Riot and Frolic

Owl Week in Review

 I have accidentally been collecting owl things for a few years.  I didn't realize it was a collection until people started buying me gifts with owls on them (mugs, Christmas decorations, notebooks).   

"Because you love owls!" 

Let's be real, though, people: owls are super creepy-looking in real life, but cartoon and craft ones?  ADORBS.

Monday

Library Day: ah, books.  You lovely things.  

The Great Paper Caper by Oliver Jeffers - Who doesn't love some O.J.?  Ford?  Too soon?  Anyhow, Oliver Jeffers writes great kids' books, even if I think he is writing mostly for the adults reading them.  Clever illustrations and a funny bit with an owl made this TOTALLY APPROPRIATE for Owl Week, even though the bird wasn't the main character.

Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace - haha!  Reverse psychology is put at play when Little Hoot doesn't want to stay up late.  

Time to Sleep, Sheep the Sheep by Mo Willems - Oh, Cat the Cat, you are so great.  Mo Willems, you ain't bad either.  And teaching kids about nocturnal animals?  EASY.  

Little Owl's Day by Divya Srinivasan - It's just so pretty.

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and John Schoenherr - This book gives you the feels.  And it has a medal on it, so ... It's good.

Little Owl's Night by Divya Srinivasan - Picturesssssss.

Tuesday

Paper owls: I was reeeeeeeeally excited about this day's thing.  I found 3EyedBear's amazing 3D paper creations while Googling "owl crafts" and JACKPOT.  You print out their amazing design, cut along the lines, fold in a couple spots, add a few dots of glue, and BAM! Groovy paper toys.  

I did all the cutting and folding, since it required a bit of precision, but the ladies glued and directed my assembly skills until each rascal had a cute little owl to represent their spot at the table.  

Can I wait for Gnome Week?  NO I CANNOT.

 

did I take this picture while sneezing? mayyyybe

Wednesday

Owl cards: I now consider card-making "writing practice" along with "fine motor skills" since the ladies end up writing hilarious greetings (or drawing finely detailed and hilarious pictures) for the recipients.  Another simple project from Craft-a-Day, btw.

note the fancy eyelashes on the left two

 Thursday

Owl Stuffies: Why are there no pictures of this project?, you ask.  Well, sometimes, REALLY GOOD  parents do craft projects at 9pm (okay, maybe 10pm) and forget to take photographs while coordinating small humans with needle and thread and the putting on of pajamas and reading stories and getting a "midnight snack" for oneself.  

Anyhoo, they looked almost exactly the same as the paper owls shown above, but made out of felt and with GOOGLY EYES.  

Mae Cake, always surprising, noticed they didn't have wings and thought they should AND was really good at sewing.  

Friday

Field Trip Friday: since I didn't do a field trip for Numbers Week, we headed down to the Minnesota Department of Revenue in St. Paul where we played around "Shunyata" by Steven Woodward, large scultured numbers which lay across the lawn.

This was my favorite picture from the trip, taken by Zoo, of V standing on her favorite number:

How was your week?  In the holiday spirit?  Avoiding the holiday spirit?  Seen any owls lately?  WHERE DOES ONE GO TO SEE OWLS?!

 

Hey, you, crossing the street...

It's winter in Minnesota.  

Yeah yeah, I know it's not Winter, it's Autumn, but the windchill is below 10°F and there's snow on the ground, so WINTER.

Going from inside to outside is not entirely pleasant and you probably want to get to another inside destination as quickly as possible.  And you know about the whole Minnesota pedestrian law, so you DART INTO TRAFFIC WITHOUT PAUSE.

WHAT THE HELL, PEOPLE?

First of all, let me reitirate that it's winter in Minnesota.  In other words, there is a constant layer of ice over the roadways for the next 5-7 months.  Ice, I'll remind you, is slippery.  If you walk out of Starbucks on Grand Avenue and dart across the street while the nearest car is a mere 10 yards away when it's snowing, you bet the driver is going to throw you the bird.  

Wondering what the over/under is on whether I'm going to hit a witless walker is why I widely avoid Grand Avenue as a motorist, BUT SOMETIMES I FORGET.  

Besides the trust in the automotive industry's braking systems, you're also taking for granted that people are really paying attention while they're driving.  You know, with the texting and the Facebooking and the many other things people seem to think need to be done while operating a quickly-moving two-ton machine.  You should ponder this AS YOU'RE TEXTING AND JAYWALKING.

The commonly held perception of the MN pedestrian law is that cars have to stop for people crossing the street.  The actual law states that you must be in the crosswalk, or at an intersection, and that you may not "suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle".  

Here's a few hints:

• obey the pedestrian laws: duh.  If you need a reminder, I'll refer you again to The Law.
• actually look at oncoming traffic.  I'm surprised by the number of people who wait for an opening in traffic [or not] to cross politely and then ignore what's happening after they hit the street, like a car can't pull out of a parking spot, or turn a corner, or really not notice you're moving at the speed of a turtle stuck in molasses.
• um, look BOTH ways.  Just because you're in the crosswalk does not mean that you're becoming a glowing beacon of untouchable pedestrian lawfulness and you have the forcefield of MN Statute 169.21 to protect you.  YOU are in the middle of the street.  With CARS that outweigh and outrun you.  
• Get your death stare on.  I regularly cross the street with my entourage (AKA, small children), so while I huddle the team and prepare the troops for the daunting 30+' journey, I also get on my game face [so many metaphors!].  Once we get on the street, I stare down oncoming cars with my best "You talkin' to me" face until we get to the other side.

