We Bow before the Disney War Machine

For a family that does not do Disney, we've actually been doing Disney quite a lot this month.

You know how I love a deal--when I found out that the Humane Society foster program that we already participate in is also participating in the Disney Give a Day, Get a Day program, allowing us to earn three out of four tickets to a Disney theme park (Sydney's too young to volunteer) by doing the stuff that we already do, and that we could therefore use our tickets at Disneyland in California, where Matt's parents live and where an early Christmas, including the much longed-for winter activity of whale watching, would be super fun...well, a trip to Disneyland is critical for American pop cultural context, don't you think?

And as if that wasn't enough...the Family Fun magazine that I adore and receive in my mailbox regularly thanks to my awesome Aunt Pam is also Disney's whore. And as Disney's whore, they always have this page of special offers for Disney crap that I don't want. Except for the offer of a free week's subscription to Disney Digital Books...

Okay, fine:
The site is pretty much what it claims to be, a huge library of digital books at three reading levels--read-alouds (with music and special voices), easy readers, and books with more words per page. Of course, every single book is about some freakin' Disney character, with the Winnie the Pooh and Bambi books being pretty inoffensive. But after the girls went so crazy for the site (tally of books read on the site in the past 24 hours: 24), I just let them read whatever they want--the tragedy that is Dumbo, all the asinine Princess and Tinkerbell books, whatever.

The cool things about the site: the look-and-listen books are easy enough for Sydney to do independently; pointing the cursor at a word in the more difficult books will read it aloud for you, which is good for Willow. The lame things about the site: the navigation in the site itself is kind of difficult, especially for a site that's meant to be used by children; the digital books don't fit entirely within my laptop screen, which is not unusually small, meaning that you have to be skilled enough to scroll or you have to live with the bottom of your book being cut off.

Anyway, it's only a week, and I'll tell you if it turns the girls into princess freaks or if I see any symtpoms in their behavior of Disney's notorious subliminal messaging. Or in my behavior? *shudder*

Bean Bags without Beans

Current work in progress:
Fabric squares stenciled with the numbers 0-9, heat-set and ready to be sewn and filled with beans. And then tossed at a child (the head is tempting, but not the head), who must name the number in order to...earn a point? Toss it back? Keep a tally? Match it to a target? I haven't thought that far ahead. Except to know that a set of alphabet bean bags will follow.

In other news, Willow just came in asking for a ponytail, and as I pulled her hair back I noticed a huge swath of pink tempera behind her ear, crusted up into her hairline like nothing so much as a bloody, scabbed, shockingly severe rash. Since the girls' school still has a nurse coming in every other day to check the entire school for headlice, I am now off to bathtime.

Tutorial: Make Bread Mold on Purpose (Because by Accident Isn't Scientific Enough)

Because life is everywhere.

Because what starts out small often grows large.

Because what happens by accident can also be done on purpose for a purpose.

Because ordinary materials can be used to make extraordinary things.

Because the five-year-old wants to do a science experiment.

1. Obtain, by any means necessary, a slice of bread:
2. Dribble three tablespoons (more or less) of water upon said slice of bread, apparently getting as much water on the newspaper that I'm trying to read as possible:

3. Put the wet bread in a Ziploc baggie (or a glass dish with a lid, if you're fussy about plastics), and hide it somewhere warm and dark. Visit it every now and then.

There, we've done a science experiment. NOW can I drink my coffee and finish the newspaper?

From Her Sketchbook

Things currently on my mind:

1. making 0-9 flashcard bean bags for the baby
2. prepping for teaching my next cloth diaper class at Barefoot Kids this Saturday
3. Must find out what paperwork is needed for homeschooling next year.
4. Should I get tested for a wheat gluten allergy? Or maybe get one of those full-body scans to see if I have cancer?
5. revising my book proposal for an interested agent who has not committed, but who has generously gifted me with tons of constructive criticism and an invitation to resubmit
6. planning our summer trip to Massachusetts--the Boston Community Solar System Trail is, sadly, off exhibit for a while, but will DEF check out Artbeat
7. Must figure out how to cut felt with Cricut without killing Cricut.
8. Crockpot recipe for nutritional yeast casserole?
9. Willow wants to make a pinball machine. Sydney wants to make more cookies.
10. laundry

