New Year's Eve Greeting

Happy New Year from the Rowe Household!

The above picture was drawn by Madeleine, of course.  This is the same child who had this discussion with me the other day, about the way the nub of her ice cream cone looked:

MADELEINE: Ew!  Mommy!  Look!  It's the kind of disgusting that I *don't* like.
ME: There's a kind of disgusting that you DO like?
MADELEINE: Yeah, like, BLOOD and stuff like that.


Yeah.  So.  Happy New Year, from the Rowe Household!

Stare

Yesterday, Julia not only attended an acting class with a few friends from school, but she slept over one of the friend's houses in the evening, so it was a one-on-one day with Madeleine.  I got to do a LOT of exciting things with her!  For instance, she gave me the news that I landed one of the starring roles in her new movie that she's producing (AND acting in), and we got to run LOTS of scenes together, despite the fact that most of the other actors were unavailable to join us.  In the evening, Ethan also offered to have a Mommy-Daddy-Madeleine dinner date out at a restaurant of Madeleine's choice, which was a lot of fun for her:

When we got home from dinner, Ethan let Madeleine choose one last activity for the three of us before she had to get ready for bed.  She opted to have a game of "Stare," the newest game she received at Christmas (thanks, Yiayia!)

If you are unfamiliar with the game, here's how it works: each player chooses an illustrated card and gets 30 seconds to study every detail of the illustration.  When the timer is up, the player rolls a dice, to get a number between 1 and 6.  The number rolled not only equals the particular number of the multiple questions he or she is asked about one of the details of the card, but also the number of spaces he or she gets to move on the board if the question is answered correctly.  Ethan and I did equally well in the game - in fact, he got one answer wrong, while I got everything correct - but his rolls were consistently better than mine, so he reached the finish line first.  Madeleine was a good ways behind us, but we let her play out the game until she finally reached the finish.  I started to wonder what went through her head as she studied each card, because some of her answers indicated a complete lack of attention.

For example:

QUESTION: What is the father reading in the background of the picture?  A newspaper, a book, or a magazine?
MADELEINE: Uhhhh....I *forgot* to look!  I don't know!!  I didn't LOOK at that part!

QUESTION: Is the cat lying on the rug or on the pink floor?
MADELEINE: Uhhhh...the pink floor???

QUESTION: What is the elephant standing on?
MADELEINE: Uhhhhh...a stool???


I happened to lean over to give Madeleine a kiss during one of her thirty-second study periods, and I overheard her quietly talking aloud to herself about her card.  Things became clear to me upon hearing what she was taking note of:

MADELEINE: (under her breath) Okay, so...they *definitely* look like they're from colonial times...


Okay, if those are the kinds of details she's paying attention to, then no wonder she didn't know the elephant was standing on books!  Luckily, she was a good sport about coming in third place, and enjoyed her chance to complete her journey around the board, no matter how long it took!

Joint Christmas Present

For Christmas this year, I got the girls a joint gift: a giant cardboard castle that can be decorated with magic markers in any way the owners see fit.  They were THRILLED about this gift, and got to work right away, Christmas afternoon.

I had expected them to color what would be the outside of the castle; instead, they opted to view the outer cardboard as a castle interior, so when they put the castle together, it looks like they're just inside a fancily-cut cardboard box:

Inside the box, however, is where the magic is happening:

Another expectation of mine that was proved false was that the girls would actually play-act as characters inside the castle.  Instead, the castle is home to ALL of their family figurines: the Hispanic family, the Caucasian family, the Black family, the Native American family, and Madeleine's new Christmas gift, the Disabled Persons set.  Seeing as Madeleine has been obsessed for over a year with the idea of broken legs, crutches, and wheelchairs, I thought she would enjoy having some figurines with casts, walkers, and such.  I did NOT, however, expect her to blatantly name the family "The Disabled Family."

The family name is displayed proudly on one of the interior castle walls, near the family name of "Snowflake," the last name given to one of her previously owned figurine sets.

