block house

Alice built this house out of foam blocks on the edge of our bathtub the other day:

small talks with small peoples

Alice and Arek were swinging next to each other (on the big kid swings) at the playground this morning. Alice turned to Arek and said "Bunny's eating his good supper." Evan pointed out, "You're making small talk, Alice." Alice exclaimed, "You did some small talks!"

bee and praying mantis battle on a sunflower

Here are a couple of photos taken by our neighbor. Alice grew this sunflower from a seed, and today there was a praying mantis battling a bee right on her flower. I wish we had gotten to see this, but this morning we were busy looking at the giant squid battling the whale at the Museum of Natural History. I guess we all have our own battles to fight. Current ones at home typically involve bathing suits and a potty. The sunflower is about 4 feet tall.

A new friend

Today we went to the Hall of Science with a little girl from the neighborhood, Juliana, and her mom, Ana. Juliana is exactly 6 months younger (well 6 months and 5 days) than Alice and they got along swimmingly. Both Alice and Juliana have a history of sometimes kinda sorta not getting along with every kid that comes along, so we moms were both so relieved that they seemed to really like each other. When we got home, Alice drew a picture of Juliana complete with curls, and Ana's mom wrote me an email saying, "I'm happy because I didn't have to say such things as 'no, no, it's okay, she can stand there' or 'I can't make her go home, Juliana!'"

The Queen of Comedy

Alice is learning that replacing an expected thing with an unexpected thing leads to big laughs. Yesterday in the tub, she called the tub a "pond" before noting "that's how you make a joke." Replacing bodies of water (the toilet, a puddle) with "pond" is good fun. At the dinner table this weekend she called Mimi a "speedy squirrel" (a reference to the park ranger in Elmo Loves The Earth), and then proceeded to crack herself up.

Best Friends

Alice visited Dorian at his apartment today and they played together so nicely. The kids gave each other tickles and shared toys and bunny-shaped crackers (with a little guidance). Alice used Dorian's potty, too. They played Twister together, and they sort of actually played the game correctly! Dorian kerplopped. They started a band - Alice played triangle and Dorian played recorder. Their songs so far consist of one note with varying rhythms. Dorian is off to the west coast for a couple of weeks, and we can't wait to see him (and his parents) when he returns.

Botticelli's Birth of Venus

This picture of AC reminds me of a certain painting that I just can't place. Her lips and her expression sort of look like Venus' though, don't you think?