I wanted to take a nap.

(I didn't get to take a nap.)

If I don't wake up in time to pick up Ana, we'll none of us be happy.

(So I shouldn't take a nap.)

I usually set my alarm on my phone for this sort of situation. But I couldn't find my phone :(

(So I couldn't take a nap.)

The way to find your phone is to get somebody to call you, but the only way to get somebody to call me would be to call them, and if I could do that *I* could call me.

(And then I could take a nap.)

I could email somebody, but there's an inherent amount of unreliability and dashed hopes in that method - what if they don't check their email, or they do at some time when I'm otherwise occupied?

(I really wanted a nap.)

LOOKIE WHAT I FOUND!!!! Isn't it awesome? They call your phone for you!

(I still didn't take a nap. It's too close to when I have to leave. Sigh.)

So, Ana gets homework.

I think this is absurd, especially the *level* of homework (writing a sentence a day, for example), but it's easy enough for her, so I don't say anything.

(I suspect most of the other kids are getting seriously helped. Bad precedent there. But people online have criticized me for my statement that children past, like, the first grade should do the vast majority of their work themselves, mistakes and all. Apparently this view makes me a bad aunt.)

Anyway, sentences. Every day. And I swear, at least once a week her sentence manages to incorporate her marvelous ability to FLIP PANCAKES!

Today it was "Stop flipping the pancakes!" (the word she had to use was "stop").

I took the time to explain to her that when I said "silent E makes A say A" the official term for "A saying A" is long vowel, and told her which were long and which were short. It won't stick, but I'm looking forward to using the shorter phrase. (I also have explained to her that gh in the middle of the word works like a silent E. Silent E she still trips up on, but that one she internalized in less than a day. Weird.)

As for Evangeline, the two of us play games every day at lunch. We'd been doing an endless string of "let's list two things" (or, as I call it, "categories" - Evangeline has finally started saying "atagora" for that!) where we take turns asking how two unrelated things are the same, and how they're different. I make pairs like "tomato" and "apple". She makes pairs like "cloud" and "sink". Oy. I've yet to ask her why a raven is like a writing desk, but you can rest assured that I think it every day!

I got so bored of that that I more or less forced her to try something new - I clear most things off the table (yes, believe it or not, that table is CLEAR when Ana gets home, guys!) and then we take turns adding, subtracting, or just changing one, two, or three things about the setting. This time Evangeline has an easier job than I do - I'll subtly move her tomatoes so they touch instead of being apart, and she'll go and put something on my head while my eyes are closed! Or she'll turn backwards in her seat. My biggest problem is figuring out how to draw the process out somewhat.

And we play "I packed a suitcase", and Evangeline can get up to five or six items before totally losing the thread. That's pretty nifty.