Liesl and Marta cut out “Little Einsteins” figures today and watched three or more episodes of the show. Yesterday, they watched the Firebird ballet on YouTube. Now, Liesl is re-enacting the “Little Einsteins” episode featuring music from the ballet with her little paper figures. Yesterday, she tried to act it out live, but ran out of time. She has also run out of time today, too.
Marta interrupted her a few times, so Liesl angrily said “Marta, stop erupting the show!”

Liesl made up a game today. The board is an empty egg carton and there are cards which determine how far forward or back one moves, or how many ladybugs one must give up (though one starts the game with none and there’s no apparent way of earning or receiving them). We played it once tonight and I think the game needs a bit of polishing, but I think it could be a great recycling game! She could sell the cards and ladybugs and children could use their own game pieces and egg carton to make a playing board.

Unfortuantely, Liesl’s also gotten into the habit of letting a little saliva foam come out between her lips and then sucking it back in after a while. I’ve asked her not to and she always agrees, but for some reason she persists in doing so. I bet she picked that up from her cousin.

Yesterday we did a bunch of work around the home. Catherine diminished the dirt pile, by moving it closer to the road for people to take. I fixed the car door handle and spent much of the rest of the day working on the driver’s side lock actuator, so we can use the remote to unlock the car. What an ordeal! I had done something so it wouldn’t lock and then broke the window lowering mechanism and when everything finally more or less worked again, the window wouldn’t do the auto raise or lower. When we drove home from church today, though, the auto raise and lower works again! I’m thankful it works, though that feature just kind of bugs Catherine.
I also installed a wireless doorbell, so we can actually hear when someone rings the bell, though the inside and outside are battery-powered. I want to figure out a mechanism for ringing a bell with no power.
Catherine also re-shaded a lamp she got at a garage sale. I put a different plug on it, as Thea original one was kind of a fire hazard, potentially.
Earlier, i had taken Liesl to the library and shopping with me and left the bike and trailer out. Later, Marta got into the trailer and asked me to taker her somewhere. When I was finally done with the repairs, I put Adele into the trailer and pulled her around a little. She didn’t object, but she didn’t seem to have fun, either.

Liesl and I were playing a quick game of chess on the computer tonight. What I can’t figure out is why I couldn’t move the white queen to capture the attacking knight. It looks like I should be able to, but MS Chess Titans wouldn’t let me.

Last night, Liesl and I played chess again. I now want to check out materials that help us learn to play chess better. We’ll see if anything comes of it.

• How to play chess like an animal / Details Carson, Anthea.
  Queue: 1 of 1
• Chess! I love it, I love it, I love it! / Details Gilson, Jamie.
  Queue: 1 of 1
• Learn chess quick : how to play the world’s greatest board game, and win / Details Byfield, Brian.
  Queue: 5 of 5

Learn to play chess with Fritz & Chesster [electronic resource] / Details Viva chess.

This evening for family night, I made paper cars and told the story of the speeder, police and the ice cream truck, to illustrate what power and authority are. Catherine and Liesl seemed to enjoy the lesson. Now Liesl and I are playing Liesl’s game “Trace the Cat.” Liesl makes dotted lines in the shape of a cat, then we take turns drawing in the lines for various parts. We’re on level three. Level one was a cat face, level two was an entire cat and I think level three is Garfield.

So as a Sophomore in high school I played Teddy in Arsenic and Old Lace. I think I enjoy people’s attention when it’s not on me for me, but for information or when I’m telling a story.

I don’t actually remember ever saying what I said there, though I do remember that room, the others, and the clothes I was wearing that day. By the end of the performances, I hated wearing that spirit gummed-on mustache and had accidentally broken the pince-nez I had to wear.

So I’ve traveled three or four times this summer. I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere else major. Last week I was in Denver and the girls joined me for a night. We had delicious gelato at Amore Gelato and generally had a pretty good time walking around, though Adele got sunburn on her knees and didn’t let Catherine sleep well at all.
The girls took a night-time swim in the pool (which was cold) and watched lots of TV. We had a lunch at an Indian restaurant and Liesl really liked the red chicken and ate several pieces.
I tend to have a hard time making up my mind where to eat when I’m traveling alone and I’m a little hesitant to try ethnic foods, so Catherine suggested a few sandwich places, which I poo-pooed, because she likes to try ethnic foods. The Peruvian place didn’t have anything the girls would eat (they hadn’t liked the pizza the previous night!), but the Indian place had that flat bread, rice and cucumbers, so we ate there.

