The P Is Hidden

Clara has her phonics class on Mondays so the letter up for discussion there is also often a topic of discussion at Monday's dinner table. Yesterday's letter was L. Clara contributed lollipop, lizard, and ladder ("like Daddy sometimes uses to do stuff on the roof!") to the class list of L words. Longtime Fans know that what we White Housers like to do sometimes for fun is rattle off words that begin with a particular letter and there's nothing like a phonics class discussion to kick off a round. (Oh we do dorky fun up right here at the White House, Fans.) Sometimes the bambini tee up a word that has a the letter of the moment in it.  Different, advanced letter gaming and tough to discern the degree of deliberate choice being except used in so doing, so it's a banned practice. Somehow last night--the exact connective tissue lost in the letter fun--Joe said he had a hidden letter in his name: the P, which he drew on the outside of his cheek with his finger--like it was hiding in his mouth? He said it's there, but you can't hear it. It's true that it's not Joe-sep. Right? Right. This kid!  This kid! Right?! Right.

The Sledding Hill

We are in a deep freeze here in Minnesota, and day one was last Friday which was also an early release day for Joe. Ted took the afternoon off and planned for the first sledding outing of the season with Joe at our local park which has a fantastic sledding hill. Ted had put a note in Joe's lunchbox telling him they would go sledding after school so when Ted picked him up at school he was already wearing his snow pants. That meant the boys were the first at the hill.

Given the cold they only stayed about 20 minutes, but they got some good runs in. Joe fell over toward the end of his runs because he was going so fast which resulted in a few frustrated tears, but he did his best to brush himself off and head back to the top. Hopefully it will warm up a bit this weekend and we can head back out with the whole family!

Here is Joe on one of his more successful runs.

ABCD Blanket Pattern

Grandma Connie and Grandpa Charles brought Joe a Spiderman pillow and blanket when they came at Thanksgiving. The pillow is in the shape of Spidey's head, and has been a permanent fixture in Joe's bed since it arrived. Tragically, the blanket has to be washed. Julie insists on it being washed at least once a week, and more often if Joe insist on dragging it across the dog hair strewn floor. Joe no doubt feels Julie is a drag on this point, but frankly, the feeling is mutual. When the Spidey blanket was last in the wash, and the Angry Birds blanket was on Joe's bed, Joe announced that he wanted the dog blanket next. So this weekend, when Julie took the Angry Birds blanket to wash, she got out the dog blanket. Tonight, when Joe asked plaintively where the Spidey blanket was--!!!--Julie reminded him of his request for the dog blanket.  Joe laughed and then said next, he wanted maybe the Thomas blanket. When Julie said "What about Spidey?!", Joe said "I'm gonna do an ABCD pattern." Presumably this means Spidey, dogs, Thomas, and. . .Angry Birds??? Joe is working on patterns at schools, but we are way beyond colored squares with this rotation.

Of Blankies, Lighthas, and Duvets

A few minutes ago, Julie was reading Birdie Fancy Nancy, which the Grandparents Trump brought when they were visiting for Thanksgiving. It's charming and fun. In it, Nancy attempts to get her family to be more fancy--fancy is when you describe your favorite color as fuss his instead of purple. After Julie had closed the book, Clara said, "Hey, Mommy! Do you want to know a fancy word for blankie? Light. . .haaa!" Julie laughed and said, "How about duvet?" Birdie seemed o-kay with that. She's a real love, Brigade. And like Fancy Nancy says, there's not a fancier or better way to say I love you than I love you.

E is for Ekkers

We think all schools should adopt this curriculum.