Shadows

Quinn is really good at problem solving. She was excited about how long her shadow was this morning. I asked her to see if she could separate herself from her shadow. I was thinking that this would be pretty hard for her. In probably less than 30 seconds, she figured out if she got in the shadow of a car (we were in the parking lot), that her shadow would go away and she'd be separated.

That was really really fast. I was a little stunned.

Gold fish

Last weekend we "won" 14 goldfish from the Japan festival.... yeah, couldn't keep them alive for 12 hours... they were all dead by the morning.

Strings on the sun?

Queston of the day:
How many strings [rays] does the sun have [for drawing]?

Anti - Sharing Decree

If I were King, I would decree that there shalt be no sharing or attempted sharing before breakfast.

Brock, as usual, was up with mommy working on a puzzle. Quinn said that she wanted to "help". Which meant taking every piece that Brock was working on away from him. Even after delegating the sun to Brock and the beach to Quinn. She still wanted the sun. And of course after switching out the sun and the bird, Quinn wanted the bird.

Oh the drama of a morning kid versus a non-morning kid.

Brock time

This morning Quinn was reading Brock a story. Pam asked them if they wanted cereal. Quinn said no... "This is me an Brock time. We will have it after I finish reading..."

Awesome

Imitation Drawings

If I haven't mentioned it already, Quinn loves art projects, drawing, and coloring. I wanted to post some examples of her ability to mimic what others have drawn. The one on the chalkboard, Pam guided her through "circles for faces" and "rectangles for arms". The gnomes almost all on her own.... I did have to help her draw the swing, stop at the body, then continue on the other side. And just for the record, she is 4.5.

Falling lessons

Last week, Quinn was determined to watch a movie and that ment pulling down the projector screen. She carefully constructed a stool on top of the ottoman cushion to enable her to reach up high enough. I told her it wasn't safe and she was going to fall. She of course countered and said that she was being safe.

She fell, and probably hurt herself, but she didn't let it show.

I then did an experiment where we stacked up blocks on the floor and had her try to jump to knock them over.  Then did the same experiment on the cushion . Clearly the pile was less stable on the cushion.

You could see Quinn processing, that the next time she needed more solid surfaces (like the buffet) for her next climbing adventures.  I love teachable moments!

Cinnamon Life Cereal

Cinnamon Life changed their packaging, now Quinn's favorite cereal is invalid. Yup, that is the logic that we live in.

Cute / Sick Quinn

Quinn woke with a fever today. She didn't go to school, so she is hanging out with us. Currently she is asleep on the floor in my office while I'm working. She is such a great kid.

Daddy / Daughter Dance

We did our first daddy daughter dance tonight. I went in having the expectation that I might get a dance with Quinn, but hoping that we'd dance all night. Quinn had a blast dancing with her friends and eating desserts. I got 1/4 of a dance, split across two songs (so that would be an 1/8 of a dance each). I guess this was better then my expectations, yet still disappointing. Maybe she will actually dance with me at her wedding :)

G/T Testing

Quinn took the G/T test today. It was a 40 minute test, that Quinn described as a lot of "find the ...." She said that it wasn't much fun, at least not as much fun as we made it out to be. We will find out in March what the outcome is

Cheese toast with Parsely

Huge milestone today. Quinn tried cheese toast with visible parsely. She said that there was more cheese than green things, so it was okay. THERE IS HOPE!

the role model that sticks

trying to teach Brock not to put stickers on the furniture, Quinn pointed out that Drew's labeling stickers were teaching Brock that it was ok to put stickers on the furniture. Looks like there are labels coming off today.

welcome

before a dinner party the kids wanted to draw on the drive. Quinn took our welcome mat so she would know how to spell welcome.  resourceful!

allowed sleep

Quinn: are you done sleeping yet?
Pam: Yes, we've had all we are allowed.

Well duh moment - scrapbook == scraps

When you give a kid a scrapbook for Christmas, I guess I didn't think through, what you end up with is..... scraps....

While she loved the gift, and actually made a good Princess / Disney scrapbook... we did and do have tons of paper scraps left over from this art project.

Water cycle braclet

Super cool water cycle (hydrologic cylce) bracelet came home from school today.

Quinn beaded the bracelet as follows

yellow = sun
iridescent = water vapor
ivory = clouds
pink = rain
white = snow
brown = erosion
indigo = oceans
baby blue = lakes
rainbow = puddles
green = plants.

Yea! science!

Orion and simile

While walking tonight, Quinn proudly identified the Orion constellation (proud papa). She was asking who he was and I said that he was a hunter. She asked if he was bad (she is very much into good vs bad), and I said he was good. He was a hero (making this up, but why create bad people?). Quinn says that as selfish as Mother Gothel was in Tangled, that was as good as Orion was.

