Ripping Apart the house.

Here is our house. Note the broken retaining wall, and the tilted stairs:

Another View. This piece of the wall has been broken for 20-30 years, but it has been moving, each spring, a little further over the sidewalk. Contractors assured us it was held in by steel rebar.


Contractor touched the chunk with a backhoe, and over it went. Guess it didn't have any rebar, after all. Here is what our yard looks like, after the stairs have been removed:


View from the porch, showing holes on either side of the wall, because the water main and sewer ran under the stairs and under the wall, and were in danger of breakage, so this was the time to fix them.


What fun!

More Isabelle Art

I'm on an Isabelle art kick, but I think she's drawing the greatest pictures. Like this one:

Playing Catch in the Rain
Text reads: "Splash Splish"

Or this portrait of her family:
Am I wearing a tie?

More LolCats, & Isabelle's writing explained.

One more, can't resist...

"You Know We, Don't You"

To read Isabelle's writing, this vertical writing is effectively right-to-left, and mostly phonetic. Its letter-for-letter transcription is "yoo no we dot yoo." Needless to say, she wrote all these captions herself.

More from IHasFams.com

There are also entries for some of her friends:

I Has Thumbs
& Zella
No Get Out of the Basement
No get aot av oa basmit

I Has Fums
& Michelle
Oo, Shiny
oo shine

I Has Thumbs
& Casey
Now I Perform the Letter C
nau I pfoam the se

Isabelle Online

Two of Isabelle's favorite sites online are "ICanHasCheeseburger.com" and "Lolcats.com" (For the uninitiated, these are websites that post pictures with funny captions, lolcats specializing in funny pictures of cats.) She's decided to make her own website known as "IHasFams.com" (That's "I Have Thumbs" for people who can't read Isabelle's spelling). Here are the first entries, with captions translated below:

I Has Thumbs
& Brian
Yum Yum

I Has Thumbs
& Carrie
I am Hungry

Acitivism Starts Young

I wasn't able to catch all the details, but this morning Isabelle was playing in her room, telling a long story about some adventure, involving fairies being chased by some wicked force... that happened to be named "President Bush."

Isabelle Sez

"The difference between children and adults is that adults get cold looking at naked children, but children don't get cold looking at naked adults."

Cure for the Blues

Isabelle wanted me to post her cure for the blues. If your child is sad, Mom or Dad should recite the following, which Isabelle typed herself on the computer:

Zxcdsaqwertyhbvnmuipfgjklohgutugeevbhbubnbunhbbnjbnjetujtnbjmbjernjrjiusiytnsvnsnbesvmsvevmvbjgjngjeinefnesgitumfnbkmbgibkbitbmimbisss iigkkg gigbbimjgijggjhijhikgjkgihjbbhgjjhbjfkfngjbbmm jpfgjfghfufgvfvfmnbjfhgfnfvhhrystsusebvsvhvvhsv vryvnvrgjhdffhfghgdfhagsdfghjklzxcvbnmqwerttyuiopsgyrhfbhyfgbfybrb b bfbf b bbbhbjbbhbhbcncccnnccnxnbvcxzasdfghjkloiuuytrresxffdsxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If your child isn't laughing when you're done, you must have had the accent wrong. Try again, this time with your mouth full of marbles.

A Proper Lady

Growing Up

Isabelle has grown since I last posted a photo here.

Cuddling with her frog

At Boulder Beach this summer

A Green Egg Moment

Spicy corn quesadillas were on the menu. Usually, when we have them, Isabelle opts for a cheesy-cheesy quesadilla, which contains, of course, only cheese. The spicy corn recipe contains her most reviled food: onions. Carrie was out, so I asked Isabelle, "Would you like some corn in your quesadilla, too?" Yes she would.

I concocted a new quesadilla, much like the spicy corn recipe, but without onions or cayenne. Just as I was about to serve them, "No! I want a cheesy quesadilla!" Nothing for it, I fried up one more with just cheese.

She gobbled up her cheesy-cheesy, and was thinking about more, when I cut of a big piece of cheesy-corny and said, "Just taste this and tell me if it's too yucky to eat."

Chew. "It is! It's yucky!" Frown.

"Okay. Thank you for trying it. Just chew it up."

Chew-chew. Suddenly her eyes snap wide open in surprise. "I do! I like this!"

"You want more?"

"Yes."

On the meaning of science

Isabelle and I were talking about pine cones, and the difference between green pine cones and brown pine cones. I told her that pine cones held the seeds of pine trees, and that “scientists calls them ‘cone-bearing trees.’”

“Dad,” she told me. “A scientist, science is telling things with your hands, and not your mouth.”

Maybe a surprise to Aristotle, but I thought it had some merit. Don’t just say it’s true, show that it’s true. I told her I would tell her Uncle Bruce, because he is a scientist.

“Really?” she asked. Then she told me how to say “tie your shoe” in sign language. I didn’t quite get the segue, but that’s not too rare with a 4 year-old.

I repeated her marvelous quote. “Science is telling things with your hands, and not your mouth.”

“Shh, Dad,” she said. “Use your hands.”

That was when I realized she had not, after all, defined a scientist, but rather a “silent-ist.”