Thursday, January 30, 2014

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

S stamp

Sofia gave me an S stamp as a gift this morning. I stamped my heart. I said she gave me a superpower, to be as cool as Sofia. She said, no, not as cool as Sofia, silly, as Smart as Sofia."

Saturday, January 25, 2014

one of those days

Amazing day with the family.

Spent the day just hanging out. We made a fridge magnet mandala. A 4 foot diameter snowflake. Wrote a couple of songs (in open D tuning), one using Longfellow poem The Children's Hour.

At one point we were dancing to the first rolling stones record. Then they worked on their legos while I read Harold Bloom on Hamlet.

And those were just a few of the highlights.

Jose and Tina visited from Colombia for instance. In fact they are still downstairs visiting with Genevieve as I write this quick entry into the record of awesomeness.

Who could ask for anything more?

If you have anything less, how can I help?

Perfect

Oh man, sitting around listening to the electric magnetism of early stones on vinyl, while the girls make forts and I read Harold Bloom's magnificent take on Hamlet. Hard to know what more to ask for.

Even being Horatio, and taking a moment out of the moment to write this down is perfectly imperfect.

Sofia says

You are going on time out for loving us too much, mom.

Friday, January 24, 2014

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Sofia mashup

"Won't you give this dog a bone, this old man came rolling home, as you can see."

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Sofia as Sal

I asked Sofia what she was building and she said the Great Wall of China.

Watching little einsteins

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Missile toads

Sofia called this dish missile toad.. A mashup pun, somewhere between Mr. toad and missle toe. 

These are two baby missile toads.

Yam, blueberries, spinach.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Monday, January 13, 2014

Sarah spider

Sarah the spider said "I like to eat little girls." Sofia suggested vegetables instead, because they give you energy and make your body healthy and strong. Sarah the spider said she preferred little girls because they gave her a sense of humor. Sofia said Sarah could just ask God for a sense of humor instead. So Sarah asked God and God said no!  Sarah said to Sofia -well, that didn't work. Sofia said try again, so she did, but again God said no. Sofia asked Sarah to ask God why not and so she did. God said to Sarah, "because you are already funny." So Sofia told Sarah to ask God if she could get a sense of camera instead.

Dinner idea

Boiled large yam, cut it in half for monster body. Carrot makes a nose, chocolate chip eyes, cilantro mustache, sausage skirt. Sofia called it Tutsi gashi (after Kishi Bashi)

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Snacks

A super snack called a SUPA by Sofia it's a supa cracka. it's a rice cracker with the cube of tomato and cilantro. vegan

Friday, January 10, 2014

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Review of Brooklyn Children's Museum

The Brooklyn children's museum is such a fun place to take toddlers on a day too cold for the park. Both my four and two-year-old could stay engaged here for days. Me too.

Making masks, stringing beads, making Stainglass windows, designing bedrooms, Sailing ancient wooden boats, beating on carved logs, creating soundscapes, learning dances and on and on and on.

They have one of the most elaborate block collections anywhere, and instructions (if you wish) on how to turn them into fantastic things. We made a castle inside a museum after a book we've been reading. (Have you read "the girl who lived in the castle inside the museum?" My girls love it.)

One of my personal favorite exhibits at BCM is a 19th century style cabinet of curiosities featuring many exotic wonders behind glass. There  are computers set up at the periphery where you can learn about the objects inside the giant cabinet. And pads of paper too should you wish to draw them or take notes.
(Just listened to a show today on Lapham's Quarterly podcast, about a famous cabinet of curiosities, so this was a bonus for me.)

I am writing (dictating) this review while stuck in the The Hasidic part of Williamsburg. This is the most congested traffic of our drive from Queens to the Brooklyn Children's Museum, but I don't  mind going slow through here because I am enamored with the Hasidic fashion. One more curiosity in the great cabinet.


Making masks

Pretending to be a priest
The future

starting the castle


Williamsburg, the Hasidic side


Gourd art

stainglass layout
ride home

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Sofia's Banksy Art (her title)

Sofia went on a walk. Sofia knew what to do. Sofia did know what to do, really know, every time she went on a mountain walk. Sofia did not know what to do after she did know what to do on the mountain walk. Sofia knew what to do every time she went on a rainy day mountain walk day. She was a baby, but she still was a big kid. She said yes, no. She went to bed. the next morning she got balloons from the park. Then she smelled beautiful rose flowers. Red, yellow and green. Those were all the colors. She had really good smelling soap. She is going on a walk by herself. She smelled beautiful heart flowers with a stem that was orange. And then her mother didn't hear what she said after she went on a walk by herself after school.

My Sea

Sofia climbed on my back this morning and said, "Mama look at me, I'm the sea of the desert."

Friday, January 3, 2014

story time

Sofia was excited to perform a song for her grandparents and cousins, but when it came time to do it she became shy and froze.

Later as she was going to bed I told her a bed time story about a little plane that was flying just fine by itself, but when it came time to fly in front of the big planes the little plane became shy and froze and then began to nose-dive down to the ground. The other planes quickly flew down underneath her and caught her just in time. They lifted her back up to the heavens on their backs. Once she was ready to fly on her own again they let her go. She flew and was so happy to be flying again she did a loop de loop. All the planes applauded and were proud. The end.

Sofia asked me to tell her another story, a super awesome one this time.

Wasn't that one super awesome enough?

She said, yeahhh. But tell me a really really super awesome one.

           y!
         a
       a 
    a
  k
O

So I told her the story of the blue guitar that loved to play for big crowds, but felt lonely up on stage by herself. The blue guitar went and looked for a friend to play with. She found a red drum just hanging out on the corner and playing by herself. She listened and liked what she heard.

She said, in guitar language, bwa bwa bwa. Translation: do you want to play some music with me?

The drum said, bap bap a boom bop a bippipity boppity boom. Translation: I've been hoping somebody would ask me that all day.

So they played music together and had fun. Pretty soon some people heard them play and came over to watch. A little girl in the crowd named Sofia asked if she could join their group. The guitar said, bwa bwa bwa, and the drum said, bop bap boom! Translation: Yes, we really need a singer!

Sofia sang her big mash up hit, "On the good ship lollipop goes the weasel."

The people clapped and were happy. Someone in the crowd shouted what do you call your band?

The red guitar looked at the others and said how about The Wa Wa Was.

The blue drum that's good, but I was thinking we should call it The Bee Bim Bops?

Sofia said, I love that name too, but I think we should call our band the Yo Yo Yos."

Everybody liked that idea.

Then the band went on a sold-out tour of Europe.

The end.

I asked Sofia if that was a super awesome enough story and she said yeah.

Defending her aesthetic decision

Sofia asked me to listen and then sang a song about her hands being dry that went dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry dry with a little melody behind it. At the end she raised her voice to a scream. I told her I liked the song up until the end. She asked why and I said because it got a little too loud. She defended her choice by saying, that's because it had to die.

I was persuaded by her argument.

Oh yeah

The way Lucia says, oh yeah.

OH Yeaahh