Home vacation

Last year we got home from the east coast early and had a great time on vacation at home. I came to the shocking realization that if I didn't actually go to campus and sit in my office for 8-10 hours a day, no one came after me to do things. I was able to catch up on household chores, play with the kids and also get work done.

This year we had a week off of school at home. I spent the first few days convincing the kids that despite what they may have been told by their grandparents, they are not the center of the universe. Also, I do not wake up every morning with the goal of finding new and interesting ways to amuse them. That said, we had a good time this week. The kids, Danny and I did a major toy sorting and reorganization to make room for new toys. We wrote thank you notes and finished mailing out our holiday cards and newsletter. (Hint: if you didn't get one, we may not have your snail mail address!) Joseph worked on a pictorial diary of his vacation for school. I painstakingly cut and glued 100 cricket box lids, restocked the groceries and cooked about 25 meals. I got to go running during daylight hours, which Argos and I enjoyed very much.

We went to the Normal Children's Museum for their 3:00 pm New Year's Eve countdown. The kids had a good time, although a little boy snatched Joseph's truck and ran away shortly before the countdown. Joseph couldn't get the truck back because the little bruiser had a death grip on it, was too young to be reasoned with and was unsupervised. Joseph spent the countdown sulking under the table.

We looked for a hiking trail at Lake Bloomington, but found nothing. The kids enjoyed one of the many playgrounds. Argos discovered a new favorite snack plentifully spread across the ground--crunchy frozen deer poo.


The historic Normal theater was showing Wall-E. Sam and Joseph were the only kids in attendance, but they enjoyed themselves.

We went skating for the first time this season, and Joseph learned how to skate on his own!


A little girl noticed Joseph and offered to teach him to skate, and I think that her attention (you know how Joseph is such the ladies' man) may have spurred him to risk letting go of the wall.

He can skate on his own without help, and can get up from the ice without pulling up on the wall! By the end, he was getting kind of fast and reckless--next time I will have to bring a helmet for him!

Video of Joseph skating (and falling)

By the way, if you lived here, you would have gotten this delicious cookie assortment... (Yes, those are vanilla vodka/coconut rum balls.)

not Blivin Santa

Apparently Joseph caused a bit of a ruckus in his kindergarten class last week. He announced that he did not believe in Santa Claus and was basically booed down by the other kids. Joseph, as I have mentioned before, is a very independent guy, and does not easily bow down to peer pressure. But he has clearly been thinking it over.
Joseph sometimes draws what we call "kinetic" pictures: rather than drawing what happened at a point in time, he draws action as it occurs. The end result of these kinetic drawings may be hard to interpret (especially if night falls, and he colors black over the whole picture). I think that in this picture, the "not Blivin Santa" character with the sword seems to have slayed the "Blivin Santa" character. Or maybe the one transformed into the other?

Do you like gingerbread?

Well, do you?
Probably not as much as Joseph does.
Yes yes yes!
No no.

Used car?

Would you buy a used car from this fellow?

How about if this fellow drew you a complete guide to Creatures of Death including "Giint oktpos," "anglr fish," "giint taradaktl," "vampiyr ghost bat," "spitr," "small crab," and "babbi bug?"

Happy Mothra Day

We all had a lovely mother's day. We stayed out very late at a graduation party last night (the kids, too, oddly enough) and I was a little under the weather (hung over and/or old) when the kids got up at 7 am to practice their robot walks in the hallway.

Sam playing bags at the party.


Sam made some great Mother's Day cards for me.

Danny bought me flowers and the traditional Mother's Day gift of a replacement laptop battery.

Joseph potted flowers for me at school and lovingly inscribed the flower pot. Danny and the kids went out and bought delicious pastries for breakfast.

We did a little shopping at Target, after which, Joseph had the following tantrum:


Afterwards, we drove to Peoria to see Forbidden Kingdom with Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
I had been looking forward to seeing Jackie Chan and Jet Li together. It was a pretty good movie. I had hoped for more 80's Jackie Chan, with clever stunts, but this was kind of a weak combination of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon flying (without the lovely cinematography) and a classic martial arts fable. There were some parts that I thought were too violent for Joseph. Sam enjoyed it, and Joseph especially liked the Monkey King.

For dinner we went to Medici. The food was quite good (especially for Normal), and the ambiance is exceptional. All of the tables, booths and railings etc are custom hand-crafted out of unusual wood. The fixtures and railings are all custom or hand-made by elves or something. The kids were very good, and we went to Emack and Bolio's for some ice cream/sorbet.

Here are some of the cards that the kids drew for their Grandmothers ("GramoMoetr," "GramoDrenda" and "GramE). The theme was animal mothers.
FYI: The interpretive arrows tell you the "wotr" (water) from the "grod" (ground)

Happy Valentine's Day

Sam and Joseph made their Valentine's day cards for school. For whatever reason, they both chose the theme of Godzilla attacking the city with hearts. I think that Joseph may have thought of it first.

Madison is Joseph's Valentine. Joseph and Madison play together nearly all of the time, and he recently told me that "Madison is my girlfriend." Joseph also told me that one day he would marry Madison (after he asked me to marry him, and I told him that I was already married).


Sam likes to do a male and female version of his Valentines and I am not entirely sure why. I asked him if he thought that the girls wouldn't like Godzilla too, he thought not. He told me that "The girls would prefer a more feminine card" (he pronounces it "fem-i-9" because he has clearly never heard anyone say it aloud). Personally, I would rather get the Godzilla card, or maybe Gamera.

Kid art

Here are some of Joseph's latest drawings. As described by the artist:
"This is Robin and Corndadorn. They are babies with superpowers. Robin is good, and Corndadorn is bad. Robin is in the good army and Corndadorn is in the bad army. They are in the superbaby movie."

"This is female and male firepincherbugs. The female is trying to catch a fly, and the male is devouring a ladybug. They both buzz."

The angry young artist


But what does it all mean? Robin and Corndadorn look very similar. Is that meant to demonstrate the artificiality of a dichotomy between good and evil? Why does Robin have wings on his hips while Cordadorn has wings on his shoulders?
Why does the female firepincherbug have two wings while the male has four? Why is the female bug struggling to catch a fly while the male is succeeding? Is this an illustration of the struggle of women to achieve gender equity?