Thursday, April 12, 2007
How adult are you?
This isn't your usual internet meme lameness. It's an actual psychology study. It's all centered around a book that has caught my interest, The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen by Robert Epstein, Director Emeritus of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies in Massachusetts. I've encountered the idea before that adolescence is a modern construct and not especially a good one. Dr. Helen has a podcast interview with the author and there's a lively discussion of the book in her comments.

What you might be interested in is taking the test. You can do that here: www.howadultareyou.com. I took the test, half dreading to be revealed as the immature brat I feel like I am most of the time. I scored an 87% out of 100. Not too bad. Areas where I scored 100% were Leadership, Problem Solving, Verbal and Math Skills, Handling Responsibility, Managing High-Risk Behaviors, Managing Work and Money, Self Management, and Citizenship. I scored 89% in Sex, Physical Abilities, Education, and Personal Care. I scored the lowest (78%) on Love and Interpersonal Skills.

Now, I will warn you that if you use the scroll wheel it changes your answers. I may have screwed up a few of them before I realized that. You get the benefit of a warning ;)
Easter Morning, Part 1
The Basket. We missed all this last year because we were in Dublin. We enjoyed actually being there to see her get her Easter basket. She was thrilled to see so much candy.


The cousins were pretty happy with the Easter Bunny's efforts this year, too.


"I love my Daddy. He gives me chocolate."


Pure satisfaction.

Playing Dress-up
This was Emma's first time in the princess get-up. I think she liked it. We had to wait extra long for the arrival of Snow White. She couldn't make up her mind what to wear.



Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Earning her keep
Emma was put to work.


Besides, who could resist a face like this...

Playground, yay!
Aunt K took the kids for a quick trip to the playground after nap on Saturday. It was pretty cold so they weren't gone all that long. I think they crammed in a lot of enjoyment in a short time.






While Aunt K was entertaining the children the rest of the adults had important stuff to do. Like this...

Tell!
It means talk to me. It means she wants me to hold a conversation with her about her interests. A conversation being me quizzing her on all her favorite shows. It goes something like this:
Let's talk about the Little Einsteins...
Who likes to play instruments? Quincy
Who likes to sing? Annie
Who likes to dance? June
Who likes to conduct? Leo
What does he use to conduct? His baton.
How do Leo, Annie, Quincy and June fly around? Rocket!
What planet lost it's ring? Saturn.
Who stole little train's party bag? Big jet. Big jet is mean.
What's in the party bag? Cake!
What about Dora? Who's Dora's best friend? Boots the monkey.
Who else is Dora's friend? Benny the bull
Who else? Tico the squirrel
Who else? Issa the iguana (I had no idea)
Who wants to steal Dora's stuff? Swiper
What do they say when Swiper tries to steal their stuff? Swiper, no swiping!
What does Swiper say when they stop him from stealing their stuff? Oh, man!
What's on Dora's back? Backpack
What's in backpack? The map!
Who lives under the bridge? The grumpy old troll
What does Dora like? Ice cream, chocolate!

And we continue on, doing Diego and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She loves these "conversations."
Pre-Easter
We had a big weekend. I took a ton of pictures but I'm planning to stretch them out over the week. I'll start with our activity for Saturday morning. We went to Walter Reed for a Easter Egg Hunt. With the bitter weather it was moved mostly indoors. Thank goodness. On our way in we ran into the Easter Bunny, who graciously posed for pictures. My husband is in the picture giving him bunny ears, how...redundant.


Emma was pretty happy to find our table. She was happiest when we maintained a respectful distance from the big bunny. She would talk to him and wave to him, but she wouldn't get near him.


The girls spend a lot of time running and dancing across the stage. Emma is dancing with Uncle B.


Lunchtime!


Face painting for the cousins! They asked for princess and a cat.


Cousin C won two prizes, one for collecting a lot of Easter eggs and the other for winning the two-legged race with his mom. One of the prizes he very generously gave to Emma to bring home. It was a bucket of Mr. Potatohead toys.


After the festivities we did a brief tour of Walter Reed Hospital. You can see the outside of it in the background of the first photo.

I owe you these...
I had planned to try and post them Saturday and Sunday. But I didn't spend much time in front of the computer, and certainly not on blogging. Here is what I had planned for you...

Sunday...


Saturday...