At any rate, although this castle was not utilized as I had imagined upon buying it, if it's a new home for ALL the figurines, this means that I can finally recycle the piles and piles of individual cardboard box homes and schools that the girls previously made for these families, so it's a win-win!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Rowe family!

The kids were thrilled with all their gifts!  In typical Madeleine style, she has refused to take off the chef hat and apron she got from Auntie Shannon all day. 

The chef and her sister and parents all wish you a wonderful holiday!

Christmas Eve Party

This evening we had a Christmas Eve Party!  And by Christmas Eve Party, I mean a mandated performance by all members of the household (save for Ethan, who was singing at a church service.)

Madeleine started things off, as the whole Christmas Eve Party was her idea:





Nothing says "Holiday Spirit" more than "We Three Kings" on a kazoo, am I right?


Julia was next:





A little self-conscious, but what can you expect when you're told spur-of-the-moment that you're forced to perform something for an unwilling audience??



And then it was time for Auntie Shannon and I.  We combined our forces to put on this masterpiece:





Yiayia was up next:





And the grand finale, which was too chaotic to bother video-taping, was a wild and raucous dance performance by Julia and Madeleine, complete with balls thrown through the air, balloons bopped around, and a crashing fall by Madeleine into the vacuum cleaner.

Can you tell these kids are excited for Christmas??  Happy Christmas Eve!

2nd Grade Does "The Nutcracker"

Today was the long-awaited performance of "The Nutcracker" in Madeleine's music class.  She has only been talking about this NON-STOP for the past month, so no big deal.  Auntie Shannon and I attended and thoroughly enjoyed the show!

Some highlights caught on video:


Here, Madeleine the Mouse battles her bestie, Lousy, a tin soldier:






Madeleine sure did commit to this role, right down to the facial expressions.  Way to act the part in full!



Next, Madeleine got to dance as the Sugarplum Fairy.  As she told me, "I get to make up my OWN dance!"  It's classic Madeleine-style, all right:





And next she was a Russian Dancer:





Then a Chinese dancer:





No matter what role she played, Madeleine sure gave it her all!  Hooray for a thoroughly enthusiastic performance!

Sparklies!

In the car last night: Ethan, Madeleine and I.


MADELEINE: Mommy?  You know that feeling when you feel really HOT, and it's kind of WEIRD be- Sparklies!  - That feeling when you feel really HOT, and - Sparklies!  Sparklies!
ME: When you feel really hot and what?
MADELEINE: Like, at school, sometimes when we're sitting still for SO - Sparklies! - For SO LONG, and I get this - Sparklies! - this FEELING like, my body feels - Sparklies! - like, HOT, and - Sparklies!
ME: Your body feels hot and what?
MADELEINE: Like, sometimes - Sparklies! - like, when I'm sitting still and NOT MOVING for so - Sparklies!  Sparklies and relflecting sparlies! - like, if I'm sitting still and NOT MOVING for a long time, like - Sparklies! - like, I get this feeling like my body is - Sparklies! - like, HOT, or, like, when you - Sparklies!  Sparklies!  Sparklies and reflecting sparklies! - like, - Sparklies! - when you-
ME: Okay, so you feel hot, and you feel weird, like you've been sitting still too long?
MADELEINE: Like, sometimes when you're - Sparklies! - trying to think of an ANSWER - Sparklies!  Sparklies!  Sparklies and reflecting Sparklies!  Sparklies!  Sparklies! - and you - Sparklies! Sparklies!  Sparklies!  Sparklies! - and-
ETHAN: Oh, my GOD.
ME: So you feel really hot when you're concentrating?
MADELEINE: It's like, when - Sparklies! - when you - Sparklies! - like, when-
ETHAN: Madeleine, can I tell you something?
MADELEINE: (chagrined) I think I already know.


Sparklies and Reflecting Sparklies!

Highlights of the Day

In today's news:

1: Madeleine got an owl pencil for being a great "Mystery Audience Member" at yesterday's school assembly.  At each assembly, the teacher secretly picks a few children to observe, and if they're sitting quietly and being attentive, they get a little prize.  Hence the pencil.  Wait.  Did I say pencil?  I mean "wand of hope and friendship."

