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Vulcan Park in Birmingham

The Sunday Funnies

Dorothy was trying to remember a saying that was used in a book we read aloud.  "It's something about the devil," she said.  "It's like when you think of something and then it happens."  After some time I said, "Oh, I think it's Speak of the Devil!"  And Dorothy thought about it and said, "It's something like that.  Maybe The Devil Speaks?"

Around March Lucky Charms markets a cereal that turns your milk green.  I bought some on clearance after the holiday, and served it to Dorothy.  She was excited, but it didn't turn the milk green.  "Maybe it only works on St. Patrick's Day," she posed.

Through Facebook I learned that the uncle of one of Dorothy's classmates had died.  I asked Dorothy if Olivia had said anything about her uncle.  "She was sad at recess and she said something about how her uncle died," Dorothy replied.  "I'm sorry that she was sad," I said.  "She wasn't sad for very long," Dorothy said, "because she started playing again."  "Oh," I said, "that's good.  I'm sure her uncle doesn't want her to be sad."  "Didn't want her to be sad," Dorothy corrected me.

Dorothy said that she was finished eating, and I said, "When you ask for more food, I'm going to remind you that you didn't eat your grilled cheese."  "And I'm going to remind you that my grilled cheese was squishy," she retorted.

Dorothy stopped herself from opening her umbrella in the house because it's bad luck to do so.  "I think that a parent invented that so nobody can walk around the house with a big umbrella and bonk into things," Dorothy commented.

Dorothy watches YouTube videos of families playing with toys, and we've discussed why the family has so many toys and how advertising works.  At the end of a recent video, the mom disclosed:  "Mattel paid us to make this video."  Dorothy asked me about that, and I referred to our conversation about advertising; she asked, "But why are they paying them money?  They're already getting all the toys for free."

I bought Dorothy some Little Debbie Fudge Rounds, which are circular chocolate cookies with chocolate filling.  "I know why they're called Fudge Rounds," she said.  "They are fudge all around."

Dorothy has trouble going to sleep at night.  She often wakes up in the morning and says, "I' not sure I slept at all last night."

Painting ceramics at a birthday party last weekend

This divided tray solved only half of the food-touching problem

Amaryllis in bloom

Musical chairs last weekend

"Cowboy breakfast" at school

 

The Sunday Funnies

Dorothy was acting stressed, and she told me, "I almost said the Dd word."  "Damn?" I asked her, sort of surprised.  "No," she answered, and then whispered, "die....apparently there are two Dd words."

I was describing a toy to Dorothy, and she said that it sounded too young for her.  When I came up with the brand name, she said, "Wait!  I do want one of those!  You didn't tell me it was electronical!"

For Dorothy's half-birthday, I gave her a nice toy that I picked-up on super-clearance.  She was gobsmacked.  "Mama, you should have saved it for my real birthday," she said.

In the tub:  "My knees are so dirty that the dirt is dirty.  That's a common saying for some reason."

Dorothy's catchphrase lately is "clearly," and she says it with great emphasis, as in, "The bad guy is cl-eeeear-ly wearing a disguise," or "Cl-eeeear-ly, I wanted a cupcake."

Does this pose show off my dress?

Fifteen years married!

 

And since our wedding Fiestaware keeps releasing new colors:

peony, twilight, butterscotch, meadow, mulberry, daffodil, slate, poppy, lapis, lemongrass, ivory, claret, sage, falmingo, marigold, & chocolate

Prepping a leprechaun trap

 

We celebrated the Ides of Dorothy's Birthday (notice 7 candles + a short one -- her idea)

Peeking in the attic

The Sunday Funnies

I was reading some trivia questions to Dorothy.  "If you have arachnophobia, what animal are you afraid of?" the question asked.  Dorothy offered, "Raccoons?"  I laughed.  "Here's a hint:  it has 8 legs."  "A spider is an arachnid, not an animal!" Dorothy complained.

