The Beat Goes On

SUNNYSIDE UP: Even before the sun had crested Queen Anne hill to the east this morning, CJ was begging, "I want to squeeze the egg! I want to squeeze the egg!" Naturally, that got Annabelle's attention, too.

We checked out our jar atop the kitchen island and found that the vinegar the egg was immersed in looked gelatinous as compared to its original state. Then, Annabelle held the bag while CJ gingerly squeezed the egg (having been warned that if he squoze too hard-end of experiment!).

Today, the once hard-shelled egg definitely has a bit of a squish to it. According to our book, by Day 3, we should be able to remove the last remnants of the shell entirely.

CJ SCISSORHANDS: This morning I got an email from CJ's new BFF: Chuck E. Cheese. In it was an offer to print out more coupons. CJ took it upon himself to clip the coupons and when he was done he excitedly exclaimed, "Now we're getting really very, very lots of tokens, right? And you know what that means - it equals lots of tokens!!!"

I tried to contain my excitement.

BACK TO THE BARRE: After what seemed like a monthlong lay-off, it was finally time to start the winter session of ballet this morning.

So, we (that would be me) had to round up her tights, her leotard, her slippers and something fancy to wear for the freedance portion of the lesson. I found the pillowcase full of frilly dresses from Goodwill and pulled out a lacey leotard with a skirt made from strips of pink and white nylon fabric draping down. I held it up and asked Annabelle if she wanted to take it today and she responded, "I don't want to dress like I was a princess in a war," in a tone befitting a teenager.

OK, OK, so I'll admit admit, the frock did look a bit bedraggled. So, I got some scissors and shaped the skirt a bit. Thankfully it passed "Princess' " inspection and she was actually quite pleased with it and herself once the time to don it rolled around.

AN ANNIVERSARY: Today marks the one year anniversary of Barack Obama's inaurguration - a ceremony our family watched with great interest, as his election was such an historic event. I was thrilled when I discovered "Our Enduring Spirit" at the library this morning, a new picturebook containing excerpts from the Obama's inaugural address interspersed with the captivating graphics of Greg Ruth. The fact that "a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath" seemed even more remarkable given that we've been reading about the trials and tribulations of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and others in recent days.

The last few pages of "Our Enduring Spirit" contains the text of the entire speech, as well as interesting insight into the illustrator's methods and motivations.

PLAYING CHOPSTICKS: Mercifully, I miraculously recalled that the kids were supposed to practice drumming with chopsticks before their music lesson this week.
I had them fetch their sticks from their Musikgarten bags and set them up with a practice pad. For inspiration, I found "Little Drummer Boy" for them to play along with.

DO THY BIDDING: CJ has been asking to play his "The Price is Right" DVD for a couple of days now, so that was their math this evening, after dinner. In addition to being fun, it's good for reinforcing the concepts of more and less, gives them practice writing numbers in the hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands, makes them do some addition as well as estimating.