2 and a half

iPhone Typepad app

John Duke — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:38:18 -0700

I just downloaded the Typepad iPhone app, hoping it will encourage me to post more snippets here and there. Yes, I know it's been out for a long time. And yes, it is horrible.

Sell it back to Santa?

John Duke — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:27:23 -0700

"I want to sell it back to Santa." - A tired little girl named Grace after opening up an early Christmas gift

My reactions:
- Santa hasn't come yet (it was an early present), so what gives?
- Does she know mom & dad are Santa? She's only 3 so that would be amazing.
- Santa probably doesn't take returns because the elves would get pissed. Although maybe at a 50% discount.

Butter and the armoire

John Duke — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:37:56 -0700

This is f-ing gross.

Here's a normal looking doll house armoire. Something that might have, say, doll clothing in it, or perhaps jewels or some other small item my girls like to hoard.

Open sesame and... a bar of butter. Not just any butter, but organic unsalted butter - the kind that, you know, little girls 3 years of age like to eat apparently. Oh, and keep in their armoires.

Clearly it was a big bite. Put some in your armoire today.

Elf on the shelf redux

John Duke — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:17:34 -0700

Merry Christmas. The elf is back, of course - Sammy's been hanging around our house since about Thanksgiving although I've been remiss about posting his general whereabouts. He was also hanging with us in 2009 and 2010.

Today he made it up on to one of the wall sconces along our stairwell. I didn't get to witness the morning ritual of the girls finding him because I had to leave at an early hour for work (the pic is around 5AM), but it had to be pretty easy today. He's right there as you come down the stairs, smiling with his same old cherub-like expression.

Since it's our third season of doing this he's pretty much family now. In fact, Audrey counts him as a family member and claims that if you include Sammy, Barry and the four hermit crabs (the sex of whom is totally unidentifiable in my view), males might actually outnumber females in the household now.

Typing

John Duke — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 09:32:51 -0700

Audrey busted this out on my laptop this morning. Ok, ok, I helped her with the 'y' in 'my' and the 'o' in 'favorite.' You've got to cut her some slack - she's 5.

I remember when it was fun to spell the word 'Mississippi' too.

Audrey's recipe for making Nerds

John Duke — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 10:18:19 -0700

Get some warmed up ice

Sprinkle some sugar on top

Cover them with colored icing

Add lemon juice (for the sour taste on the outside)

Put them in a package

Sell them.

What whiteboards are really meant for

John Duke — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 18:44:52 -0700

Barry

John Duke — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 20:44:56 -0700

Cursive

John Duke — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 21:53:00 -0700

5-year-olds who write in cursive rock.

Rainbows

John Duke — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 21:42:16 -0700

Audrey has been prolific in her rainbow artwork lately, which you can also check out in the art gallery.

Here, a turtle swims under a rainbow, attracted by a flower on a lily pad.

Next, we have a brilliant rainbow, shrouded in sunshine. An interesting theme is that she leaves off blue and violet, just like above, perhaps to accentuate the energy.

This is my favorite. Rainbow with rose petals. Audrey has inverted the rainbow colors with violet on the outside.

Here, Audrey composes a rainbow in marker, with the blue and violet included. The orange is missing, but that's probably the least attractive color anyway.

She checked out the following library book this week, and has told us she wants us to paint rainbows on the walls of her room.

Rainbows forever.