Evangeline and I played Duck, Duck, Bruce today.

And we also played a round of Memory with our new set. (I gave away the old one, with the whole "first games" set, to Ana's school. It was the only one of those games we played, and it was impossible to store.)

Both those games have boxes that take up waaaaaay more space than the game requires (Sherlock (which I advise you to get) is another one, and it itself came shipped in this box which was a zillion times huger than the box containing the game itself. WTF?), which is so annoying.

I measured it. The Memory cards take up exactly 20% of the box they're in. Okay, so sure, you want some room to get the cards out of the box - but still, the box could've been a quarter of its actual size! I'd pay extra not to have to punch them out myself, anyway. Duck, Duck, Bruce comes in the standard-sized Gamewright box - all their boxes are a good 25% larger than the games they contain. Given that they're all card games, would it be so hard to stick the rules on a few extra cards and put the whole thing in a standard deck-of-cards box instead of a container with a lid and all? It's save space on the shelf, that's for sure.

Got a set of Apples to Apples Kids for Ana's school, and, although the box is appropriately sized the cards are insanely flimsy. I'm not sure I want to entrust this to a group of small children - or big children for that matter. Is there a way to remedy this? Help me, guys! You're my only hope!

Jenn wants me to post this here.

http://easierthanyouthink.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/make-it-easy-kids-and-vegetables/

I happen to be home today because it's all drizzly and dreary out and what we were going to go to is just not happening in the rain. So I'm online as Evangeline plays around. She just demolished her toy bin. I was a little shocked, but then I remembered that Ana used to do that on a thrice-daily basis and have decided it probably won't harm it, though I told her not to do it again.

I was *going* to make egg salad for lunch, but I totally forgot and as I found the peanut butter (I knew there was no way it was eaten that fast - I cannily bought chunky last time on the grounds that *I* like it better and everybody else seems to prefer creamy, so it's not like they're mixing it up with my brown sugar and eating it for fun, hmmm?) I guess it's not a problem.

I'll make egg salad later, with berbere. Or maybe scrambled eggs, as per Ana's request.

Anyway, the link. Jenn asked me what I think. I think she misspelled "bland" as "blad". (That's okay. Ana's teacher sent out a notice that used the wrong you're. And inconsistent punctuation - I'm a fan of logical periods myself, but then you have to use them through the whole thing! And inconsistent spelling - pick rain forest or rainforest and then stick with it. Better to be consistently wrong than to waver back and forth. It's the whole school. I'm going to have to send them all some firmly worded emails on the importance of proofing your work before sending it out, it looks really unprofessional. Bad enough for a high school, but this is an elementary school. They're teaching kids how to spell and write, they have to look like they know what they're doing! But I digress.)

I also think she touches on something that I've heard that really annoys me - people praising kids for things that are or should be normal. When Ana eats her broccoli and somebody tells her how "good" she is - that just makes her feel weird. Shut up already! And, worse, when I tease her about not eating carrots and somebody drones on and on about one of those books that involve hiding veggies in food - look, Ana *eats* her vegetables. She just doesn't eat carrots. And she's allowed to not like one food, for crying out loud! It's just carrots! Listen when I tell you so you don't look like a twit in front of the kid, and, simultaneously, plant the idea that she shouldn't eat vegetables. Honestly, do people think before they talk? No, no they do not.

So yes, go read the link on how to get kids to eat their vegetables.

Jenn wants me to crosspost this for her

http://easierthanyouthink.wordpress.com/2009/05/12/make-it-easy-kids-and-vegetables/

I happen to be home today because it's all drizzly and dreary out and what we were going to go to is just not happening in the rain. So I'm online as Evangeline plays around. She just demolished her toy bin. I was a little shocked, but then I remembered that Ana used to do that on a thrice-daily basis and have decided it probably won't harm it, though I told her not to do it again.

I was *going* to make egg salad for lunch, but I totally forgot and as I found the peanut butter (I knew there was no way it was eaten that fast - I cannily bought chunky last time on the grounds that *I* like it better and everybody else seems to prefer creamy, so it's not like they're mixing it up with my brown sugar and eating it for fun, hmmm?) I guess it's not a problem.

I'll make egg salad later, with berbere. Or maybe scrambled eggs, as per Ana's request.

Anyway, the link. Jenn asked me what I think. I think she misspelled "bland" as "blad". (That's okay. Ana's teacher sent out a notice that used the wrong you're. And inconsistent punctuation - I'm a fan of logical periods myself, but then you have to use them through the whole thing! And inconsistent spelling - pick rain forest or rainforest and then stick with it. Better to be consistently wrong than to waver back and forth. It's the whole school. I'm going to have to send them all some firmly worded emails on the importance of proofing your work before sending it out, it looks really unprofessional. Bad enough for a high school, but this is an elementary school. They're teaching kids how to spell and write, they have to look like they know what they're doing! But I digress.)

