alikander

Happy Birthday, prof_fran!

(I remembered, I just couldn't get to a computer. D'oh!)

"What other movies has Julie Andrews been in?"

One
Blueberries are fairy fruit. I call them that because they make the milk change color.

Two
To play "rockstar," you dress up in fancy clothes and pretend to like rocks. I like to play princess.

Three
The road is like the earth's tongue.
It doesn't have an end: it goes on and on and on forever.
But it stops at the ocean.

I love snow, because it results in snow days.

( Currier and Ives )

Happy birthday, hhw! Enjoy your oddity!

"It seems obvious that your closest friends might influence your mood, but the study found that even the happiness of a friend's friend boosts your chance of being happy by 9.8 percent. Even more surprising, the happiness of a friend of a friend of a friend boosts your chance of being happy by 5.6 percent."

Dear FoFs, I'm feeling pretty upbeat today, so thanks! Keep up the good work.

--Your pal, once removed, Alikander

As usual, I am apologizing for being slow to respond.

Thank you to all who commented on my request for chapter books--on or off LJ. I confess I was rather overwhelmed by all the Ps: Poppletons, Putters, Poppers, Penguins, Pippys, etc. It took me awhile to force myself to sit down and sort them all out. However, I have done so, and, given the time of year, made an Amazon list for use by family members. (After the holidays, I'll turn to the library to fill in the gaps, hhw.)

In the meantime, I turned to items on hand. I considered Charotte's Web, but I felt that the opening, with Fern being so upset by the imminent dispatch of the runt, would be too traumatic. I then grabbed Little House in the Big Woods, but in a rush, needing a book right away, without pre-screening it as I should have.

I was part way into the first chapter with Fiona, before I realized that it starts with slaughtering their hog for the winter. D'oh! However, LHitBW handles this without the emotional upheaval of CW, so it didn't upset Fiona. Instead, she was fascinated for a few days by the idea of bladders (Laura and Mary get the pig's bladder to play with). It was a great opening for talk of anatomy; they have a nice human torso model in her classroom which came in very handy.

Anyway, Fiona mostly enjoyed LHitBW, especially the Christmas and party chapters, but ran out of interest for the last chapter or two. We've gone back to shorter form books for now (last night was The Sleep Book), but it was good to get a break from the usual books for awhile.

Happy birthday, dwvanstone!

Can anyone recommend some "chapter books"? Fiona loves the "My Father's Dragon" books, but we're getting tired of reading them over and over and over.

Things we have tried, but that haven't really grabbed her: Winnie-the-Pooh, Wind in the Willows, Secret of Ron Mor Skerry, ballet stories (by Jane Yolen), The Hobbit, The Wonder Clock, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

Things that we have considered, but fear might be a little too mature: Wainscot Weasel, Alice in Wonderland (plus, I really don't like it), Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit, The Wonder Clock, Matthew Looney, Charlotte's Web, Swallow and Amazons, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe... well and probably some others, but that's all that occurs to me right now.

(Yeah, some are on both lists. What can I say. We're willing to give things a try.)

I might try Little House and Stuart Little, but I have a feeling they'll be too old, too.

We've had some success with fairy tales (Barefoot Books, Andrew Lang), and also "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble," but I'd like something a little longer than those.

There's a gazillion series of little paperbacks (Magic Treehouse, Tiara Club (::shudder::), etc.), but they all look horrid. I'd like to find something light, short, fast-paced, and relatively shallow, and that takes more than one evening to read, but not icky either.


Now, for the sake of my own remembrance, here are two Fiona-said moments:

( Clear on the Concept )


( Secret Ballot ...not )

Oh, and yesterday was "observation day" at Fiona's ballet class. If you can stand mediocre snapshots of three-year-old girls in tutus, proceed.

PPS I'm wicked tired and headachy, so I've probably made spelling and grammar errors above. Apologies. Do not judge too harshly. Why are so many of my friends editors? Do I have some weird kink I've only just noticed? The other day, it finally dawned on me that the two "official" boyfriends of my life were of Scottish extraction. That's perverse.

Happy Birthday, logisticslad!