Storytelling and Writing and Celebrity Sighting

The semester is heating up despite the super-cold weather, and there's not much time to take a breath. This may be the last post for a while, since my new boss job is pretty draining. But of late, there's been a lot of story-telling going on in our house, and much of it seemed worthy of documentation.

Lucy's reading has been moving ahead at a surprising pace.  Every day she's reading and writing more and more words.  She and her BFF Ruth together are quite a menace.  The other day, they created this protest sign, directed at Ruth's brother, Woody:

Don't you love the positive reinforcement there?

In addition, Lucy has been writing book after book.  It's a bit intimidating for other authors who live in the same house.  Recently, she's been doing these adorable little accordion fold books; they look like this:

Here's a closer view of the one on birds:

And here's the one on "Hot," which she has targeted at audiences age 2 & up:

And now that she can read and all, apparently she's writing a new book explaining to others how to read:

She's really onto something here.  The more kids she can teach to read, the more readers she'll have, and the more books she'll sell! Genius!

In other exciting Lucy-reading news, the other morning, she read me part of my own book (no not the academic one, the children's one).  It was a tear-inducing moment, I will confess.

Also, just because I wouldn't want you to hear this from someone else first, I thought I should let you know that I'm soon going to have another brush with a famous person.  That person is:

I am not going to type her name because I don't want it to be googled with "Lowell" and end up having my students find my blog.  Ahem.

Anyway, you may recall, that a while back, this happened:

And I wrote about it here: http://thischarmingoldhouse.blogspot.com/2012/12/on-meeting-literary-heroes-part-2.html 
Also, if you want to see me terrified and excited and living the dream, you can watch me introduce King on the official video of the event here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8TkQvdJVbc&list=PLD91T9qx40vrwAuWOj0Rq5ysPBikIkgAo&index=2

Well, it seems we have a reprise, this Wednesday afternoon. I will be introducing our esteemed visitor (photo above).  So, as you can imagine, all I can think about now is: WHAT am I going to wear????  Also, I am hoping she will sign my clipboard.  In my new job as boss, I have a clip-board-based organization system that pleases me and terrorizes others.  There's a wall with project/problem-based clipboards, with appropriate labels.  The famous person has her own personally named clipboard.  I am looking forward to finishing that event (and retiring that clipboard) so that I can tend to the other, less glamourous, but nontheless pressing clipboards.

Perhaps you would like to see?

There you go.  Also, all the clipboards are full now (that was a photo from Day 1).  Now you know why my faculty are now calling me "Dread Chair Marshall," and cowering under my clip-board-based reign of terror.

So if I ever emerge from the impending week of celebrity-induced madness here on campus, I'll try to update you on our household's ever-growing web of celebrity connections.

Skip to ma Lu(cy)!

Tonight we have a guest post from Lucy! Lucy has been very busy and has been developing lots of new skills.  You'll be glad to know that she now knows how to SKIP and SNAP.  These two activities have been very challenging for a LONG time, so we are all very happy.  Sometimes Lucy just skips and snaps all around the house.  If she needs to walk somewhere, why not skip?  And snap while she's at it?  Also, Lucy has been doing a lot of journaling.  She draws and writes about what she's done for the day.  I'm helping her by typing what she tells me, and uploading the photos she'd like.  Here she is:

This is a picture I drew in Free Art Class today:

It is for a show called "I Love Good!" It is a super hero show that I am going to put on for my mom's Birthday (3-28-14).  On the left is Turkey Man! He is the archvillain.  I am Wind Girl with the blue cape and Ruth is Sun Girl with the yellow cape.  We have our Super Pets, Carter (the dog) and Owl (the cat) with us.  Turkey Man is bleeding because Sun Girl shot him with a ray of sun.  He is trying to bite my hand off!

This is how I looked today:

It is funny because I am wearing my Mom's kilt.  It is very short because my Mom was shorter than me.  Look how awesome my hair looks:

I am being funny.

I went to the dentist on Friday.  I got a rubber slug for a prize.  It actually looked like a slug.  I love it.  Mommy does not like it.  I put it on her bed last night.  She yelled.  "He's not that bad!" I said.  I laughed a lot.  My Dad laughed too.  And Mommy said "Lucy do not do that."  I am going to do it again.

[WHAT!!!!!! says the typist, aka Mommy.]

I am Carter:

My little sister made this costume for me.  I do not like the hat.  But I guess the collar is OK.  Woof Woof!  I don't really woof that much.  Love, Carter

The End.

This bubble is frozen:

When you squish these, they turn into something like plastic.  Pa sent Dad an e-mail about how you can freeze bubbles, so of course we had to try it.  It is fun to blow bubbles in the cold.  Here are some better photos that other people took of frozen bubbles.  It was VERY cold outside.  Even though we don't have a picture of this, Dad took some hot water and threw it on a very cold day and it turned to snow.  That is awesome.

On Sunday, we went to the zoo.  We saw these wolves:

Awwwoooooooooo!!!!!  We saw them howling.  We saw their shadows coming around the corner.  There is a cave which has a statue of wolves with their babies.  Watch the movie Wild Kratts and there is one episode of it where at the beginning of it, the very very beginning you can see a real baby wolf cub.

The End.