FEMMES at Duke

Rachel spent the day at Duke, attending the FEMMES program (Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering, and Science). She knew a handful of girls there (Jordan, Marin, Carolina, Genevee, and Kate) but somehow they all ended up in different groups (it was probably good for them to have to mix things up and get to know new people).

She came home gushing about her experience. 

All these kids

Sometimes—like, for example, when Andrew's been out of town for a week—I begin to feel like Mr. Bailey...

Last cheer game

I know I already wrote about Miriam's last cheer practice, but today she cheered at her last game--a double header, at that! The basketball teams played all morning, but we only showed up in the afternoon for the semi-final and final matches.

Not very many girls from Miriam's squad showed up, but what they lacked in number they made up for in spirit.

Immigration – it has a face and a name – this one is Heiss

This is a story Aunt Stacey shared on Facebook that I wanted to be sure my kids got to read. Since they don't have Facebook yet (but do read the blog) Aunt Stacey gave me permission to share it here:

Oma, Opa, and my father on their first Sunday in San Francisco at Lands End,
before the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed.

Top 3 events of 2016

Miriam brought home a paper with her "top 3 events" of 2016:

1) We went to the State Fair with Grandma and my family.
2) Zoë learned how to say "quack" at the zoo. Ack! Ack! Ack!
3) I finished Harry Potter seven.

Obviously 2016 was a pretty good year.

Cheer and Teeth

Miriam had her last cheer practice on Tuesday. Instead of a regular practice they held a showcase for their families, so the girls dressed in their uniforms and cheered for us while we cheered for them. It was all rather cheerful.

Going, going, going...

From the moment my little ones get up in the morning to the moment they go to bed at night (and several moments in between (for example last night Zoë woke me up three times and Benjamin woke me up once)) these two are basically non-stop. 

I take naps when I can get them, but Benjamin hasn't napped in years and Zoë only naps under duress. Today, however, she fell asleep in the swing outside! 

A little bit of Japan

Today while we were walking we spotted this beautiful star magnolia and had to take a closer look. 

Blood nest

"But how?" Benjamin asked this morning. "How do you make your blood nest?"

"What?"

"You know—what we were talking about last night. Every month you make a blood nest. How?"

Oh. That.

Rachel had many, many questions regarding menstruation last night (why? how? does it hurt? do all women do it at the very same time?) so I broke out the book Cycling and we discussed the whys and hows for several minutes.

I explained that when an egg is ripened and leaves the ovary it needs somewhere to go. Where do birds and reptiles put their eggs? In a nest. They just happen to have their nest be on the outside of their bodies. We also make a nest for our eggs. We just happen to do this on the inside of our bodies.

Every month while that egg is ripening, it's sending signals to our body that we need to make a nice, cozy nest of blood inside our uterus. If that egg is fertilized then it burrows into that nice, cozy "blood nest" (I guess we're calling it that now) and starts sending signals to the mother's body to continue incubating. But if that egg is not fertilized, it will stop sending incubation signals. Our body will discard the nest and start the process all over again. That's why it's a cycle. It just keeps happening.

Evidently the most fascinating part of this for Benjamin was that Mommy can make a "blood nest."*

What's your super power?

* I'm not the first to take this approach. I probably should have read this post before talking to my children about it (not that this was our first time talking about it, but this was certainly the most in-depth we've gone, which was admittedly probably a little bit much for Benjamin to comprehend) because her conversation seems to have gone a lot more gracefully than mine.

Spilled milk and poopy carpets

Yesterday morning was a little bit rough, thanks in large part to this cute thing who is, quite literally, screaming into the terrible twos: