the trip, though, so no gems to share.
Incidentally, we're also on FaceBook, if you're on there, gentle reader, and it's usually more convenient to share bits and pieces on there. Just FYI.
The drive was... crazy. What is it about people on the highway that makes them bad drivers? I mean, we're all adults, someone changing lanes ought not to make the entire lane of traffic behind them stop. What are we, fresh out of driver's ed? Fully stopped in the fast lane no less than seven times (probably more) and only ONCE was there a lane closure, and no accidents or someone pulled over. I bring this up on the Gaz blog because we were not even out of Chicago, much less Illinois, before Gaz starts asking if we were almost there. Oh, no, sweetheart, we've got six more hours, because of this traffic. Time was, the trip would take six hours total, but not on this weekend!
She watched some stuff on the way up, though. A Kim Possible movie which she hadn't seen in months, and her favorite disc of Samurai Jack (the one that starts with the "Jump good!" episode). She got involved and excited about the story, which didn't help George's headache any (she's been under the weather a bit this past couple of days), but I liked the fact that she was staying interested in a narrative. That generally means a lengthening of attention span, and that's good! She was pretty quiet on the trip, though, so no gems to share.
Incidentally, we're also on FaceBook, if you're on there, gentle reader, and it's usually more convenient to share bits and pieces on there. Just FYI.
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