That is pretty deep. And I'm pretty sure that creating a simile and making that association is well above her age level (I have no basis for this, but I feel it must be true :))

Parenting is like a balloon

Somedays I feel like parenting is like being an inflated balloon that someone hasn't tied. You are all good and full of patience, then all of a sudden there is a massive release... you bounce wildly around the room, making hissing sounds - then you are deflated, spent, and at wits end. And you wonder what happened, for just a moment ago, life was good and full. Yup... you reconnected with the kids at the end of the day.

city center

at city centre Houston Quinn pointed to the buildings at the side and exclaimed that that must be city side since the grassy place is city center. very observant!

Suess Themed Christmas Dinner

This year's Christmas dinner was themed Dr. Suess.

So here is our menu


Munchies :  The 500 hats of Bartholomew Cubbins - Bugles and cheese dip
Salad : Gertrude McFuzz berries - Pomegranate & poppy seed salad
Main entrée : Who roast beast - Christmas rib roast
Veggies side : The turtles of Sala-ma-sond - Cashew Green Beans
Starch side : truffula trees - sweet potato puffs (using rosette tip of pastry bag)
Starch side 2: Who-hash - wild rice patties
Fruit : truffula fruits - Feijoa ( a tropical fruit with a pear like texture)
Bread : Yertle the turtle - pagnotta (from central market)
Dessert : Who-pudding - Chocolate pots de creme

First Movie

Successfully watch Arthur Christmas in the theaters today. What a great birthday present

Teaching Brock to play

Quinn, is a little rough when playing with Brock. I told her that she is teaching him the way to play, so when he is 4 and as strong as she is- he will be hitting her.

Quinn's response: "You won't remember"

"Maybe, how does my not remembering change the fact that he will hit you?"

"Because, you'll put him in timeout for hitting"

Clearly, I'm dealing with a mastermind here. She is only 4.5!

Content with coloring

Wow, never thought we'd get to the point where we could be happy coloring without getting bored. There is hope

Three Wishes

Quinn, having rediscovered her wishing stones from the Ren fest has these 3 to offer:

1. Wishes she could visit a princess castle
2. Wishes she could be a nurse
3. Wishes Adrienne was part of her family

Eating and incentives

So we've started a new incentive program this week.

Just as a refresher, Quinn is extremely particular about what she eats, and will often refuse food based on look, mood, or any other whim. So we incentivized it.

I struggled about this, and I think/hope I have a good solution. Basically bites for minutes... Here is the gist.

She loves to watch videos, and they are usually restricted to the weekend. But with the new incentive she could watch them during the week.

If she eats (swallows) a food that she has had before, she gets one minute for the whole meal.
A new grain / protein/ dairy = 1 minute per bite
A new vegetable = 2 minutes per bite
A new "mixed" food (Casseroles, sauces,etc) = 3 minutes per bite.

Then for rewards we have

1 minute = Sesame Street video from the website, (most are about a minute long)
2 minutes = Zoodle (this is a kids app that usually pulls appropriate clips from YouTube, about two minutes)
5 minutes = Sesame Street podcast.
10 minutes = Mother Goose by Jim Henson available on Netflix instant download (she loves these)
30 minutes = Sid the Science Kid, Super Why, Dora, etc
60 minutes = Sesame Street episode, BackYardigans, Thomas, etc
60 minutes with at least 12 veggies = Feature length movie (Tangled, Princess and the Frog, etc)

Our goal is not only to get her to eat, but to not complain, try new foods, and eat a well rounded meals.

Learning objectives include

• New food can taste good
• How long a minute is
• Clock math (the tracking sheets are set up like a clock)
• Delayed gratification / accumulation (saving for a better video) (although that hasn't happened yet)

Learning outcomes so far

• Baked potato isn't good yet, even when mixed with jelly (barely even touched the tongue before it was rejected)
• Edamame isn't good yet, even though she was really hoping it would have worked for her. (she spit it out convincing herself that she was going to throw up)
• Corn, while vehemently opposed to it on principle, actually is okay. 9 bites == 18 minutes
• Chicken Florentine (Chicken, Spinach, Pasta, Sauce), is okay if you scrape off the spinach pieces and stick to the chicken. 4 bites = 12 minutes
• Accumulation hasn't happened yet. 
• Day 1: 2 minutes = 1 x Zoodle
• Day 2: 30 minutes = 3 x Mother Goose

Hopefully the reward isn't so great that she doesn't feel the need to save up.

But she is excited about earning minutes. This could be a good thing. 

New words

Not sure if she'll remember tomorrow but Quinn learned 2 new words today and used them several times: random and complicated. I used them once, explained them to her and she proceeded to use them in sentences of her own.

The Coasters

Amazing! On the kids mix, Yakety Yak came on, and Quinn identified it as the same artist who sang Charlie Brown. Awesome!

Ricochet Sandwich

From the song Rubber Biscuit, there is a phrase that says "A ricochet biscuit is the kind of a biscuit that's supposed to bounce back off the wall into your mouth. If it don't bounce back, (hee hee hee).... you go hungry!"

Quinn says "You don't have to go hungry... just make another sandwich" - LOVE IT!

Swimming

Btw, Quinn went swimming today! Crazy!