Flute Playing

Meet the newest flautist in the Rowe household:

Julia's flute arrived on Wednesday, two days before her first school flute sectional, and she simply couldn't wait to get started.  Lucky for her, there's another flautist in the Rowe household, so I was able to give her an introduction to putting the flute together, the first attempts at making a sound, and the fingering for the first note that flute players learn.  The biggest obstacle, at first, is the simple production of sound.  Julia blew and blew until she made herself dizzy, but every time the hint of sound would come through, our little spectator Madeleine would leap up and down in delight.  Apparently, however, Madeleine didn't feel that I was making quite enough progress as Julia's flute teacher.

MADELEINE: Uh, Julia, I'll take Mondays and Wedesdays for giving you lessons.
JULIA: (spitting across her flute mouth-hole in an attempt not to laugh)

Madeleine is quite serious about her new job.  She even made a schedule and hung it up on the fridge:

Madeleine is dark blue.  I'm light blue.  Julia's band teacher is red.  As you can see, I've been relegated to only two days of teaching a week.  Madeleine herself has 2.5, and the band teacher gets .5, giving the least experienced among us the most teaching time of all.  I can't wait to hear all about how Julia's first lesson with Professor Madeleine goes later today!

Curriclum Night

Last night, Ethan and I went to Curriculum Night in Madeleine's classroom. Upon finding her desk, we were treated to the following cheery message:

"Dear mommy and daddy,
waht woud you like to lern?  I love you!  Go banana's!  Please look at my shiny desk.  Love, Madeleine."

Other parents had requests to "please look at my artwork," or "please see if you can find my name on the chore chart."  All Madeleine wants us to do is look at her shiny desk.  A shiny desk for which she can take no credit, unless she stays after school and helps the janitor clean the classroom.  But at least she advised us to go banana's.  A Curriculum Night can certainly get dull if you don't remember to go banana's while you're there.

We got to look at some of the classwork in Madeleine's school folder, including the following:

Looks like the perfect pizza has sauce and cheese on it, her favorite color is blue (and maybe peach??) and the perfect day involves presents.  A dog is the perfect pet, in her eyes, even though she claims to want a bunny.  Her favorite snack appears to be lemonade and a chocolate-covered granola bar, although at first glance one might mistake it for a brick-shaped turd.  I'm really glad that she likes "evrything" at school and that she loves Ethan, Julia and I.  And that she considers something fun to be...well...hmmm.  Let's take a closer look at that one:

Something fun seems to be a red smear.  Uh...a sled?  A red marker?  A rocket? 
A bloody arm?  Really no idea on this one.  Maybe she knew we were going to be stumped by this.  Maybe Madeleine's "something fun" is STUMPING HER PARENTS.  Very sneaky, Madeleine.


We also got to look through her writing and drawing journals.  I'm glad to see that she's not holding back on showing her true artistic style in first grade:

Ahh, yes, good old Ivy and Bean, along with a very distressed girl who is about to be pulled into the vaporous, smoky abyss, as well as her would-be rescuer, who would probably be better able to save the day were she not hanging upside down and having her throat stepped on by Ivy.


Inside Madeleine's writing journal were several weekend recaps.  Probably her most exciting weekend was this one:

"Over the weekend I had nana and grahmps over."

A visit from her grandparents is pretty special, but what appears to be even more special is the fact that Nana had a sudden growth spurt and is now just a hair shorter than Grahmps!  They have also both recently adopted a duck-footed posture...either that, or they're practicing their ballet foot positions.


Finally, Madeleine's latest writing journal answered the prompt "What would you do if you were president?"  Here's Madeleine's solution to our country's needs:

"If I were the president I would stop pollootin."

I love it!  That's a great goal!  Although I think she may want to re-consider how she goes about it.  Reducing cars on the roads is a great idea.  But I'm not entirely sure that getting rid of cars entirely in favor of horse-drawn carriages is going to be embraced by the people.  Maybe if you have a horse like the one above, though, who looks like he can actually run FASTER than a car, you'd be a little more open to the idea of resuming the good old horse-and-buggy days...

All in all, it was thoroughly enjoyable to learn about what Madeleine has been up to at school!

Light Then Shadow

Julia started writing an exciting new book called "Light then Shadow: A tale of the Salem Witch Trials."  The story, so far, is about a young woman, Eliza, travelling to the New World with her family, including her siblings Felicity, Paul, Mary, Carrie, and Sara.  Julia is going for extra authenticity in this book, writing with the archaic English pronouns and verbs that might have been used in the Salem Witch Trial era. 