MADELEINE: Mommy! (Holding out her pencil) This is my wand of hope and friendship!
ME: It is?
MADELEINE: Yes!  And: (stroking the pencil with one hand) That means "hope."  (Jutting the unsharpened top of the pencil into her palm.)  That ALSO means "hope."  And: (stroking the pencil again) That means "friendship."
ME: Oh.  "Friendship" looks just like "hope" to me.
MADELEINE: I know.  It's ALMOST the same, except at the end, I (waving her hand in a big loop) draw a CIRCLE.  That makes it "friendship."





2: Our car broke down while I was at another town elementary school picking Julia and two friends up from Honors Chorus.  I had arrived ten minutes before dismissal, so I turned the car off and sat by the curb outside the front doors.  When the students began emerging from the building, I went to start the ignition, and: nothing.  Julia was subsequently a nervous wreck basket case.  Among her concerns were:

-The car was going to catch on fire
-We would never get the car working and we'd have to stay in the elementary school parking lot forever
-The car would start on its own and begin rolling backwards down the non-existent slope of the parking lot
-The car would blow up when we got a jump start
-The car would emit poison that would kill us all while we sat in it with it not running
-Opening the car doors, getting out, turning on the overhead dome light, or otherwise doing ANYTHING besides sitting perfectly still would result in the death and destruction of us, one and all.


I called the parents of the two girls I was supposed to bring home, and one, who lives right around the corner from us, swung by our house to get Ethan and Madeleine and bring them along to meet us.  Together, the three adults were able to jump start our car and get it running well enough to get us back home.  Ethan drove home, keeping the car in as low a gear as possible.  Julia was nervous wreck basket case yet again due to the sound the engine made while in the D2 gear.

JULIA: WHAT'S THAT NOISE?!?!?!?
ETHAN: It's fine, honey.  The car's in a low gear.
JULIA: IT SOUNDS LIKE IT'S GOING TO EXPLODE!
ETHAN: It's not.
JULIA: HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?!?!?!?!?


3: Madeleine gave one of her best friends an official new nickname.  She has been calling her friend Louisa "Loozy" for quite some time now, but she decided to make it known to Louisa's mom (who happens to be the mom of Louisa's older sister, who was in my dead car, which means this mom is the one who came to the rescue to give me a jump start.)  Apparently, on the ride over to rescue us, Madeleine not only compulsively declared "Sparklies!" and "Reflecting Sparklies!" every time she caught sight of Christmas lights, but she divulged her new nickname for her friend.

MADELEINE: Do you know that I gave Louisa a nickname?  I call her "Loozy!"  And do you wanna know how it's spelled?  It's spelled "L-O-U-S-Y."

That's, like, the most flattering nickname I've ever heard.  Sounds like a diminutive for "Loser" but spelled like "Lousy."  Points all around!


4: The girls and I got started on our holiday cookies.  I baked several dozen sugar cookies while the girls were at school, and we managed to frost them all in between the car break-down and swim team practice.  Julia was being a slow poke about eating her dinner and begging us not to start without her, so I loaded up a plate with unfrosted cookies to save for her.  She then decided to pursue the disgusting habit of eating her spinach salad, drenched in raspberry vinaigrette, with her hands, licking the dressing off her fingers in between bites.  I wouldn't let her touch a single cookie until she had washed her hands with soap, but once she'd done that, we were ready to roll!  We make a good team and finished in record time!  Here's a peek at the finished product:

An owl pencil, a car break-down, a panic attack, a new nickname, and some holiday decorating.  What a day!

Concert and Snuggles

This evening Julia had her school chorus and band holiday concert.  While I enjoyed watching and hearing everything, this take on the pop song "Dynamite," re-named "Candlelight" and given Hannukah-themed lyrics, was definitely the most fun of the evening:





In other news, as I snuggled Madeleine this evening, she had an interesting, uh, compliment for me.

