New Year's Eve

With about 5 hours of 2016 to go, the Rowe family is wishing you all a Happy New Year!

By the way, see that pink hat Madeleine is wearing?  Ever since getting it for Christmas, she has kind of refused to take it off.  Here are a few photos taken over the past week:

Anyway, Madeleine wore her hat the entire time we Rowes enjoyed the various entertainments of New Year's Eve in our town, which made her easy to pick out in a crowd.  In fact, I think the pink hat helped immensely during a magic show we went to watch, because Madeleine was chosen out of all the kids in an incredibly crowded room to be the magician's assistant during one of his tricks:




This was like a DREAM COME TRUE for Madeleine.  All her life, she has been the kid desperately raising her hand, yearning to be chosen, but always overlooked, at magic shows.  Today, without even raising her hand, she was selected.  I think this might encourage her to NEVER TAKE THE PINK HAT OFF ever again.  In fact, Ethan and I had moved to the back side of the big, crowded room to allow for kids to see the magic without us blocking them.  From where I was sitting, I couldn't even see the magician himself.  But when I heard him call on "the girl with the pink hat," I immediately knew it had to be Madeleine.  After elbowing my way through the crowd I saw that, indeed, there she was, standing up in jacket and hat, performing her important assistantly duties.

In addition to the magic show, we Rowes enjoyed a storyteller and a really impressive marionette puppet show.  When the puppet show was over, the puppeteers offered to give a back stage tour to any interested kids, instructing them to form a line.  Within that announcement was a brief mention that the local hospital was also giving out free cowbells (WHY?!  WHY???!???) that could be picked up at the back of the auditorium on our way out.  Julia immediately opted out of the backstage tour, but when I mentioned it to Madeleine, she immediately scurried to the back of a very long line to wait.

JULIA: (watching the line not moving at all) Can we just go?
ME: Well, Madeleine wants to do the backstage tour.  Are you sure you don't want to do it with her?
JULIA: No thank you.
ME: Okay, well, we have to wait for her.  Unless you want me to see if she doesn't really want to wait this long.
JULIA: Okay, you can ask her.

I made my way across the auditorium to where Madeleine was standing in line.

ME: Honey, are you sure you want to wait in this long line?
MADELEINE: But, Mommy,  I *really* want a cowbell!
ME: This is the line for the backstage tour, honey.
MADELEINE: No!  They said there were cowbells!  They said "the BACK" for cowbells!
ME: The cowbells are over there.  This is the line for seeing the back of the puppet theater and checking out all the puppets and stuff.
MADELEINE: The cowbells are over there?  Where?
ME: At the back of the room.

Madeleine immediately stepped out of line and happily went to collect her free cowbell.  Silly me.  I guess I should have known that given the option of: a) getting on stage to see all the tricks of the puppet scenery and an up close view of the marionettes themselves, or b) a free cowbell, the unequivocal choice would be cowbell.  Totally.

So, now both kids have cowbells, which is awesome.  2017 is looking promising already!

An Important Question

Tonight, in the middle of dinner, Madeleine asked a question that I'm sure all of you have been asked at some point in your life.

MADELEINE: Mommy.  Rose, or orca and beluga whale friends?
ME: Wait.  Huh?
MADELEINE: Rose, or orca and beluga whale friends?

Oh.  Well THAT cleared it up. Good thing she phrased the question the exact same way a second time so that I would really understand.

ME: What do you mean?
MADELEINE: Do you like a rose, or an orca and beluga whale being friends better?
ME: Uhh...that's a tough one.  Roses are my favorite flowers, but I really like whales.
JULIA: I chose "orca and beluga whale friends" because it would be really NICE for animals to be friends!

Okay.  Clearly Julia had no trouble understanding the question like her dunderhead of a mom.

ME: Yeah, I'm gonna choose that too.  Orca and beluga whale friends.
MADELEINE: Okay.  Wait.  Mommy?  I actually already chose FOR you.
ME: Oh, okay.  What did you choose?
MADELEINE: Both.  You're WELCOME!

She then proceeded to wave a paper fan at me, which had a drawing of a rose on one side and a drawing of an orca and a beluga whale being friends on the other.  She switched sides to flap it at me with each picture facing upwards, then passed the fan across the table to me, instructing me to flap it at myself while switching sides.

Well, now I have some healthy rose-infused air and some orca and beluga friendship vibes wafting over me.  It's a good thing Madeleine chose for me, because I don't think my night would have been complete if I hadn't gotten a good dose of both.

Demon Piano

Umm...this is like a dream sequence from a horror film where the protagonist is walking through a demonic version of normal events that have happened in his life.  Here is Madeleine in the role of the frenzied, diabolical piano player:




Uh.  WOW.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Rowe household!

Now, I may be married to the Grinch, but I certainly wasn't expecting the kids to think there were too many presents this morning!

MADELEINE: Mommy?  I think maybe you OVERDID it with the presents this time!  But that's okay!!

Ethan and I were equally spoiled with hand-made gifts from our girls.  Julia made me this uplifting framed picture:

And Madeleine made an illustrated calendar for Ethan and I.  Among my favorite drawings:

 Madeleine managed to capture how I feel about winter perfectly.  This girl looks like she is bleeding from her mouth in her intense misery.  I know the feeling.

 Wow. This Cupid is something else.  He looks like he is totally spazzing out on love.

 Umm...This happy person looks like she might be about to psychotically eat that poor leprechaun.

 And this snowman has a carrot growing out of his ear.