Here are some examples:

"I got pulled out of my daydreams abruptly as Carrie tugged at my skirts.  'Wilt thou play with us, Eliza?'  'Nay, Carrie.  Maybe later.'  'But John and Papa and Sara are all too busy.  Won't thou play?'  I sighed.  'Yey, I wilt play.  But I really was having a wonderful daydream.  Doth Dost thou understand?' She nodded.  Slowly she and I came over to Mary, Paul, and Felicity.  'Eliza!  Thou decided to play!' Felicity exclaimed.  She is my favorite sister and I am hers.  'Yey, Lissie.'  I smiled.  'But don't get thy hopes up because I can't agree to play every time.'  'Methinks thou art just saying that.  Thou loves to play with us,' Lissie grinned.  It was so good to see her smile. 'I'm a young woman now.  I am almost fourteen.'  But it was no use.  I am a child at heart."


"Paul stepped out of the big bath barrel.  'Paul, comb thy hair.  'Tis a mess,' Aunt Amina ordered.  'But auntie, I don't care if my hair is messy.  Methinks it looks styleish.  Mary and Carrie and Felicity told me.'  'Paul!  Thou art five.  Mary art seven.  Carrie art three, and Felicity art eight.  What would thee they know about style?' Sara said."


"Art thou ready to put Carrie and Mary to bed?'  'Uh - um - Yey!  I was only waiting for thou to inquire!'


Now, as you can see, there is a bit of confusion on Julia's part and she sometimes second-guesses her archaic speech.  She was particularly thrown by the use of "doth" versus "dost."  She asked me what the difference was, and I gave her some examples of how the words might be used.  "He doth, they doth," and "Thou dost," for instance. 

I guess that didn't clear it up enough, however.  Yesterday, in frustration, Julia exclaimed, "Mommy, I don't even know if this makes any sense!"  She showed me the sentence that was causing her so much conflict.  I took her notebook and read:

"Ow!  Doth not doth that!"

Hmm.  Well, Julia was right.  It definitely doesn't make any sense.

JULIA: I don't know if I'm supposed to use "doth" or "dost!"
ME: Ummm.  Hmmm.  Well, what exactly are you trying to say?
JULIA: I'm trying to say "Don't do that!"
ME: Yeah...I don't think that's how you would say it.
JULIA: But you told me that "doth" means "do!"
ME: Yeah.  Um.  It does, in a certain context, but I don't think you can use it in this case.  I might try saying something like, "Do not doeth that." 

Julia decided not to take my advice, however, and changed the offending sentence to "Ow!  Do not dost that!"

Still don't think that's correct.  But then again, I am absolutely no expert on archaic English. 

At any rate, I was pleased to see that my explanations on the difference between "thee" and "thou" paid off, because her most recent paragraph uses them both correctly: "I'm going to read thee thy favorite story...but only if thou behaves."

Woo-hoo!  Go Julia, getting all Archaic on us!  (Although I wonder if it should be "behaveth..."  but maybe I'm just overthinking things.  I doth not doth that.)

Sunday Chillaxing

Just your average Sunday afternoon, hanging out on the couch.  With a magic wand.  And a spell book.  And a cauldron.  Wearing a witch hat and fake glasses.

Running Wounds

Today, while I was out for a run, I somehow stumbled over the curb of a sidewalk and fell pretty hard.  Though I was able to get back up and finish my run, I am pretty scraped and cut up.  My palms are both scraped, with one bearing multiple open, bloody wounds.  My left knee is scraped open and bleeding, my left hip is mottled with road rash, as is my left shoulder. 

Here are the wildly differing reactions of the kids.

Julia's Response:
 
JULIA: What happened, Mommy??
ME: I fell on my run.
JULIA: (eyes filling with sympathy) Are you okay Mommy?
ME: I'm okay, I just got all sorts of cuts and scrapes.
JULIA: (running towards me) Come on, Mommy, I'll put band-aids on everything for you.
ME: It's okay, honey, I've gotta clean the scrapes up first.  I can put the band-aids on.
JULIA: Are you sure??  I can help you if you need it!



Madeleine's Response:

ME: Madeleine, I have to tell you what happened to me.
MADELEINE: (running off ahead of me, not bothering to listen)
ME: Hey Madeleine.  I wanna show you something and see if you can guess what happened.
MADELEINE: What?
ME: (showing her each wound and band-aided section of skin) Can you guess what happened?
MADELEINE: Spider bite?
ME: You think a spider bit me in all these different spots?
MADELEINE: Yeah. Did I guess right?
ME: Uh...try again.  Here, I'll give you a hint.  It happened when I was running.
MADELEINE: You fell?
ME: Yep!  Can you believe it?
MADELEINE: Oh.  I thought that you got bit by a spider!  Or maybe a butterfly.
ME: Nope.  I wiped out and got all bloody.
MADELEINE: Well Mommy.  If that happened to me, I would be CRYING.
ME: I know. I felt like I wanted to cry, because it was stinging so much.
MADELEINE: Wait a minute.  Mommy.  A *grown-up* crying!?!  Grown-ups don't cry!


