Thursday, December 31, 2009

Holiday photo montage

We started, of course, by decorating the house. Aliza liked the candles that we put in the windows and quickly decided that they were her toys:

Then came the tree:

Linus decided to hang out underneath it while we decorated:

And even Aliza got into decorating:

Although she took a break to read a bit:


We had our annual cookie exchange. Aliza woke up just in time to taste the gingerbread cookies her Mem-Mem baked.


And we went to the first of many family parties the week before Christmas. We discovered that despite our best efforts, Aliza was, in fact, afraid of Santa. She refused to sit on his lap, but we did get a quick family picture. And she sure did have fun playing with some of her younger cousins....and by playing I mean rolling around on the floor:

Christmas morning and we learned that Aliza definitely understood the idea of opening presents:
We paused to play....and snuggle:



Before heading over to Nonna and Grospapa's house where we got to eat yummy lasagna and open more presents. Aliza got an awesome kitchen set, complete with microwave, refrigerator, stove, baskets and lots of food. It was so big though that we have to wait to bring it home until we take the tree down and make some space for it.
Then we headed to Mem-mem and Pop-pop's house where we got to open more presents and eat more yummy food! Her tea set and table quickly became a crowd favorite.



It wasn't until a couple of days after Christmas that Aliza finally got around to opening a very special present from her Daddy. A special blue box containing her first Tiffany's ornament:
All in all, it was a rather very Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 05, 2009

School picture

Here's Aliza's very first school (daycare) picture:

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Overheard

In my classroom:

Me: (Circling four quarters that are on a paper.) "What does four quarters equal?"
Student: blank look....followed by, "$1.52."

Me: Blank look because I am now wondering where in the world this kid has been for the last three days when we discussed what four quarters equals. "Let's look at that again- what does two quarters equal?"
Student: "Fifty cents!"
Me: "Good! So, two quarters is fifty cents, what's two more quarters?"
Student: blank look AND total silence.
Me: "50 plus 50....."
Student: more blank looks.....more silence......still more silence......"$1.00?"
Me: (with a sigh of relief) "Yes!"

Next problem:
Me"OK, you already added the two dollar bills, so now you just have to add the coins. So, two dollars plus one dime."
Student: silence.
Me: not realizing student doesn't know answer, "write the answer there...."
Student: blank stare. Silence.
Me: (Mental groan.....) "two dollars, plus one dime.....what's a dime worth again?"
Student: "ten cents!"
Me: "Awesome, so two dollars plus one dime is......"
Student: silence. Blank stare. "$2.10?"
Me: "YES!!"

In contrast--I got home and had THIS interaction (with my 1 1/2 year old):

Me: (Drawing an A on a paper) "What's that?"
Aliza: "Aliza!"
Me: "Yes!" Drawing a M on the paper...."and what's that?"
Aliza: "Ma-ma!"
Me: "You are so smart!" Drawing a D on the paper..."what's this Aliza?"
Aliza: "Da-da!"
Me: picking her up and squeezing her, because, seriously, she's the cutest thing EVER and really, how could I now after she just showed me how brilliant she is?!?