Doorknobs

One thing (among many) that has surprised me (and which continues to surprise me) is the number of times I've had to say, "Don't hang on the doorknob!"

My kids probably aren't alone in doing such things—swinging from the doorknob, literally climbing the walls, and other such nonsense. I mean, I remember doing such things myself (I was particularly fond of climbing the walls—where you brace yourself against either wall in the hallway and just crab walk up to the ceiling). 

But, man alive—my poor doorknobs! 

I am constantly begging the little people in my house to get off of them. They aren't meant to support the weight of a person! The number of times we've had to tighten these knobs...

Anyway, the other day Phoebe was hanging out in the hallway (no pun intended) while Andrew and I were talking, when she started swinging from the doorknob on the door to the stairs. 

"Phoebe," I said in a warning tone. "Quit swinging on that doorknob!"

She put her feet on the ground, but she did not let go of the doorknob. 

Her little face was staring right at the latch and we saw an idea spring up in her mind. No sooner did her little eyes light up than her tongue popped out of her mouth and she gave the door latch a mighty lick. 

"WHAT?!" Andrew and I both exclaimed. 

Because, seriously...what in the world?! Why would she do that?

"I just wanted to know what it tasted like," she shrugged. 

Story of her life—she's been an oral explorer for as long as she's been alive. I thought we were getting a handle on things (after all, she was rather suspicious of Miriam trying to poison her), but I guess some things in this world are still just too tempting...

Pi Day

Andrew went all out for Pi Day this year. It helps that it was on a Saturday rather than a weekday and it helps that some of the chaos of this semester is starting to ebb a little bit. For dinner he made two kinds of quiche—bacon and cheese and green onion and za'atar. Both were delicious. 

Scheherazade

Miriam just finished a major project for her history of fashion design course. From the list of available time periods she chose the Edwardian Era, which she has loved for ages. She dressed up as Mary Poppins for Halloween when she was four (her choice). And she cherished the Edwardian fashion sticker book Naanii sent her years ago, carefully placing each sticker in its correct spot and referring back to it frequently (though admittedly it has spent more time on the bookshelf than in her hands in more recent years). 

She was thrilled to get to sign up for that era...she was less thrilled with the group she had to work with, but group projects are an evil we all must endure, it seems.

Anyway, one of the odder fashion trends from the time, in my opinion, was the hobble skirt (though to be fair and completely honest, I did wear a long pencil skirt to church today and realized that the hobble skirt never entirely went away).

Miriam asked for help pronouncing Paul Poiret's name, a French designer often credited for the invention (she had to give an oral presentation so wanted to be sure she was pronouncing things correctly). We practiced and practiced saying Poiret together until she felt comfortable with it. 

Later we were on a walk and I asked how Poiret even conceived of such an idea in the first place. What an absurd thing to do—tie women's legs together so they could hardly get a good stride in (this was before I willingly put on that aforementioned pencil skirt, revealing my hypocrisy). 

Women used to even have hobble skirt races! 

Anyway...she said it was inspired by Orientalism and ballet. 

Reading skillz

Last night we read a book called This Book is Not a Picture Book! by Sergio Ruzzier. The story itself was fine and the illustrations...let's just say I would like to go back and analyze those a bit more because now that I think about it I'm hoping that they get more and more illustrated as the story is told. The story is about how, from the product description on Amazon they "struggle at first to decipher their book" but "they stick with it, and before long they discover that not only can they read it, but it deserves a place on the shelf with all their favorite picture books" so it would make sense for the illustrations to become more elaborate (and cover more of the page) as the story goes along. I can't remember if that's the case and...that's not the point of this post.

The endpapers (or pastedowns) were phenomenal. 

That, in my opinion, is where the story was—quite literally, but also figuratively. The opening pastedowns drew in the entire family as we tried to decipher what precisely they were saying bcuseae ehty eerw onsennes! 

Nearly every word was scrambled so it took quite a bit of mental power to work out what the story was saying. But the words on the opening pastedowns mirrored the storyline of the book (and were revealed in plain English on the closing pastedowns). 

It was very interesting! 

And, following in the footsteps of my mother (and many other librarians and literacy scholars), I had to annoy my children by pausing between stories to say, "Just wait! I have to check the publication information!"

(I totally understand why my mom always did this...now).

"I just want to see what year this book was published—oh! 2016, so..."

مريم غبية

I've been teaching the kids (Benjamin, Zoë, Alexander, and...Phoebe) the Arabic alphabet this year. We liked to make fun of Miriam—and Miriam makes fun of herself—because she can consistently recognize alif...and that's about it. It's just a straight line. And it's the first letter of the alphabet, corresponding to the letter A in English. 

But last night at dinner Miriam proudly announced that she knew how to introduce herself in Arabic. 

"اسمي مريم," she said (ismi Miryam).

"Or..." Phoebe said impishly before breaking into maniacal laughter. "Are you غبي?" (ghabi)

"Wha...what does that mean?" Miriam asked. "Wait...I know this... Are you...are you calling me stupid?"

"Hahaha! YES!!" Phoebe shrieked with glee.

"Rude!" Miriam said (with mock offense—she tends not to take Phoebe's insults very seriously).

"Okay, okay," I said, trying to redirect the conversation and get Phoebe to settle down. "Miriam—what do you celebrate today?"

"I celebraaaaaate..." Miriam said, pausing to think.

"Doing stupid stuff?!" Phoebe said, without missing a beat (and once again dissolving into uncontrollable giggles).

I don't know what to do with this child, honestly. 

Phoebe's a reader! She reads things!

Here's Phoebe and the kitty enjoying the sunny window together: 

Wow. Such enthuse. Very yay.

Zoë is in Washington, DC, at the moment, so she missed her gymnastics class on Wednesday—the first day of a new session. 

This afternoon we got a text message from the mom of Zoë's friend M:

"I think you guys are in DC, in which case, hope you are enjoying your time. Today at gymnastics coach Emma said she wants to invite M. and Zoe to the homeschool team class [at a time] on [a day]. Would this be something Zoe would be interested in? M. is a yes but she still wants to do gymnastics with Zoe."

Now, we're not in DC. Only Benjamin and Zoë are (with Grandpa and Darla), see?

A poem draft from today

The day to come out

of hibernation is today,

so say the twenty-seven 

Dandelions and hen-chicken

Today we went on a bit of a foraging walk for Gary's lunch. Gary is a bearded dragon, just to clarify. A bearded dragon who only sometimes likes to eat dandelions. Phoebe wishes he would eat dandelions a lot more often than he does. He can be a pretty picky eater. 

We try to convince Phoebe to leave some dandelions for the bunnies—she wants to pick them all!

At least she does her part to replant...I guess...

Here she is blowing on her wish...

Viewer discretion advised

Before we had FHE, we were invited to watch a little production that Phoebe and Alexander planned. 

I may go find a few more little tidbits in the future (see below), but for now I share this clip with you—a warning about their use of flashing lights that they felt they needed to include (and...honestly? It was probably necessary): 

Mostly we got to enjoy a chronology of Baby Doll Princess's day/life. 

Act one was her birthday, so Phoebe had to go to the LEGO/prop room to find some birthday cake. Then she put her baby to bed. Then it was time for "brekky" so she had to go find some breakfast for Baby Doll Princess.

"What should I get for her brekky?" Phoebe asked.

"Eggs?" Alexander suggested.

"She doesn't like eggs!" Phoebe moaned.

I don't remember what she grabbed for Baby Doll's breakfast. For lunch, though, she did grab eggs and Alexander (the light man) was like, "I thought you said she didn't like eggs..."

"She likes eggs sometimes," Phoebe said.