The Start of a New Career

I only cried a tiny bit after they drove away.



I know he's done the preschool thing for a couple years, but this... is REAL school. He's so excited. And I'm excited for him. I loved school, especially elementary school, and I can't wait to see how he thrives in this new phase of his life.

I'm proud of you, Soren!

Anderblog Unplugged

So, as everyone already knows because I whine about it three times a day on Facebook, the hurricane knocked our power out on Sunday. While a sparking power line in the middle of the yard would usually be considered a bad thing, it would be preferable to what we have, which is a dead power line in the middle of our yard. It's hanging off our house, which means it isn't going to kill anyone and National Grid won't be interested in it until September 5th.

On the bright side, it isn't so bad in our case because our neighbors all have power. Not only do I get to fill up my daily jealousy quota super fast, I also get to daisy-chain a bunch of heavy-duty extension cords from an outlet in our SUPER AWESOME neighbors' basement through one of our first floor windows. So we get to power one to three things at a time, depending on the draw. Right now, it's the interwebs, a laptop with a busted battery, and a desk lamp. Later on, it will be the TV and a floor lamp and maybe the Wii. At bedtime, I'll plug the fridge back in. I'm a little sad because I want to use the toaster oven to bake some of the cookie dough I made this afternoon, but I won't be able to watch TV while the oven's going. So if I don't answer the phone tomorrow, it's because I contracted a horrible salmonella infection from eating raw cookie dough. Or I'm screening my calls and I don't like you.

Any Agricola fans out there? No? Oh well. You can stop reading now. Anyway, the extension cord situation totally reminds me of Agricola. I can choose to Check Email, After Bake Cookies also Eat Cookies, or Chill Perishables, but I can't do them all at once. I clearly should have chosen the Bake Cookies action earlier in the day, but I needed to Regain Sanity and/or Stop the Kids From Fighting, so I plugged the TV in instead. And now that the Feeding phase has begun, I'm screwed. I only hope that the Major Improvement I'm waiting for comes before the 5th.

The Gracious 5-Year-Old: By Way of Explanation

Dear Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Anderson,

Sorry this thank-you note is so late. Soren actually made it about 5 minutes after he opened your card, so the lateness is completely my fault. I've been putting off writing the explanatory note which I feel should accompany the card.

When Soren opened your birthday card and found a $100 bill inside, he was deliriously happy. I am thrilled to say that his second response (after "WOW! A HUNDRED DOLLARS!" was to try to figure out how to show his appreciation. First, he asked me if I had a hundred dollars, and when I replied in the affirmative, he suggested I send it to you.

I told him that you'd probably be even happier with a really nice thank-you card, especially if he made it himself. He thought that was a great idea, and set to work right away. Within minutes, he was ready to show off his masterpiece.

The interior featured his trademark card decoration: a whole bunch of hearts. He's a very loving boy.



The front of the card... well, he used the card you sent as inspiration. As you recall, you sent this one:



So, riffing off the "Five Years Fun" motif, he... wrote this.



After stifling some laughter and mild horror, I managed to ask him why he decided to write that on the front of your card. He replied "Because their card said they wanted me to have 5 years of fun, and they sent me a hundred dollars, so I want them to have a HUNDRED years of fun!"

Anyway, I decided to send his card along, just with a little note of explanation so you knew what exactly he was getting at. It really isn't that he thinks you're a hundred years old. Although I guess that might not be a big deal to you at this point. I don't really know.

So, thank you again for the very generous birthday gift! Soren is going to use it to buy a scooter. I talked him out of using it to get 100 one-dollar Matchbox cars.

Love,
Kirsten (and Soren)

I have a Fisher-Price Cam-er-a, I Like to Take Pho-to-graphs

Ansel showed us his unique perspective on Yosemite with his Korona, and Soren is showing us his unique perspective with his Fisher-Price digital camera. Signed prints of his 640x480 images are available for purchase in sizes between 24"x36" to billboard size (3" pixels).

Offerings are available in several categories:

Favorite Remote Controls


Title: Samsung and Wii


Title: In Soviet Russia, Remote Control Car Control You!

