A Nice Father-Daughter Conversation

Savannah and I had a nice chat last night. Read about it here:


http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/notes/dale-topham/a-conversation-with-my-daughter-or-4-going-on-24/10150104113119354?notif_t=like

Presidents Day

For Presidents Day, Katie prepared some crafts to do with the girls to try and teach them about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The photo at the bottom shows the craft projects they finished.

Savannah and Leila have been working hard learning their letters lately, so Katie let them take turns writing out "Happy Presidents Day" on the red, white, and blue stars. Then they each made a log cabin using construction paper. The one with the roof in the correct spot is Leila's. Katie helped her with it. Savannah wanted to do it by herself, and she saw fit to place the peaked roof at the bottom of the structure. The black rectangles are front doors, the blue rectangles are windows, and the cotton is smoke coming out of the chimneys.

At the top of this post, you will have seen two copies of a coloring page that Katie printed off the internet. It depicts Mason Locke Weems' famous fable about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree. The girls dabbed their fingertips in red paint and painted cherries in the trees. Then Katie told them they could paint a few cherries on the ground underneath the tree and they went crazy with it. Savannah was quite amused with herself because she put a cherry on the tip of young George's nose.

A much more involved project remains incomplete at this date. The kids were painting tongue depressors red, white, and blue and had them scattered all over the kitchen table drying when I got home from school. At that point, we needed to have dinner and put the kids to bed. Eventually, Katie hopes to pattern the tongue depressors in such a way as to replicate a U.S. flag.

P.S. I sure wish I could figure out how to put photos where I want them and in the order I want them on blogger. This chaos is obnoxious.

What do you like to do?

We attend a "Mommy and Me" music class every Friday called Music Makers. This month's theme is "Love and Friendship." One of the songs we sing goes to the tune of "Muffin Man." The words are as follows:

Tell me what you like to do,
like to do, like to do
Tell me what you like to do
with your family.

(name of kid) likes to (whatever they like. For example, play with toys)
Play with toys, play with toys
(name of kid) likes to play with toys
with his family.

Today they went around the room taking turns singing about what each kid likes to do. When they got to Leila, she smiled shyly and said, "chew on blanky." And being good sports, everyone then sang about how Leila likes to chew on her blanky with her family.

Valentines Day Pancakes

For Valentines Day dinner I made pink pancakes with strawberries and strawberry syrup. While I was in the process of making the pancakes, the girls climbed up on chairs to watch me hard at work. I had some of the ingredients in the blender. Leila bent down and took in a deep sniff. She said, "Oh Mom that smells like raspberries." Then Savannah bent down and sniffed. She firmly agreed with Leila that mom was using raspberries to make the pancakes pink. She was so sure that she hollered for Dale and informed him of my clever use of red food to create pink pancakes. Finally everyone was at the table and I brought the plate of pancakes over. Savannah was so excited that she started telling everyone that we were going to have frosted pancakes for dinner. It was a very enjoyable dinner and everyone ate well. I just sat back and thought to myself how nice it was to see my whole family eating yummy beets. Thats right, I used pureed beets to make the pancakes pink. I put in 1/3 cup. I never knew beets could smell like raspberries, but if that is what it takes to get my girls to eat their veggies, then, go raspberries!

Savannah's Valentine's Day commentary (text is at bottom of post)

For Valentines Day I bought Katie red roses. I bought each of the girls a fake rose -- one with a plastic stem and leaves and a rubber flower. Inside the rose is a button-activated twinkle light. Right after I gave Katie her flowers, I presented each daughter with theirs.

A short time later, Savannah observed, "Dad, I like real roses. I would like either real roses or a light-up one like this, not the kind that are just decorations. I don't like those. But a real rose would be good.

Okay, Savannah, I can take a hint. A real rose for you next year, my dear.

An hour or so later, Savannah came up to me with rose in hand and said, "Dad, I love you today more than I used to, and I'm going to love you this way all day today because you gave me this rose for Valentines Day."

Still later, she asked her mother, "Mom, why did dad give you roses, but I just got a rose?"