We were going to take a walk tonight, but Marta wanted to take a sack full of her stuffed animals. We said no, so she decided she didn’t want to go. It’s just as well, as we ended up being ten minutes early, so we walked around the block and sat on a curb. An old lady who lived in the house whose curb we were sitting on came to talk to us. She complimented Liesl on her red hair and explained twice that she was deaf in one ear and couldn’t hear in the other. She did have a hearing aid and was a nice old lady and thankfully not grouchy at all.

Liesl had a great time playing with the dog.

Tonight the girls made a fairly big to-do over putting something in a gift box, hiding it in the closet, keeping Adele from opening it and making a label that said “Do not open until Christmas.”

Liesl and Marta even sang to Adele, trying to get her to go to sleep for Christmas.

Adele crawled around after Catherine this evening. She crawled into the kitchen while Catherine was there, then when Catherine came into the living room, she followed her there, too. When she finally caught up to Catherine, she kept trying to climb up her back or pull herself up on her back.

Adele is officially a crawler now. Adele sat in the living room while Marta, Liesl, Catherine and I were in the girls’ room. Adele came crawling as quickly as she could to join us. She was so please with herself to be where we were.

We went to a Sky Sox game last night, courtesy of my employer! It was great…mostly. The Sox didn’t play so well against Tacoma, but the girls had a great time, as they got to meet Sox the Fox. Adele behaved very well, as did Liesl. Marta got so bored, she wanted to walk around the stadium many, many times.
Along with the tickets, we got Sox Bucks, $5 worth each. We had popcorn, a caramel apple, chocolate and a chocolate snowman. I hope the girls don’t get the idea that buying stadium food will happen at each game, as it certainly won’t. $2.50 for three chocolate-covered marshmallows on a stick?
At any rate, the girls had a great time and behaved well leaving the stadium. Marta even wanted Sox to be in our family and Liesl wanted to play “Hello Kitty” the next day, though Marta wanted to be Sox. So Liesl was happy when they compromised and Liesl could play “Hello Kitty” with Sox the Fox (Marta).
Oh and Marta was still wearing her Short Round hat, which fell two or three times.

Liesl and I have played chess three times in the last two or three days. She saw the board and pieces and wanted to play. I’m only a little better at it than she is.
Marta is interesting. Yesterday, she mentioned Madagascar several times. We’re not sure why or where she got that from.
Adele is smiley and wants to crawl. She’ll sit up by herself, and she’ll get on her hands and feet, but she really hasn’t made any forward motion yet.
I had a business trip to the labman conference, which was great. I even have an idea for a presentation that I would like to see, though I stayed up too late while I was there.

I love Liesl and was surprised and saddened the other day, when Liesl said “Unlucky Liesl.” I asked where she heard that, and she said she thought of it herself. I’m kind of glad no one is calling her that, but I’d be really sad if she considers herself unlucky at 5 years old.

Lately, she’s also been imitating her cousin. She says, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!” until she gets our attention. She also tells lame jokes, which she learned from her cousin.

I spent some time sorting through old, old papers my parents just brought by. I had lots of newspaper clippings, comics, correspondence, class handouts and even some of my own writing.
I liked this item:

I knew James and spent a fair portion of the night before my biology final playing Doom for the first time. I had never really played a video game before and certainly not an FPS. I had some cheats on and couldn’t understand why I kept dying at the very end of the game.

After much waiting, I finally got to see Adele roll over on her own. She saw a toy and wanted to reach it, so she cranes her neck until she had rolled over onto her belly. Of course, she doesn’t really like being on her belly, but I’m sure that will change when she starts crawling.

Today, on her own, Liesl decided to make mouse ears so that she and Marta could play “If you give a mouse a cookie.” Liesl got so into it, that she wrote a letter to her cousin Aimee, just like in one of the other “mouse” books.
She asked very politely for the materials she needed and was so excited to do it all.

Liesl says her eyes are filled with tears of sorrow, as the bouncy house we approached was being deflated as Liesl stepped out of the stroller. She was so sad, that she wanted to hit the stroller and not leave the area. She says, “I miss the bouncy house.”

So tonight I saw part of a senior thesis. It was an amalgamation of song/poetry/words and the English alphabet and people moving. Yes, it was modern and I didn’t really understand it, though I thought I recognized a couple parts of the movie “A Christmas Story” in there. Liesl was bored, I think, and she kind of wanted to imitate the dancers, perhaps. She had to use the restroom what turned out to be around 15-20 minutes before the end, so I got out of it.

I was listening to Focus on the Family on the radio this morning and as soon as I got to Monument Pass, they cut out and a classical station cut in. I just thought that was interesting.