I also think she touches on something that I've heard that really annoys me - people praising kids for things that are or should be normal. When Ana eats her broccoli and somebody tells her how "good" she is - that just makes her feel weird. Shut up already! And, worse, when I tease her about not eating carrots and somebody drones on and on about one of those books that involve hiding veggies in food - look, Ana *eats* her vegetables. She just doesn't eat carrots. And she's allowed to not like one food, for crying out loud! It's just carrots! Listen when I tell you so you don't look like a twit in front of the kid, and, simultaneously, plant the idea that she shouldn't eat vegetables. Honestly, do people think before they talk? No, no they do not.

So yes, go read the link on how to get kids to eat their vegetables.

Ana proudly told me yesterday that she's reading "G" books.

This is the book she brought home: "Baby Elephant had a new bike. He got on. The bike wobbled and wobbled, and Baby Elephant fell off. "I can't ride this bike," he said. (We totally haven't been reading the books she brings home. I have her read a note I write for her to take to school every day instead. It's theoretically for lunchtime, but we read it together over breakfast. I didn't do that this week. Bad Connie!)

So that gives you an idea of how difficult that reading level is. What's funny is that I know she can read harder stuff than that and comprehend it - if and only if she's doing it alone, with little attention. I've seen her do it. She struggles and stumbles though, and *this* she can read easily. This is the old Ana trick of not letting on that she can do something until she can do it perfectly, of course.

I only bring this up because the illustrator's name is kinda cool: Jan van der Voo. Say it. Isn't it awesome? My only problem is that I can't figure out if we say Jan like a Dutch name (as van der Voo is clearly a Dutch name) or, because this book was written and illustrated in the US, as an English name - presumably the illustrator is American, I can't see why they'd send this book to be illustrated overseas. Having never met this person, I don't know how s/he pronounces this name! There's a Jan van der Voo who is a Dutch cartoonist, but that doesn't seem to be *this* person. (Correction: The series was developed in Australia and New Zealand. Well, all right then. How do I pronounce Jan?)

~~~~~~~~~

I can't talk about one being cute without the other, of course. (And do you know, both children insist on saying "teechuther" instead of "each other"? Always have.) Day before yesterday, Evangeline napped on the way home, in the wrap, but woke up as I put her in her hammock. I told her she had to stay in bed and be quiet for half an hour, it was still naptime. After that time was up, I said she could get up so long as she stayed in her room, but she declined. Then, 10 minutes later she asked me first if she could get up (uh, yeah?) but then she asked me "Connie? Did you know that if I have a long bath, my fingers get all p'uney?" This? THIS is what she was thinking about all that time? "Yeah, I was t'inking about it a yot."

And on the subject of each other, I have a question. It has been bugging me and bugging me for over a year now.

When I'm walking with the nieces, sometimes I want them to hold each other's hands (and not just because it looks cute). Maybe I want them to walk together in a crowd so I can keep better track of them, or we're crossing a busy-busy street and I have one hand full - whatever.

What do I say? Do I say "Hold your sister's hand, kids" or "Hold your sisters' hands, kids"? Obviously, each child is only holding one hand from one sister, but there are two hands being held. I have gone round and round thinking about this, and I can't figure it out.

If I asked them to pick up their jackets, and each child has one jacket, I'd still say "Ana, Eva, pick up your jackets", regardless of the fact that each child is fetching one and only one jacket. But somehow, to move that to hands sounds wrong! It sounds right to say "hold your sister's hand", but why in that context when not with jackets or balls or whatnot? Sometimes I use "each other". Hold each other's hand? Hold each others' hands? God, I have no idea what to say! And meanwhile, as I try to figure it out, they've run ahead a mile and I can't catch up.

An update on Alex Barton

Taken from ABFH

I find the behavior of the "adults" in this article to be unconscionable, reprehensible, and pretty fucking close to evil.

Pretty recently, when talking to somebody else about the Ann M. Martin book "Inside Out", written a good 20 years ago about a family with an autistic child, I said the bar was set really low. If there's no outright malice in the book (and there isn't, in my recollection), I'm not going to condemn it. Hell, I'm just glad nobody there advocates killing the kid, which is about as bad as things are some days. And with that said, I still am managing to be appalled at the total lack of civility described in the article. I always say not to look at the comments, and today I am following my own advice. I am sure no good can come of it.

I am sorry for the lack of substance to this post. I'm just so... I'm not happy. Sometimes, it's almost enough to make me wish I believed in a god, any god, vengeful or just. I'd feel better knowing that people get what's coming sooner or later.

As long as I'm loosely on the subject, here's a post about biased research regarding autistic children.