"It's so cool that airplanes can't be symmetrical," Dorothy said.  "What?" I asked.  "It's so cool that airplanes can't be symmetrical," she repeated.  "What do you mean?" I asked.  "We discussed this previously," she said.

Morning climb (obsessed with this tree)

 

Scooting on the newly-paved road

Feeling better, and back at school today

Home with a cold (watching "Double Dare")

Tiger changing her stripes

The Sunday Funnies

Dorothy picked up some dumbbells.  "How heavy are these?" she asked.  "It says the number on the side," I told her.  "Two?" she read.  "Yes," I answered.  "Two what?" she said.

Dorothy's teacher sent an email about t-shirts for a school marathon, and I mentioned to Dorothy that I hadn't heard anything about a marathon.  Dorothy offered, "We did a marathon at school before, but it was at a different school, but we did one, so I know that a marathon is a real thing."

Dorothy has much to say about various fonts and punctuation:
"I figured out how they show that something is important.  They write it thicker."
"I can write it kind of in cursive, I just turn my paper and then write it normally."
"I know what that means because they explain it after the asteroid."

On the first day of March I played some Irish music on my phone while I showered.  Dorothy came into the bathroom and asked if it was Irish music, and I was impressed at her guess, and told her yes.  A few minutes passed and I turned off the water, and could hear more clearly.  "I hate this Pirate music," Dorothy added.

In A Series of Unfortunate Events, a character who is persnickety about grammar jumps out of a window and leaves a note, which suspiciously includes grammatical errors.  I was reading the book aloud to Dorothy and I pointed out an error in the note, and pointed out that the villain had also made that same mistake.  "What do you think that means?" I prompted.  Dorothy gasped:  "She's not actually good at grammar!" she accused.

Savannah is in full bloom

Cindy Lou Who (again this year)

Favorite Hat Day

Wacky Sock Day

Happy Mardi Gras! (Blog Lagniappe)

 Video:  https://youtu.be/6wdoRH6iA-U

Crazy Hairdo Day to celebrate Dr. Seuss, plus Dorothy's concept drawing for me

 

Read Across America Week

The Sunday Funny

Dorothy is reading A Series of Unfortunate Events.  Brian said to her, "I like that the book uses big words but then it tells you what they mean."  "Yeah," she replied, "why don't they just use small words instead?"

Evening fun with friend Iona

Dorothy's spelling homework was to write a letter to a book character using her spelling words

 

Amelia Bedelia,

Do you have a boat?  Do you have a favorite soap?  Do you like toast?  When was the last time you were on the road?  Do you have a favorite show?  Do you grow flowers?  Do you like to throw balls?  Do you like the color yellow?  Do you know why we have toes?  Oh here goes my time for writing to you!

Love,

Dorothy

Here's the inventory of what we'll dig up on 2/22/28

 

Dorothy has been working on a time capsule which she wanted to bury on 2/22/22

 

2-22-22

 

Students got to wear tutus, tie dye, tiaras, and/or ties today.  Dorothy has been living for this.

Later-"graham" (weekend s'mores)

The Sunday Funnies

Dorothy brought home a bag of Valentines from school and dumped them on the floor.  As she examined each one, I got to listen to her exclaim aloud to the giver:  "Samantha, I love this!"  "Owen, thank you!"...

Dorothy is learning to use the microwave.  She heated up butter, and it wasn't completely melted, so I said, "I think it needs to go a couple more seconds."  "Ok," she said, "so two more seconds?"

Dorothy uses Bonetti's defense

All this from one SHOPPING SPREE!