In other words, DO WHAT YOUR MOTHER TAUGHT YOU.

The Joys of Pregnancy

Contrary to evidence, I do not enjoy being pregnant.  It makes me feel like Chris Farley, and while comparing oneself to a comedy legend seems awsome, I'm talking about the sweaty and out of breath part, which is not awesome.  

Besides being held back by social restraints, not being to bend over properly, and being consistently surprised at the orb my mid-section has become, there are some perks: 

1. The Free Pass #1 - I have a husband.  We have three girls.  We teach ballroom dancing.  Specifically, he teaches women how to ballroom dance.  It doesn't add up to the most testosterone/estrogen balanced life.  Carrying the first man-child?  FREE PASS.  
2. The Free Pass #2 - I'm pregnant, therefore I might space out certain ongoing appointment times or have trouble finding my keys or jump tracks in a conversation 10 times in 2 minutes.  FREE PASS.
3. People are nice. - Men hold doors and stand up for me on the train and people smile and generally make small talk more.  WHAT IS THAT?
4. I'm amazing - Anything I do on the regular seems pretty extraordinary to other people when there's a basketball attached to my pelvis. Granted most knocked-up ladies I have known are more active than inactive, yet it still doesn't seem odd to me that runners/dancers/snowboarders/yogis still run/dance/snowboard/do yoga "until the stirrups".  But other people seem to think otherwise and I'M GOING WITH IT.
5. Clothes - I hate many maternity clothes, but if you search really hard, you can find the really nice ones that feel like pajamas.  PAJAMAS THAT LOOK LIKE CLOTHES. 
6. Fashion - Even with the revelation above, there's not much I can't get away with.  I mean, what is someone going to say to a pregnant lady?  We're crazy.  Hormones, you know.  Huge flowered headband?  Let's put you on today!
7. Boobs - Let's face it, for someone who doesn't regularly have cleavage, the appearance of mountains and valleys is pretty exciting.  Plastic surgery without the surgery AND you don't have to keep them.  BOOBS.

Number Week in Review

Number Week was an interesting concept since I'm dealing with people who kind of know how to say numbers in the commonly accepted order and vaguely know what those syllables represent.  On the plus side, it was a very easy and "learny" week; on the minus side, crafts were relatively difficult since the youngest's favorite number is three (gee, I wonder why) and that is a tough number to cut out of paper. 

Monday

Placecards: By accident, a tradition of theme weeks is having placecards at the table.  You know, to claim your seat.  IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO SIT IN A PARTICULAR SPOT AT THE TABLE.  Just like it was in high school, but with more yelling and hurt feelings and territorialism. 

Then there was the walk to the library... in the snow... and wind.  It was an adventure.  A chilly, slow adventure.  

But the books were pretty good, so...

Ten Birds by Cybele Young

Anno's Counting Book by Mitsumasa Anno

Hide and Sheep by Andrea Beaty and Bill Mayer

Duckie's Ducklings by Frances Barry

The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base

Tuesday

Dice games: there's a thing called "subitizing" that makes you a better person and apparently dice are great for that, so we played the dice version of War.  We also tried Tenzi, which occupied us for at least a half an hour.  Numbers.  Training for the tables in Vegas.  Good times. 

Wednesday

Number cards: Mae Cake and Zoo took the obvious route in selecting their age for their favorite number, while V decided 100 was hers.  

I might have helped Zoo cut out her 3.  

Thursday

Music:  Check out this playlist for Numbers Week.  NOSTALGIA.

 

Aaaaaaand that's it.  We were pretty busy buying a car that works AND carries more than 5 people and actually works and stuff, so our field trip to the Minnesota Department of Revenue Building's clever number sculpture didn't work... yet.  

Plus [get it?], can we address how DAMN cold it is in Minnesota right now?  DAMN.

STFU... or not.

How many times have you been told to "stand up"?  

More than 10.  Probably 100 times.  

Just.  So.  Many.  Times.

And then you finally learn where Newfoundpostureland is and you have to "stand up" a whole different way: with forward poise, leftward lean, separation of Church and State (or ribs and hips, WHATEVER), with all your weight over one leg, and a million more variations on the theme of "Stand The F*@% Up".

 

Yes, we all need to learn how to dance (or even move) with "better" posture.  But to different people, that means different adjustments.  Some people are swaybacked (lordosis), some are hunchbacked (kyphosis), and some have a sidewise curve of the spine (scoliosis).  People work bent over computer keyboards, people have babies and carry them on one side, people have tight hip flexors/hamstrings/chest muscles.

THE LIST IS ENDLESS.

And while "standing up" is an admirable trait, at a certain point, striving for a vertical line that's as tall as possible will get you stuck.

Great latin motion, swing and sway, real movement?  Not so much "vertical" as "awareness of one's self in space" and "proper muscle tone".

Check it:

Super lovely, right?  I mean, as 9 time world champions, they ain't bad.  Nothing too extreme here, but a lot of forward poise, not merely over the middle of their foot or "standing up tall".

If you can use your spatial awareness, you'll notice these two rascals (world finalists for longer than many of us have been driving cars) are NOT vertical.  I would call it "leany".  Because I'm technical like that.

Then there's this:

Again with the prettiness, but they are not straight up and down.  

And for the last example, these two again being hella not upright.  

So the next time someone tells you to "stand up", make sure you know exactly what they're looking for: your head back, your chin down, your eyes up, your hips under, your weight towards your toes, your belly in, blah blah blah.  And then once you have that down, expect that someone will try to knock your shit over and you'll never see "straight" again.