Katie replied, "Well, because dad is my husband and he loves me. Maybe when you grow up and get married your husband will buy you roses."

Savannah mumbled, "Yeah," and walked away. Then added, "I hope I live in Dallas then."

And later still: "Dad, real ones and light-up ones are fun, but the flowers that just sit on a dresser and are fake are the ones that are not fun."

Have you had a conversation with a Duck lately?

The girls and I decided to take a walk down to a lake nearby and see if the ducks would enjoy some bread. We didn't have much bread in the house so each kid got two slices. Colette, as any self respecting one-year-old would, ate each piece I gave her to throw to the ducks. She did stop on occasion and point and say "duuc".

Savannah and Leila sat down and started throwing pieces of bread. As the ducks began to gather to try their luck at getting some bread, the girls began having conversations with the ducks. They said things like "Hi Duckies" or "Come and get it Duckies" or "How is your day Duckies?" or "Look what we have for you duckies" These sayings were accompanied by hand waving, bright smiles, and fingers showing them what they had brought them. They asked the ducks what they had done so far, if they liked the cold water, if they missed the sunshine, and if they knew how to share.

During this conversation, more and more ducks began to gather. Each girl paused but a second. In that second they both had picked out a specific duck that they were going to feed and began singling them out. They would get the duck's attention and wave a big piece of bread in the air, and when they thought they were paying attention they would do their best to throw it as close to them as possible. Sometimes the chosen duck would get the bread which earned a "Yes!" or "Mom look they got the bread!" Sometimes these little blue-colored ducks would speed by and snag the bread before the intended duck could get it. This would earn statements like "Hey duck, stay away," or "That was for this ducky, duck."

As Savannah threw in her last two pieces of bread for her duck, a blue duck got to them first. She was devastated. She was on the verge of crying. As we walked home she told me how much she was worried about *her* duck being hungry and not getting enough food because of the blue ducks. She just didn't know how her duck was going to make it through the night. I tried to explain that ducks get food from other things, or maybe other people would come and give them more bread, but she refused to believe any of it. Finally, I said maybe if the weather is nice we could come back tomorrow and check on the duck and bring another piece of bread. Her eyes lit up and she smiled and said that would be just the thing her duck needed.

Cupcake Beauty Spa (start at bottom of post and go up. Photos are in reverse order)

No spa treatment is complete without a sugary treat! They are decorating and eating sugar cookies.

Showing off their fancy hairdos.

Makeup. They could choose between brown and purple. To Katie's great surprise, they chose brown.

Can you see Leila's bangs? The reason she looks like that is, she's got banana and honey face masque stuck in her hair.

Painted nails.

Foot bath.

Getting toenails painted.

Because Savannah and Leila's hairdressing "business" is named Cupcake Salon, Katie decided to name her business Cupcake Beauty Spa.

Savannah bought a new book with her birthday money: Jane O'Connor's Fancy Nancy: Ooh La La It's Beauty Day (See: http://www.amazon.com/Fancy-Nancy-Ooh-Its-Beauty/dp/0061915254/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1297479687&sr=1-1) Nancy, the main character of the book, gives her mother a beauty spa treatment. The book comes with instructions/ recipes for each step. A few days ago during a cold spell here, Katie provided Savannah and Leila with a similar treatment. The girls just loved it. They got manicures, pedicures, foot baths, fancy hairdos, makeup, lotion, facials, etc.

story time for Colette

Photographs of a rare event -- Colette genuinely enjoying story time.

storytime for Leila's dolls

Katie caught Leila reading a story to two of her dolls during "quiet time" one afternoon. She thought it was so cute that she took a photo.

Cupcake Salon, part II

And here are some photos from today's visit to the salon.

Cupcake Salon

Savannah and Leila like to "style" my hair occasionally. Recently, while laboring over my hair, Savannah informed me that we were playing "salon." Today, with the entire city of Dallas shut down because of the weather, we played "salon" again. I told the girls about the salon their Uncle Randy owns in SLC called "Cake" and, after a brief chat, we decided to name the girls' smalltime hairdressing business "Cupcake Salon." Here are some photos from a session at the salon back in September.