MADELEINE: Mommy, Mommy, Mommy.  You're my little CATTLE.
ME: I'm a cow?
MADELEINE: (confused) No!
ME: Did you just call me cattle?
MADELEINE: Yeah.
ME: Cattle are cows.
MADELEINE: (shocked) What?  They ARE?!?  I thought cattle was an African deer!


I'm not sure if I'm supposed to feel that much better about what she was trying to tell me even when she didn't mean I'm a cow...

Sparklies

Because simply saying "Sparklies!" aloud every time she sees Christmas lights isn't enough, Madeleine has decided to sing about them.




I mean, I was trying to listen to a CD of Christmas carols, but I had to turn it off because the other song in the background was just WAY too distracting enchanting!

Obstacle Course

Madeleine set up an obstacle course in the playroom.  Looks totally safe, right?

Especially this part:

This is frighteningly similar to the "zip line" she and her friend made last year, which attached to the television, and subsequently sent the television crashing onto the playroom floor and broke it.  At least this time it's just a basketball hoop and a vacuum, right?  Erm...maybe we'll just focus on the part with the couch cushions and pillow.

Books on Madeleine's Mind

Madeleine has apparently been brainstorming titles for the newest book she wants to create:

Those all sound like great titles, I have to admit.  I'm especially fond of "Cleopatra (Mane Characters Name) Adventures in Egypt."  There's just something really different and unique about the use of parentheses in the middle of the title that grabs me.


Also, in case you're not 100% sure if "The Five Scottish Stories of Scotland" is a Scottish book, Madeleine has cleared things up at the bottom of her brainstorming:

WEF ("With Each Other Forever) Greek
K ("Katerina") Greek + British + American
TFSSOS ("The Five Scottish Stories of Scotland") Scottish
ACT ("A Christmas Tale") American
AIE ("Adventures in Egypt," though I would argue this should be abbreviated as C(MCN)AIE) Egyptian


What do you think, blog-readers?  Which title intrigues you the most?  Which book should Madeleine begin crafting first??

The Dernkey

Morning conversation with Julia


JULIA: (glimpsing a picture on Ethan's phone) Daddy?  Was that a deer, or a donkey?  Or was it a deer-donkey hybrid.
ETHAN: It was a deer.
JULIA: What would a deer-donkey hybrid be called?
ETHAN: I don't think there's such thing.
JULIA: Why not?!?
ETHAN: Why would somebody want to make a deer-donkey hybrid?
JULIA: Because!
ME: They're not the same species, honey.  I don't think you can make a hybrid.
JULIA: I'm pretty sure they're in the same domain, kingdom and phylum.  They're both mammals.  They both begin with a "d."  They both begin with a "d" AND they don't have an "a" at the end of their name.  They both have two vowels.
ETHAN: Well, honey, it sounds like you've figured out the essential criteria for creating a hybrid.
ME: Yeah, it's just like the fish-horse hybrid.  They're both one syllable and they both have an "h."
JULIA: Wait.  Someone made a fish-horse hybrid?!?!?


OMG.

Garden Friends

Madeleine's Christmas present for Nana and Gramps:

The Garden Fairy and the Garden Gnome (aka "Garden Lord")

They even have a back side!:

This weekend we celebrated an early Christmas with Nana and Gramps, so Madeleine got to bestow these lovely creatures on them.

MADELEINE: I think they look BETTER with their mouths CLOSED, but...I thought you'd probably want to be making them TALK, so I decided to draw their mouths OPEN so you can make them talk to each other when you're playing with them.


You can bet your bottom dollar Nana and Gramps are gonna wanna talk these garden friends!  Who wouldn't want to??

A Really Ridiculous "Conversation" About Christmas Lights

Our town has an annual tradition of lighting up the trees at Town Hall Common on the first Saturday of December.  Although the Rowe household has not attended the ceremonial lighting, we enjoy the sight of the famous "Blue Tree" and its other white-lit companions every time we drive by at night.