Things currently on Willow's mind, as evidenced by a long morning laying on the floor working in a lined steno pad:

Santa and His Reindeer, with Happy Moon and Star Funny Person Ice Cream Cone with Lots of Toppings Our New Ceiling Fan (courtesy of Willow's Grandma Janie and Poppa, who taught Willow many new swears in the course of its installation)

I don't know how often I think about Santa or the ceiling fan, but I, too, spend a lot of time with funny people and ice cream on my mind.

Happy Half-Birthday to You

Half-birthdays are always special in our house, what with the half-cake and the cream cheese blended with the last of Cake's mulberry jam to make frosting and all the attendant pomp and circumstance:
But Willow's half-birthdays always tend to be extra-special because they always happen on that one particular long winter weekend when her grandparents, Matt's parents, fly in for a visit with the girls.

And that makes the cake taste even better:
Although the large amount of sugar probably doesn't hurt, either...

Tots on Ice

Friday was an eventful day, what with baking poppyseed cupcakes, listening to Hank the Cowdog books on CD, goofing around at GymPlay, madly scrubbing the kitchen while the girls were at school (WHY did you break, Shark steam cleaner? I HATE you!!!), and then eating a snack in the car and tootling off to ice skating.

Sydney has never been on ice skates before. Willow was signed up for lessons two years ago, but flatly refused to actually attend them, and so I consider this each girl's first real ice skating class. And let me tell you, there is no comedy like the slapstick comedy of Ice Skating-Tot Level, especially on the first day:


Sydney comported herself quite well for a three-year-old on skates still a little too big at the smallest size stocked at the rink (said another woman at the desk as I was collecting our skates--"Oh, those tiny little skates are just DARLING!"), and Will took to the ice like a duck takes to water, so they say. I have visions of hockey sticks dancing in my head.

One of the special activities in the Tot class? When you have down time, you get to color on the ice with dry erase markers!
They don't put this in the manual, but a couple of things I'd suggest if you have Tots of your own: make mittens a contractual obligation, and highly encourage the snowpants.

And bring a book, sure, but the class will likely be too hilarious for you to look away, and anyway, you have to be ready to beam and wave whenever little faces come over to peep at you and make sure that you're watching:Which, of course, you always are.

In other news, my brand-new ipod (Thanks, Matty!) not only allows me to listen to podcasts and show the girls Sesame Street videos when they threaten to fight in public, but also to take videos(!), and hence my Shethecougar (long story) youtube page. Check it out for more antics.

A Visit from a Fairy

Something very important is missing from my daughter's life today:
I know she doesn't look it, but I can assure you, she is thrilled.

We've been reading a lot about various worldwide traditions when a child loses a tooth--I highly recommend , and also asking random children while traveling what they do when they lose a tooth--and that might have addled Willow's brain a bit, because when I asked her if she was going to put her tooth under her pillow for the Tooth Fairy to take, she shouted, "YES!!! She's going to bring me a pinball game!"

Um, no, that's Santa Claus. The tooth fairy brings you fifty cents, and she puts it in your Tooth Fairy pocket:
I sewed Willow's Tooth Fairy pocket from a button-down shirt that both she and her sister had outgrown, and that was sitting in my scrap fabric stash. The buttonhole is original to the shirt, but I replaced the small blouse button with a larger, vintage shank button. The tooth stencil is from Purl Bee, traced onto grocery store freezer paper (which I do not like as much as the fancier stuff from Dharma Trading), and the W stencil is a rubber stamp image painstakingly cut out.

I have some ideas for a new, improved Tooth Fairy pocket in mind (in particular, a more realistic tooth, and a shape that is square, not oddly rectangled, etc.), which means that I'll probaby sew up one for Sydney soon and then write a tute for it.

As for the pinball game? We have the perfect Instructable picked out for that one.