I mean, could she possibly be more sympathetic?  And don't worry, she made sure to give it to me shortly afterwards.

MADELEINE: (from the potty) MOMMY!  WHY did you pick out THESE underwear on a FRIDAY??!?

Seriously.  How dare I.  Clearly, it was WAY too much to ask that she take notice of the underwear this morning when putting them on, and change them if they weren't the proper Friday underwear.  It is most definitely my fault that she only noticed at 3pm that she's been wearing the "wrong" underwear all day, and all because I laid out her clothes for school and took an educated guess on the underwear she wanted for today.  No sympathy for my fall, scorn for my desire to cry, and admonishment for picking out her non-Friday underwear on Friday.  Thank goodness I have Julia to offer to put band-aids on my wounds for me, because I obviously can't do anything right on my own!

Cecilia the Sea Lion Fairy, Chapter 1

Madeleine's new book, "Cecilia the Sea Lion Fairy," is off to a great start!  If you thought the fairy's flexible stance on the cover was an amazing feat, just wait until you see some of the bodily positions the characters are drawn in on the first few pages!:

Chapter 1.  20 Cupcack's

"Kirsty Tate was staying at Rachel Wallcker Walker's house for summer vacaitin.  They were at the beach.  'Kirsty!  Kirsty!' shoutid Rachel faraway from Kirsty.  'Do you want to help me culect seashell's?'  'O.K. shure.' Kirsty said."

Now, I'm not sure if Madeleine took up too much room with her text to fit both girls upright in the picture, or if that's the position Kirsty stands in when she culects seashell's, but I have to say, Kirsty is giving Cecilia a run for her money in the contortionist department with this stance.

"Hey Kirsty!' Rachel said.  'Do you think wel wel find another another fairy hidin in one of they's shell's?'  'I dont think so.' Kirsty rep replide.  'Hardly any shell's have opind."

Okay.  Let's just talk about Kirsty's arms for a second.  HOW THE HECK DOES SHE DO THAT??  Is she Gumby??  Can she stretch her arms out as far as she likes and then spring them back to normal length?  Next to Kirsty, Rachel looks like she has dwarf arms.

"Next top the moovy's' Kirsty anounst."


MADELEINE: Julia?  I'm not good at drawing cars.  I basically just draw, like, a MOUND.

That is definitely an interesting looking car.  I've gotta say, with a car shaped like that, I can't WAIT to see what sorts of positions the girls have bent themselves into in order to fit inside!

Rainbow Magic Fairy Books

Madeleine has been reading a bunch of books from the Rainbow Magic Fairy series lately.  The book she is currently in the middle of is perfect for the upcoming season:

Madeleine also decided to write her OWN special edition Rainbow Magic Fairy book:

Cecilia the Sea Lion Fairy!
Special Edition


Now, you, like me, may have a few questions upon seeing this cover.  To save you wondering, I have a little FAQ guide with answers from the author/illustrator:

What is Cecilia shooting out of her backside?
"Those are her WINGS!"


Ummm...why is Cecilia bending over like a contortionist??
"That's her special pose!  All the fairies have their own special pose!"


What exactly does a "sea lion fairy" do?
"She keeps the sea lions safe, she makes sure they have food, and she keeps their homes together."


In these books, Kirsty and Rachel, the human friends of the fairies, usually they have to locate specific magical items that Jack Frost's goblins has stolen from the Fairy Kingdom.  What will they be looking for to help Cecilia?
"The thing that's missing is three sea lions.  The first one is fully colored, the second one is fader, and the third one is really fadey."


What happened to the Rainbow Magic Fairy book that you were planning on writing, "Ophelia in the Olympics?"  You began a draft of the cover and have since failed to finish it.  
"I just got TIRED of writing that one."


Well, hopefully she won't get tired of writing "Cecilia the Sea Lion Fairy," after intriguing us with such a riveting cover.  After all, the "author" of the Rainbow Magic books, Daisy Meadows, is not actually a real person, but is rather a pseudonym for the various ghost writers who pen the different books.  I think Madeleine might want to throw her hat in the ghost writer ring as well, because the world definitely needs a Sea Lion fairy to read about!