The Blue Tree

The town also lights another tree with blue lights, in the smaller town center that marks the "Heights" area of town.  This is our neck of the woods, so we see this blue tree much more frequently.  The other evening, as we drove by the Heights Blue tree, the kids got into a conversation that led to the most ridiculous bickering ever.  I will also point out that Madeleine has a compulsion to shout out "Sparklies!" each and every time she spies Christmas lights.  

MADELEINE: Sparklies!  Oh, look, Julia, it's the other Blue Tree!

JULIA: (scathingly) Madeleine.  The Blue Tree is at the Town Hall.  This is NOT the Blue Tree.

ME: Well, she means it's the other blue tree.

JULIA: This one is not CALLED the Blue Tree.

MADELEINE: Well, I'm calling it the "Other Blue Tree."

JULIA: No.  Madeleine.  The Blue Tree is the one that gets lit at the big Blue Tree Lighting.  This one is NOT the Blue Tree.

ME: Julia, just let her call it the Blue Tree.  It's not a big deal.  This one has blue lights too, and they light it the same night as the other one.  They just don't have a big ceremony about lighting this one.

JULIA: Well, I call this one "The Leaning Tower of Trees-a."

ME: I love it!  You're right, it does tilt at the top!

MADELEINE: Yeah, it does!  Okay.  That tree is "The Leaning Tower of Trees-a."

JULIA: (scathingly) Madeleine.  I came up with that name.  You can't call it that.  You're just COPYING me.

ME: Honey, we know you made up the name.  It's okay if Madeleine calls it that.

JULIA: No, it's not.  That's MY name for it.  She's just COPYING me.

MADELEINE: Okay, okay, I'll call it...uh..."Trees-a of Tower Leaning The."

JULIA: No, Madeleine, that's just the same thing back-

MADELEINE: Sparklies!

JULIA: Madeleine-

MADELEINE: Sparklies!  Reflecting lights!

JULIA: Madeleine.  Those are NOT reflecting lights.

MADELEINE: Sparklies!  Reflecting lights that are snowflakes!

JULIA: Madeleine.  You can just say "reflecting lights," you don't  HAVE to say "that are snowflakes."

MADELEINE: Sparklies!  Uh, Julia, uh- Sparklies!

JULIA: Madeleine.  You don't have to say "sparklies" EVERY SINGLE TIME you see Christmas lights.

MADELEINE: Sparklies!  Sparklies!  (spotting our house) Our sparklies!

JULIA: Madeleine.  Why do you always have to say "our sparklies" when we're at our house?

OMG.  Thank goodness we were home.  Madeleine clearly wasn't going to say ANYTHING right in her sister's eyes.

Sparklies!

Best Mommy

Snuggling Madeleine at bedtime tonight:

MADELEINE: (chanting to me) You're the best mommy, you're better than all the mommies, you're the best mommy, you're better than all the mommies, you're the better than best mommy, you're the best in the world, I love you the best...(speaking) well, you're on the SAME level as Daddy and Julia and Yiayia and Auntie Shannon and Auntie Caitlyn and Nana and Gramps and Chad and Owen and Dashiell and Emily and Lydia and Ollie and Clara...
ME: Wait.  You don't even love me more than the dogs?!?
MADELEINE: You're the SAME!
ME: (fake sighing) Okayyyy...
MADELEINE: Mommy?  Are you sad?
ME: No.
MADELEINE: I'm sorry I made you sad, Mommy.
ME: I'm not sad, honey, don't worry.
MADELEINE: But you're sad that I don't love you MORE than the other people!
ME: No I'm not.
MADELEINE: Then why did you SAY that?
ME: Well, I was just like, she doesn't love her own mother a little more than her aunt's dog?!?
MADELEINE: (cracking up) You're making it sound really funny!
ME: It is funny.  I was saying "you don't love me more than dogs??" because it was so silly and ridiculous.
MADELEINE: Well Mommy.  It's not that you're not better than dogs.  It's just that those are two GREAT dogs.

Okay, I get it now.

Two GREAT dogs, who are cherished equally as much as me in Madeleine's heart.

Fairy Song

When Madeleine wants to sing a made-up song about the fairy she's coloring, not even a slice of pizza is gonna get in her way: