Nathaniel Strikes Again

This was a worksheet that Nathaniel recently brought home:

"I can write words from the -ug Word Family"

1. hug
2. bug
3. dug
4. rug
5. plug
6. tug
7. mug
8. thuge keriktre (which is Nathaniel's way to spell "thuggy characters")

His teacher put a big smiley face next to that one. I'm glad she appreciates the little weirdo.

Happy Pi Day!!

I hope you all had a wonderful and celebratory Pi Day! We sure did. We had our friends, the Gibby family, over for lunch which consisted of quiche, pizza, cucumbers, and pot pies. Followed by wonderful apple pie, strawberry rubharb pie, and Boson Cream Pie. Also, several of our children now have memorized 3.14159, and Nathaniel has 3.1415926. J thinks we're all a bunch of weirdos and was very happy to go get ready for a Stake Youth Dance instead of memorizing Pi.

I can deal with that kind of rebellion.

And how did you celebrate?

Party Favors

Help! Where does one find those nasty marshmallow and coconut things known as "snowballs" in the Columbus, Ohio area? I can't seem to find them, and I have seen enough other evidence to know that it's not because the people of Columbus, Ohio have far better taste in empty calories than the rest of the country.

I would like to mention that the mere sight of these has made it so I've never actually tasted one. There is nothing appealing about them to me. But when my weirdo kid says, "Mom, I'd really love to have an arctic themed birthday party!", I am powerless before him and stoop myself to all sorts of party favor lows in keeping with his theme.

Happy Square Root Day!

Happy Square Root Day everybody!!

I hope you all have your square root decorations ready to go for this joyous day!

Square Root Day only happens about nine times a century, so it's important to be ready for it.

We Smiths will be celebrating by playing multiplication games and discussing square roots, eating root vegetables cut into squares, and personally I will be reading "The Housekeeper and the Professor" by Yoko Ogawa because one of the main characters is a boy nicknamed root for the fact that his hair tends to resemble a square root sign.

(We also celebrate Pi day on March 14, but we skip Euler's Day, because it falls too close to our celebrations of Groundhog's Day and President's Day. A person can only have so many parties. We're finicky like that.)

This morning I said "Happy Square Root Day" to Nathaniel. When he asked what square root day was, I foolishly forgot the blooming math geek I was talking to and said, "Well, you need to know multiplication to understand it, but..." and then I proceeded to use the examples of 4, and 9, and 16. I figured he would happily trot off then, but instead he offered up 100 as his own example of understanding, leaving me slack jawed and Todd beaming with pride, one math geek to another.

I know they haven't covered that in Kindergarten yet.

Weirdo.

Neighborhood Weirdos

It is rather commonly known that I would spend all of my life in my comfiest PJs if I could. On Sundays I change into them as soon as we get home from church, so from 2pm on, I am in my happy pjs. In college, I used to change into them immediately upon returning to my dorm room between classes. On Tuesdays, (my blessed day of nothingness) I don't change out of them until around 11am, and that's only because I have to get Nathaniel to afternoon Kindergarten.

The night of the Super Bowl, I had to go out to the van to get something around 5pm. It was still light enough to see. And since it was a Sunday afternoon, I was already in my PJs. Also, Todd had parked the van in the street that day. I briefly considered donning a trenchcoat over my red be-penguined fleecy footsie pjs, but decided it wasn't worth the effort. And who was going to be outside during the Super Bowl anyway? Instead I slipped on my black and white polka dot rubber rain boots and headed down the driveway.

I had just reached the van when my neighbor across the street stepped out of his house wearing an enormous head lamp and carrying several light bulbs in his hands. He has a thing for flashlights and lanterns. He owns them in all shapes and sizes. Maybe it's because we're both from NJ, where a different level of quirkiness is embraced, or maybe it's becuase we were able to gaze across the street that night and recognize a common bond in one another.

We are both weirdos. We nodded at one another, not saying anything about our respective get-ups and continued on with what we were doing.

Really, everyone is a weirdo. Everyone has something that seems completely normal and rational to them but is viewed as a little absurd by everyone else.

Some people are just better about playing close to the vest with their inner weirdo.

My neighbor and me, not so much.

My weirdo

I was singing while playing the piano this morning when Nathaniel came up to stand by me.  I felt all warm and fuzzy that one of my most favorite people was standing with me while I did one of my most favorite things.  I turned at one point to gaze lovingly upon him, and discovered that he was sucking on my hair.   He had picked up a few ends of my long hair and stuck them in his mouth without me realizing what he was doing.  I grabbed my hair back and said something profound like, "Ew, gross!".

  I should have known better, though, because for little boys that is like the ulitmate compliment.  For the next several minutes I had to keep dodging my head around to keep my hair from him while still playing and singing.  I could have simply stood up, or swept my hair up in a knot on my head...but it was  more fun this way.

And besides, who am I to complain?  I bite and lick people with alarming regularity.  

But only if I really like them.

Hm.

"Oh, Nathaniel! Can you come here for a minute?"