Intimate Spaces


Title: Civil Disobedience: Time-out with a Transcendentalist [1]


Title: The Scullery Maid's Contempt

Portraits of the Artist


Title: Contentment with Pillowy


Title: Curious Quiet

Professional Models


Title: Don't Hate Me for Being Under Thirty Pounds [2]

Other


Title: Puppy with a Chance of Meatballs

[1] The picture on the wall is a portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Maybe Mommy and Daddy should find a naughty spot without a view of Thoreau's inspiration.

[2] If a parent is behind the camera, Sigrid runs toward the photographer so she can look at the picture of herself, often before a picture is taken; only Soren can get these poses.

SoStoWriMo

A Story
by Soren[1]

Me and Pillowy were in the wagon. I saw a [illegible]. I said, "Watch out! We [will] crash!" I said, "We are going to hurt ourselves!"


[Illustration: Residual from previous creative session.]

CRASH! Me and Pillowy came down into a cave. I said, "Where are we?" Pillowy said, "E!"[2] which means, "We are in a cave." I said, "Why are we in a cave? Please can we get out of this cave?"[3] We went out of the cave.


[Illustration: Pillowy (top) and Soren (middle) flying out of the wagon (bottom center), after it hits a rock (bottom left).]

Outside, the world was not right at all because the world was having bats and


[Illustration: Stellaluna.]


[Illustration: Stellaluna.]


I saw Stellaluna[4] alone. I said, "I will come with you, okay, Stellaluna? Oh, Hi Stellaluna's mom."


[Illustration: Stellaluna?]

THE END.

[1] Written and illustrated entirely by Soren, who requested help only in spelling parts of words (e.g., "Daddy, how do you spell 'cha'?"). Additional spelling corrections supplied for your reading enjoyment.

[2] This is Pillowy's only phoneme. In this instance, the author has provided a handy translation. Competing interpretations of other instances support vigorous debate among scholars; the first issue of the academic journal E! will be published Spring 2012.

[3] This plot element is loosely based on a recent episode of Peep in the Big Wide World.

[4] More on Stellaluna.

I Love You. Let's Play UNO, Please.

First, he seduces you with this sweet message:



Then, he makes you Draw Four!

(Seriously, he's pretty good, and a pretty good sport.)

Santaphobia

One rainy day shortly before Christmas, we went to the holiday event at the Botanic Center. Santa came to talk to the kids, and he set up shop on a bench in the tropical garden (naturally).

Soren was the first to go. He was mainly interested in the candy cane Santa gave him, and sat silently for some time when Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas. When gently asked again, he replied, "I'm thinking." Eventually, he decided he wanted some new toy cars, to the surprise of all.


Then it was Sigrid's turn. She was feeling pro-Santa when he came through the doors into the greenhouse, but switched to anti-Santa by the time she and Soren got to the front of the line. She refused to sit on the bench with Santa and Soren, and sat stubbornly facing away from the whole scene, so Santa decided to come down to her level and give her a candy cane. Whereas you might expect Santa to merely come hunker down in front of her and hand her a candy cane, he chose instead to lie down on the floor behind her and tap her on the shoulder.

The look of despair on her face suggests she'd been having nightmares about being stalked by Kris Kringle for weeks, and that in her dreams Rudolph was outside chewing on Blankie, which was probably happening right then.

With some support, she did reluctantly stand up and turn around to accept the candy cane, and didn't cry or anything. Which, of course, is an important lesson in the Christmas spirit.

Boo!

I think our blog has fallen stagnant because Kirsten is waiting for me to pay homage to the awesome Halloween costumes she made for the kids.

Soren began insisting he wanted to be "a spooooky convertible Corvette" in July. We asked him repeatedly, hoping he'd change his mind, because how would we make that? It's not just a car, it's a particular model, and a spooky version at that! Soren held his ground; it was the most stable preference of his life.

Kirsten thought hard, and came up with this classic design:


It even looks great in the driveway!


Soren and I were stopped by three different fathers who specifically complimented his Corvette. One even recognized it as a '57!

Sigrid didn't have many ideas for her costume, but the plumber who came to fix our water heater a few months ago thought she looked just like Cindy Lou Who. He was right.


When Sigrid tired of her props, Kirsten thought she'd try them herself to see if she could get some candy honestly, rather than just stealing from the kids.

It didn't work, but if the The Grinch had been walking down our block, he surely would have gone running back to his cave!