Congratulations, Sophie!

Sophie was recognized as Falcon of the Week in her first grade classroom this week!  Way to go, Sophie! She was complimented for the effort she puts out to increase her reading and math skills.  All the Falcon's of the Week got a group picture with Sammy, the school mascot.

To celebrate her accomplishment, she was surprised with a special lunch visit from her Opa.  Having lunch with a visitor is a big deal because the student gets to sit on the stage away from the general student body.  Of course, it didn't hurt that she had an awesome date and a coveted Chick-fil-A kid's meal!

Ice Skating

Another observance the country is almost wholly oblivious to is National Skating Month.  Well, thanks to a Groupon our family got to experience the unmitigated terror that is ice skating.

This was the kids' first time. We are happy to report that there were surprisingly no tears from neither child nor adult for the duration of our hour on the rink.  We actually got an amazing workout, despite our low speed and few laps.  This by reason of every fiber of our being willing itself to maintain balance.

I'm sure as the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia soon approach, we will have an entirely new appreciation of the gracefulness of figure skating and ice dancing, the velocity of speed skating, the grit of ice hockey, and the quirkiness of curling.

National Braille Literacy Month

Did you know that January is National Braille Literacy Month?  Me neither, but I happened upon this information just in time.  Because my family is friends with Dane, who has been completely blind from birth, and his family, I thought this would be a good way to raise our awareness about how Dane may perceive the world around him.

We talked about his blindness and how it might be for him.  Then we took turns wearing a blindfold and trying to accomplish at least one of our regular house chores that way (i.e., emptying the dryer and taking the basket to the bedroom, emptying the recyclables into the garage container, taking the kitchen scraps out to the compost).  The kids quickly realized touch was a super important sense if they didn't want to ram themselves into walls.  Also, they had to use their hearing to locate mom's voice as she directed them out of danger and toward their goal (e.g., "The compost is over here by me.").  Sophie really took this to heart and tried it several times throughout one or two days. 

Over dinner, I shared the story of Louis Braille (who's birthday is near the beginning of the month) and how he became blind at three, his education, his refinement of a embossed reading system, his strengths as a teacher and musician, and his death.  I left out the part about his body being reburied in the Pantheon in Paris (reserved for French superstars) minus his hands which remain in a box on his tomb in Coupvray, France, where he was born.  This is the compromise that the French government and the people of the village came to. Um...Weird.

We had a playdate with Dane.  We have played Cooties, and marble mazes, other adapted games such as Go Fish with him in the past during our playdates, but this time Cherri had adapted Quirkle so we got to try out that.  Sophie briefly used her blindfold to play but found she is quite dependent on her sight, despite raised textures and shapes having been added. 

While there, we learned that you really need to give a visually impaired or blind person some verbal heads-up if you are going to give them a high five so they are not surprised.  Dane is a good sport as we begin to consider his side of things.

Also, while there, we were able to touch braille and have his mother, Cherri, read a funny story from one.  She also showed us the archaic brailler loaned to her by the school district to help him along in his reading and spelling. 

With Cherri's help, we were able to have Sophie and Rhys' names brailled and braille a note to send to Dane in the mail, inviting him over to our house for the next playdate.  When he comes, he will show the kids how he uses his cane and they can try it out too.

I really love how some little known observances help us to learn something new and gain understanding about how others experience the world.  Thanks to Cherri and Dane for helping us explore the topic in a hands-on way.

Albondigas

To continue with our lackadaisical study of Mexico, we looked through a Mexican food cookbook written with kids in mind.  Pleasingly, the recipes were garbage like chips with Velveeta cheese or simple bean burritos.  The kids decided they wanted to make albondigas or meatballs so Keri, suggested Albondigas soup to up the veggies.  Since the didn't have a soup recipe in the book we were happy to find a recipe that met our families preferred way of eating: Turkey Albondigas Soup from Eating Well.  We went with a less spicy version for the kids.

Mommy's sweet little helpers

Real life

They did a great job dumping in ingredients, rolling meatballs, and stirring the soup.  A friend came to visit the next day after we had heated some leftovers for lunch and wanted the recipe based on the aroma alone. 

Feliz Ano Nuevo

After scoring on after Christmas bargains of gift wrap, cards, obnoxious Christmas inflatables for the yard, and (get this!) Burt's Beeswax lip balm (which a use all year long! Woohoo!), we were ready to pack up all the Christmas décor and ring in the new year. 

We are haphazardly studying Mexico with the kids right now and we found out that in Mexico at midnight, it is a tradition to eat 12 grapes and make a wish after each grape.  So because our kids can't tell time and because we don't want to torture ourselves with overtired children, at 7:25 pm we counted down from 10-1 and shouted our New Year welcome!  We enjoyed sparkling apple cider which the kids were pretty happy about because it was like soda, a seldom enjoyed beverage in our family.  Then, again, to move things along, we decided to eat 3 raisins each because 1.) we did not have grapes and raisins are grapes, just in a sad state, and 2.) waiting for each of us to come up with 12 wishes, especially the kids, would take forever.  It still was 12 and promoted team work! So we each took a turn eating a raisin and make a wish until there were no more. 

As parents, we wished for the obvious and well appreciated good health, employment, and increased spirituality, among a couple other things.  Sophie's first wish was to be a mermaid and Rhys wished to be a Daddy and "do a lot of shopping" which paradoxically is one of his least favorite activities.

The point is, all were happy as Sophie and Rhys went to bed and we parents stayed up watching the U.K.'s Top Gear reruns which were new and quite funny to us.

In the morning, Sophie tried to keep aligned with Mexico's traditions, as she wore underwear with a bit of yellow detail and a red shirt.  We had read the day before that some people in Mexico wear yellow underwear on New Year's Day for good luck with money, while others may wear red underwear for good luck in love.  It was fun to read about some of Mexico's traditions mostly because the kids would laugh every time the word "underwear" was mentioned.

That morning we continued to put the house in order and watched the Rose Parade. I lived in southern CA for 30 years and never attended the Rose Parade or the subsequent float viewing.  Neal did attend the parade when he was a kid but remembers nothing of it but getting up early to get there.

Happy New Year to all!  We hope that this year brings all many blessings and strength to endure any adversity that may come.