Ambiguous headlines

The other day there was a news story with the headline "Rafter is briefly ‘swallowed’ by whale in Chile, as his father films" and...I don't know if my brain has simply been doing too much lately, but I could not parse these words. I had questions, but I didn't quite have time to delve into the story so I simply said, "Huh," and moved on. 

First of all, I couldn't really understand what a whale was doing swallowing a rafter, or what the rafter was doing in the ocean in the first place. Perhaps—and hear me out—some debris left over from a hurricane. Like, a house got swept out to sea, dashed to bits, and...there are rafters just floating around like well-milled logs.

And, I mean, if I were a whale trying to swallow a rafter, I'd probably only attempt that briefly as well. 

Surely a rafter is a choking hazard. 

Like swallowing a toothpick....or a stick-stick.

Anyway, what I really couldn't figure out was how the father was filming this. 

Speaking through song lyrics

Phoebe once had this set of "Baby Yoda" dresses that she'd wear practically every day. Baby Yoda was her favourite animal for a time there. She adored him. 

But those dresses got too small for her, so I put them aside.

And then our Star Wars-loving neighbours up the street had a baby girl. So we gave them the Baby Yoda dresses. And now Phoebe is obsessed with the idea of giving this sweet baby everything. 

Whenever something gets too small for her she always asks if we can give it "to the little girl who lives down the stream."

I know she's talking about the neighbour's baby. 

But I think she's combining (1) "Baa, baa, black sheep" with (2) the concept of the baby living "down the street" with (3) "Row, row, row your boat." She says it in such a sing-song manner. 

I think she is purposely using "Baa, baa, black sheep" because that is mostly the tune that it sounds like. She fluently can substitute girl for boy in the song, but then she gets to the lane part—but who even knows what a lane is?!

She doesn't. 

But everyone keeps saying the baby lives "down the street." So I think she's attempting to substitute "street" for "lane," but then her knowledge of "down the stre..." from "Row, row, row" kicks in and she ends up with "little girl who lives down the stream" instead.

It's delightful.

Obsessing over abscesses

While online conferences sound good in theory, I'm not so sure they are good for me in practice. The last time I was supposed to present at an online conference (NAMLE 2024), it ended up being the same weekend that the girls had to take the ACT. So Andrew took them there and left me home with the kids...who were throw-up sick. 

Today was the Children's Literature Assembly (CLA 2025) conference and I was scheduled to present on religious literacy and...

Lately

Phoebe just came up to me to ask, "When those three little kittens who lost their mittens found their mittens and then began to cry...were those just happy tears?"

Because, you see, finding your mittens is a reason to rejoice, not a reason to sorrow.

*****

When Phoebe asks for songs, she often goes on and on and on before letting anyone start singing.

"Can you sing to me how much is that doggy in the window, the one with the waggly tail?" or "Can you sing to me Joseph Smith walked to a grove full of trees, seeking God's wisdom he fell to his knees. As he pled with the heavens the sky filled with light?" or "Can you sing to me I am a child of God and he has sent me here, has given me an earthly home with parents kind and dear. Lead me, guide me?" of "Can you sing to me ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP?"

We've got to introduce her to the concept of "short title." 

*****

The kids were just investigating a spider in the staircase. 

Phoebe-isms

Alexander is huge into jokes right now and rather appreciates when he stumbles across new material in a good joke book. In fact, he's mentioned his little joke books so many times that Phoebe has picked up on it and when she wants people to listen to one of the little jokes she's drummed up she shouts out, "Hey! Listen to me! I've got a joke book!"

*****

Many of my children have understood and said "soak and wet" instead of "soaking wet," so many that sometimes we opt to say "soak and wet" ourselves.

Phoebe has a similar "-and-"construction that she uses. Instead of saying "Duolingo," which all the children (and I) have been engaged in for hundreds if not thousands of days (my current streak is 2095 days). 

She says "do-and-lingo."

Sometimes when the kids and I are all busy with schoolwork she will take it upon herself to get down an iPad and open to one of her little games (she has Teach Monster, Baby Dress Up, Daniel Tiger, a puzzle app, and some train track game at her disposal). When we find her with it, she'll say innocently, "I'm just doing maff hour" (math hour), or "I'm just doing do-and-lingo."

Schoolwork doesn't count against screen time, you see? (Not that we're very good at tracking or enforcing such a thing as screen time). 

