Isabelle Art

Isabelle's first stick figure. In the middle you can see "sunglasses" (the black sideways B, not the orange circles). Just had to share.

Isabelle Art

This picture was made with a special Montessori technique of dipping a marble in paint and then rolling it about the paper.

Isabelle told me it was called "A picture of my daddy"

The Wisdom of Isabelle

After one nap, Isabelle informed me

I've been dreaming of stepping on things. You may want to step on toys and
you may not. If you do want to step on toys you want to step on other girls
toys.

News!

The licensure committee at Vermont College has just voted to recommend me to the state for licensure as a Special Ed teacher. Woo-hoo!

On Witches and Modern Sensibilities

With much fanfare, Isabelle watched the Wizard of Oz. We had a glorious time. I am happy to report that the urban legend that the Wizard accidentally filmed the suicide of one of the munchkins is utterly false. We saw several clips of different parts of the movie purporting to be the unfortunate scene. The one most often cited is, on close inspection, an out-of-focus crane (bird) flapping its wings.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to talk about witches. After watching, Isabelle was talking a lot about witches, and asked if witches ate people. Unable to resist an opening, I told her the story of Hansel and Gretle. She asked for another witch story, and so I told her of Baba Yaga.

Isabelle didn't appear terribly frightened by this, but she was a little concerned, so we told her that witches that ate people lived far away. Then, remembering that some of our friends and family were witches, we pointed out that, just as in Oz, there are good witches and bad witches.

How confusing is the modern world! But that's not what I'm here to talk about either. I'm here to talk about myself. I imagine everyone does this, when telling a story to a three year-old, I made some quick judgements about what of the story was appropriate for her young mind. I merrily told her about Hansel holding out a chicken bone, and the witch checking to see if he was fat enough to eat. I told her about Gretle pushing the witch into the fire. I didn't say that she made Gretle work as a "slave" in the kitchen, because I didn't want to explain slavery, and I left out the huntsman and his wife abandoning the children in the forest.

How peculiar! That witches would eat children struck me as deliciously frightening, the kind of scary story that is so much fun. But that parents should betray their children was unspeakable to me.

One more photo

Our front door.

Did I mention that it took the entire day to dig out?

Saint Valentine's Blizzard

A "bonzo" (smiley face) out our kitchen window. (The window is about 4' above the ground.)

Nighttime view of our backyard. Those tracks are only halfway down through the snow.

Isabelle plays in the snow outside her second-story bedroom window.

(Okay, I admit, there is a porch roof about a foot below the window)

Pooped from too much shoveling.

Of course, there was a lot to do!

The Times They are Achanging

The dreaded time is approaching. Isabelle is giving up her nap. She still needs it. Sometimes she sleeps. But sometimes she doesn't, and oh, then is it a tough day.

But one era closes, another one opens. This afternoon, ushering her back to bed, we found her sitting up, buried in a mountain of books.

And when she has to go to the bathroom, she'll often proudly tuck a book under her arm on her way.

Where ever did she get these habits from?

Ladybug, Ladybug, Stay real dry

One advantage of the warm, rainy winter, is that Isabelle got to try out her mud season outfit in January.

See, she had these boots. And she really liked them. And she needed a raincoat. So Carrie ordered a matching raincoat from ebay, and the seller was on vacation. And the person who was supposed to put things in the mail (her husband?) said, "Oh, was I?" So when she got back she was so embarrassed she offered the umbrella as well. We didn't want to take it, but the possibility of this photo was more than we could resist.

The downside is the havoc we wrought at the grocery store. Every woman in the store we passed said "Oh, she's so cute!" (some of the guys, too), excepting those who had preschoolers with them, who were all chiming "Mommy, I want one of those."

Songs

One day, banging mightily upon her xylophone, Isabelle began singing off-key at the top of lungs:

There was a baby Jesus
Oh my Lord, Oh my Lord,
Way down in Bethlehem

A few days later, at Grandma & Grandpa's, banging mightily upon the piano, she improvised a new song:

Baby Jesus went to a scary place
And it was very dangerous
And it was too scary for Baby Jesus
To stay there at night
But she stayed there
And there was a scary lion
Who tried to eat her

Different twist on the Christmas story. I thought it worth preserving.

A first Christmas pageant

Isabelle's Montessori school had a Christmas pageant! Not what I was expecting. They had a singing bit at the party today, including "Deck the Halls," a Channukah song, and something about a Frosty Winter. (This is second hand.) That was what I expected. The only "Christmas" songs conspicuously not Christian, and then a Jewish song for balance. But then came the Christmas pageant, and it was the story about Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus looking for room in the Inn. (Had a little problem with the chronology here, but hey, close enough.)

The kids playing Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus walked around to the other kids and asked them if there was room at the Inn. All the Innkeepers said, "No." Apparently, our own Isabelle couldn't bring herself to turn the family away, repeatedly saying "Sure, you can stay here" during rehearsals. So Isabelle got the starring role, as the animals in the stable!

I'm so proud of my stubborn little actress.

Isabelle Sez

"This is your patella"