Another sleeping Sammy photo

Olivia's work

Olivia's poem:

As the unicorn shows her shadow

And the Fairygodgirl lowers her lasso.

The sun shines bright!

The flowers bloom.

And the little hummingbird flies his tune!

The cat's whiskers dangle down

The baby dog hides his frown

We had our mid-year conference with Olivia's teacher and were very happy to hear how well she is doing in class, what a helpful member of their community she is. A friend to all, is how Cami discribed her. She also has gone from kindergarten-level reading at the beginning of the year to end-of second grade level now. Olivia told all of us she wants to learn and spell new and big words. I'm pretty proud of her. 

Here is a recent portrait of the family by Olivia: 

Sammy's Drawings

Sammy's portrait of Chris. Today he added glasses after weeks of just dots for eyes. The lines across the face are lips and mustache. I also love Sammy's floating guys pictures:

And his picture of himself and daddy, not to scale:

The Wolf Club

Olivia's teacher sent an email saying that the Wolf Club, a group of first and second graders who gather on Mondays to discuss wolves during recess, was looking for help gathering crafts for the craft fair. I said to Olivia, "Did you know there's a wolf club in your class." She looked at me and said, "Yeah, I'm in it!" So, note to self, I do not know everything that is happening in her life. We created necklaces to sell that feature her drawings of wolves: 

So proud of her. 

2015 - A Year in the Life

Here's a short movie I made using the app 1 Second Every Day. I didn't actually manage to capture every day of 2015, and most clips are longer than one second, but you get the idea.

Heroes and Villains

Sam sleeps in his Captain America costume. Alisa bought it for $5 at a thrift store and added some fabric to the waist so
it would fit. It's been through innumerable washes and is pretty ragged around the edges, but he loves it dearly
and wears it daily. Olivia also likes to wear her hero costume occasionally and joins in our superhero games as
Doggy Girl or Kitty Girl, but for Sam superheroes are almost a religion. He can name all of the Avengers and
is familiar with many of their origins. He has a reference book of Marvel characters that he likes to have read
to him in lieu of bedtime stories. He loves to play superhero games, which he calls "badguy games," possibly because
he has some confusion about the roles of superheroes and villains, but I like to think is because he uses the word
"bad" to mean "good" in accordance with street vernacular.

Whatever the case, I try to emphasize the helpful and noble nature of superheroes when we play our games. Captain America
assists in returning helpless stuffed animals and toys to their homes at cleanup time. He uses his considerable strength
to lift great cushions off the floor and return them to the couches. Captain America shares with his sister. He poops in
the potty, not in his costume.

Then, of course, there is the wrestling and play fighting that goes along with any super role-play. I can't resist playing
the role of Hulk on a rampage, lumbering and smashing my way around the house as Captain America knocks be down with his
cardboard shield and Kitty Girl pounces. It does take me back.

Sleeping Sammy

Someday very soon Sammy will tell me to please stop photographing him while he's sleeping. But until then...