*****

Alexander said family prayer this evening. In what may have been the middle of his prayer, but which ended up coming very near the end he said, "And please help Phoebe to stay in her own bed and stay dry.." 

Phoebe gasped with indignation.

"LIKE I USUALLY DO!!"* she shouted towards the heavens.

Building towers

While I was getting some work done this afternoon the kids built a marble run behind me. Phoebe explained that this was a good thing because they built a marble catcher so that way the marbles wouldn't end up all over my room...but as you can see...there are marbles all over my room.

A play in The Cellar and...an announcement

Anyone who has ever complained about the (now-demolished) HFAC on BYU campus has never been to the Fine Arts Building on UGA campus. True, the HFAC was larger—by far—than the Fine Arts Center on UGA campus, more labyrinthine. To be fair, the Harris Fine Arts Center housed all the arts, not only drama. UGA has lovely concert halls, I'm sure. But I am equally sure I saw plays at The De Jong Concert Hall, for example, which seated 1268 people.

UGA's Fine Arts Theatre, on the other hand, seats a mere 678.

The Arena seats 100.

And The Cellar—that's where we were—seats 40. 

Forty people.

In The Cellar.

The building was completed in 1941—approximately 25 years before the HFAC was built, and yet it lives on in its charmingly decrepit way. And I'm 95% positive it's haunted (though it has yet to make a single list—wait, the Fine Arts Building is on this list and this list, so...a few lists).

The walk down to the cellar was...long...and winding...and eerie. Random drips. Open panels. Deserted hallways. 

But we found our way to the theatre and were stunned to walk into a classroom. This set was so well done it took us a moment to realize we were looking at a set!

I'm going to beat...

This week has been incredibly busy. Our typical weekly marathon (Monday evening class for me, Tuesday evening class for me, Wednesday mutual night for the kids, Thursday evening class for Andrew) was extended to Friday because Rachel and I went to a play on campus (more about that later), which grew to us being on campus all day long because there was a DEI conference earlier in the day that I was debating going to...and then did go to. So Rachel and I spent all day on campus on Friday.

And then Andrew and I went to the temple today. 

And we're finally feeling like we're settling down to breathe a little (though I'm getting my music lessons ready for tomorrow and Miriam's getting ready to go to a dance and Rachel is out celebrating a friend's birthday, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera).

All that is to say that I have a lot to do and a lot to write about and that I've hardly seen my children in the last day and a half. 

Phoebe came to give me a hug in the middle of the time she should have been putting dishes away, and the poor child was freezing! She'd been wearing a t-shirt all day and was just...chilly.

"You're cold!" I pointed out. 

"Oh, yeah!" she shrugged. "I am!"

"Would you like to put a sweater on?" I asked.

"Ummm...I do!" she decided. 

"Go grab one. I'll help you put it on."

"Okay!" she said, racing away from me to her room. "I'm going to beat myself!"

We're still not sure whether or not she managed to beat herself, but she did choose a sweater to put on, and I imagine is feeling much better. I know I'm prone to feeling grumpy if I'm too hot or too cold. 

Take a look, it's in a book

It rained all day yesterday and it's been raining all day today. And so of course...we have discovered new leaks in our house.

We literally have people on the roof spreading a tarp right now. Water is coming down in front of the front door, too. Like on the outside of our house. But, like, it's a covered porch so that really shouldn't be happening. So mostly I just want to cry. 

This house has been at once perfect for our family and also a complete nightmare. 

And I don't really want to talk about it right now. 

So instead I will tell you that today I sat Phoebe down for her first formal reading lesson. Don't worry; it's a very gentle program. We start with sounds and word games. She had a lot of fun. 

But first she cried. 

Он идëт

The words Phoebe knows are sometimes shocking to me. 

We've had to have talks with our big kids about keeping their language sweet and kind and preschool because, oh boy! 

It's nothing terrible, as Rachel has noted (Phoebe's #1 insult is "rude"). But I still don't love these words spilling out of my sweet baby girl's mouth. 

For example...

This morning Rachel was helping Phoebe pick out an outfit and thought the outfit Phoebe had picked out was "weird" (a dress and pants, which I think is a fine outfit for a three-year-old). 

"I like weird," Phoebe told her. 

"Fine," Rachel said. "Wear your weird outfit."

"You're a little idiot," Phoebe hissed.