 This Native American is not feeling the Thanksgiving love.  He totally knows a smallpox-infested blanket is coming.

 Somehow Madeleine managed to infuse this jack-o'-lantern with pure evil.

And finally, we have apple butts.

Wishing you all a very happy holiday!

Songs from the Rowe Household

For the last day of school before the holiday break, Julia's class got to watch a movie.  Yippee!  Or, in Julia's case, BOO!  The movie of choice was the first Harry Potter film, which Julia has seen so many times she's actively bored by it.  So instead of watching with rapt attention, Julia "just LISTENED," and spent her mental energy on the composition of two songs.

This took some serious effort.  Look at how long this first song is:

JULIA: And Mommy?  I *know* how the melody goes, but I just didn't know how to really write that part out.
ME: Will you sing it for me?
JULIA:




ME: That was really beautiful!
JULIA: It's about: you shouldn't have war, 'cause it makes people sad.  Even though it's about a bird.

Julia's second song was less symbolic, but it was a fun festive celebration of Christmas:

The performance:

Don't worry, folks, Madeleine was not to be outdone.  This morning at breakfast, she performed her very own reverse version of Rudolph:

Great performance.  Like an Icebreaker!

Alecto

Ethan and Madeleine are nearing the end of their Harry Potter journey, as they reach the final chapters of the final book.  Apparently, Madeleine has decided to take some creative license with certain characters within the seventh book; specifically, Professor Alecto Carrow.  Madeleine insists that instead of Alecto being the punitive Death Eater serving Voldemort, she is instead a beautiful heroine who has infiltrated the Death Eaters as a rogue.

Here's the new book she's writing to let Alecto tell HER side of the story:

Harry  Potter and Alecto of the LEADERS!

Although the cover page is all that has been completed, Madeleine filled me in on the main plot point and the character of Alecto.

MADELEINE: She's nice.  She has a brother named Bruce, who's a Death Eater.  She becomes the leader of the Death Eaters, but she's still not mean, and she's not evil, she's nice.  She has TRICKS.
ME: What kind of tricks?
MADELEINE: She, like, um, when her new leader tells her to get Harry, she, like, doesn't know what to do, then she has an idea: she tells the two Death Eaters to come behind her, and, like, so, she picks up Harry and takes him away.  And her new leader can't see Alecto, because then she'll see Harry.
ETHAN: Does she make the Death Eaters nice?
MADELEINE: No, because she knows that they wouldn't listen, even though she's their leader.
JULIA: Isn't Voldemort their leader?
MADELEINE: Yeah, but when Voldemort dies, they need a NEW leader, and besides, they decide to come up with the idea of a Death Eater whose leader is still...whoever their new leader is.


Wait.  Why do they need a new leader after Voldemort dies?  Won't that basically be the end of the Death Eaters anyway?  Or maybe not.  Maybe all they need is a new, inspiring leader who has TRICKS.  Also, is Bruce a replacement for the twin brother that Alecta has in the books, or is there a third sibling we just haven't heard about?  At any rate, I definitely think Madeleine managed to choose one of the least explored characters in all of the Harry Potter books to expand upon, so I'm excited to see where she takes us!

Morning Tussle

Today, as the girls and I walked to school, we came upon a group of boys, one of whom is in Madeleine's class.  This classmate started to tussle with his older brother, and things quickly escalated to actual kicking and hitting, with Madeleine's classmate in tears.  Another parent and I broke up the fight and I asked Madeleine's classmate if he wanted to walk with us.  He declined, so I just asked if he was okay, and walked a few paces ahead of him in case any fighting started up again.

Aww, yeah.  Hero mom.  Mom of the year.  Kept kids safe, prevented further violence, supervised the rest of the walk to school while not appearing to be supervising.  My kids must have been proud.

WRONG.

After school today, Madeleine and I discussed the morning:

ME: Madeleine, remember those boys fighting on the way to school?  Wasn't that crazy?
MADELEINE: Yes!  I even told my FRIENDS about it!
ME: You did?
MADELEINE: Yeah.  I said, "It was, like, BASICALLY the most EMBARRASSING thing ever."
ME: Wait.  You were embarrassed for the boys?
MADELEINE: No.
ME: You mean *I* embarrassed you??
MADELEINE: Yes.  It was SO embarrassing.
ME: Why?
MADELEINE: Because he DEFINITELY said "no."
ME: So you felt embarrassed when I asked if he wanted to walk with us?
MADELEINE: Well...maybe even when you walked over.

SHEESH.  Who would have thought I could already be embarrassing my daughter when she's only in first grade?

Luckily, my showing up later that morning as Mystery Reader didn't embarrass her.  She was delighted to see me, although she didn't let my presence distract her from finishing up her seat work, nor did it distract her from sitting in "Whole Body Listening" on the rug during Morning Meeting.  Most of the other kids could not keep their bodies still.  Five or six kids got up to get paper towels, drinks or water, or what not, half the kids were unable to keep their bottoms down on their spots on the rug, and there's Madeleine, sitting "criss cross applesauce" in complete silence.  WHO IS THIS KID?!?  Is this the same girl who crossed her arms and yelled "NEVER!" through tears at her kindergarten teacher when asked, "Are you ready to do your must-do work?"  Wow.  Is it too much to hope that Madeleine's emotional maturity has finally caught up with her intellectual ability??

I even got this sweet picture that the teacher snapped and emailed to me:

Thank goodness I was able to save the most embarrassing day ever from being a total flop for Madeleine!