 

(post titled by Dorothy)

Shopping Spree

Dorothy received money at Christmas, and after lots of planning we completed a shopping spree over two weekends.  Here is what Dorothy bought, in her own words:

cute blue Scruff-a-Luvs

amazingly light clay

cool new light-up shoes

cool paint-your-own-rainbow light

cute Cabbage Patch baby bunny

little unicorn doll & unicorn

Dee the My Squishy Little Dumpling

a rock from a Super Dig It kit

2 Lego Dots bracelets

6 hair extensions

L.O.L. activity pack

5 bracelets

A Mini Brands 5-Surprise

a plush penguin

Upside-Down Challenge Game

Surprise Kinetic Sand

L.O.L. coin purse and nice foam circle inside

cool foam dry erase block

and finally, a Baby Born Surprise Exclusive Doll that came with a Baby Born Surprise playset

These slippers are the hot new thing

To Sarah From Brian (just kidding)

Happy Valentine's Loot Day

The Sunday Funnies

Dorothy reads packaging like her Daddy.  She recently bought a playset with a little pond area that squirts water, and she consistently calls it the "working flower shower," as in, "Let's put the dolls in the working flower shower."

Dorothy was reading the Walmart-brand bath items in the shower.  Previously we've discussed the little letters like ®, ™, and ©.  She asked, "Why does it always say something with a ™, compare to something with an ®, like Equate™, compare to Dial®?"  I answered, "Well, ™ means trademark, and ® means registered trademark, but I'm not exactly sure what the difference is."  "Maybe they ™ 'd the ™ ," she posed.

Kittycat playdate

Dressed in Superbowl colors for school (We're pulling for the Koalas)

Haircut at night, haircut next morn

 

Dorothy with Gigi, her piano teacher

7-year-old in her natural environment

The halfway point

The Sunday Funnies

I noticed the exaggerated fonts on a few words in a book that Dorothy was reading, and I mentioned it.  "I don't like it," Dorothy said.  "It makes it seem like it's not a chapter book."

Dorothy was looking at a children's picture book called Anti-Racist Baby.  "It's talking about real things, but it rhymes," Dorothy observed.

Playdate with Willa

Birthday Twirl (Mom is 42)

 Birthday twirl:  https://youtu.be/91tUkoXpBXk

Leg-o

Prepped for 2-2-22

Dorothy had a school project about nests

It was her turn to take home the "STEAM backpack" and do various activities which included building a nest.

The Sunday Funnies

For CCD homework, we watched a video about Jesus healing a sick child.  The video begins, "Once Jesus did something that really seems impossible.  It's actually impossible to explain how it happened because it was done by the power that comes from God."
Later in the story, the narrator describes, "They realized that what had just happened was a miracle."
Dorothy commented, "That's actually kind of easy to explain."

Dorothy was excited.  "We got to play any game we wanted to in technology class today!  Any game!"
"Ms. Gamble must have been in a good mood," I said.
"She wasn't there," Dorothy explained.  "We had a substitute, Ms. Browne.  But none of the games were working, so we all played Santa Tracker.  There's 334 days until Christmas."

Dorothy appeared in the kitchen after bedtime.  "After I finished playing in bed, and I went to the bathroom, and washed my hands, I wanted to come out and let you know that I'm all finished.  I like to do that.  It just seems right."

Dorothy's homework was to make a word search with her spelling words, including plan and plane.  I noticed that she made a mistake and wrote plan twice, but no plane.  Gently, I suggested, "I think I need some help finding plane."  "Find it yourself!" she sassed.  (!)

Every day when I pick up Dorothy she overflows with details of the games she and her friends made up at school.  This is my favorite part of the day.  Today, she explained, "Lots of things got adopted at school today.  Evelyn adopted Olivia.  I adopted Omar's left Baby Yoda glove."

Dorothy came into my bedroom early on Saturday morning.  "It's seven o'clock," she said.  "It's early," I said.  "Don't you wanna get up?" she asked.  "Don't you want a longer day?"

A video was discussing how the Lego Friends brand opened-up the world of Legos to girls, and Dorothy took this literally:  "You mean Legos were only for boys?!"

The Muppet Show

New kicks all around