Archives for January 2009

My Chess Board

When I was in fifth or sixth grade, my dad gave me a chess board for Christmas. It’s actually one of the few Christmas gifts I’ve kept over the years, and it has a lot of sentimental value. I do play, but not very well…

Yesterday, Allison and I played checkers – and Katherine was bent out of shape that she couldn’t participate. So, Steve took out the chess set, and Katherine’s first words were, “It’s BEAUTIFUL!”

With that, Allison scampered over to the chessboard, and we spent the next half hour learning the game.

I taught them how to setup the board, how the various pieces move, and the goals of the game.

If you were to ask the kids, they’ll tell you that they want to get the other’s king, the queen is the most powerful piece, not to move the king unless you have to, and many other pieces of trivia – that they don’t necessarily apply when they play!

One funny exchange this morning…

<Katherine moves her pawn forward>

Allison: “NOOOOO”
Katherine: “Why?”
Allison: “Because then I’ll take your piece!”

Allison also tried to convince Katherine last night that Katherine shouldn’t take her pieces. 🙂

I have a feeling we’ll be “playing” more chess this weekend. 🙂

Losing Teeth

You would think that I’m referring to Katherine, right?

Well, it turns out BOTH girls are losing teeth. Katherine’s lower left front tooth is getting mighty wobbly, with the lower right front tooth not soon behind.

Allison managed to slide down her grandparent’s ottoman face first a couple weeks ago. Voila, her front right tooth is turning brown. So, Allison just may lose one of her front teeth before Katherine, according to her dentist.

Interesting Conversations

I won’t recount the verbatims (way too long), but we’ve been having very interesting conversations with Katherine and Allison lately.

Here are their recent conclusions, based on various conversations:

1. Katherine is now willing to pay me $1 a day for doing Mom-work.
2. Allison now says we can “pay our bills!” since she received $8 for Chinese New Years in her red envelope.
3. Katherine says the best way to resolve two competing job offers is to do each job half-day — or better yet alternate days!
4. Katherine suspects that if/when she visits Boston Harbor, she’ll step on old tea leaves that have washed up from the Boston Tea Party.
5. Katherine’s favorite ice cream ever is mint chocolate chip…no wait! bubble gum…Allison’s is definitely chocolate chip cookie dough

Chinese New Year

We went to my mom’s house on Sunday night to celebrate New Years Eve. Katherine, who has the memory of an elephant, remembered the red envelopes. So, after some leading questions from Katherine, my mom explained that Katherine wasn’t going to get the envelope yet, but that if she says Happy New Year (in Chinese) to an adult or elder 1-15 days after Chinese New Year, then she’ll get the hum bao.

Next day, Katherine marched right up to me and tried to say Happy New Year. She even bowed.

Allison, who was still rolling around doing her dragon dance interpretation, finally clued in.

Both girls took their “dollars” upstairs for safekeeping.

Alvin…Alvin!!

One of the girls’ favorite CDs is the soundtrack to the most recent Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. Yes, it’s the soundtrack that starts with “So you had a bad day…” and includes classics like “Funkytown”…all sung by the Chipmunks.

We had held off on this purchase for months, but finally gave in after Allison said this was the ONLY gift she wanted from Santa this year. Now, we listen to it in the car, in the house. The girls even dance to it and think they know the words to some of these songs.

We’re holding on to some pretty entertaining music videos–which may surface in another 20 or 30 years. 🙂

Allison was so excited to take her Alvin CD to the minivan a couple days ago. Little did we know, until she told us, that she put on her coat, the Alvin CD in her fleece hat, and put the hat on her head. She told us that this way she wouldn’t forget or lose the CD!

Schemes

For Christmas, Katherine got a new 24″ HotRock Specialized bike. It’s got 3 gears and hand brakes. Katherine has been asking for this all year, since her friend Audrey has almost the identical bike.

Today we let the kids ride around a bit before it started to rain. The bike looks pretty big for Katherine, but she can reach the ground and pedal without stretching her legs too much.

Allison, of course, has wised up. She said, while walking out the door, “I want to ride Katherine’s OLD bike.” This 18″ bike also looked pretty big for Allison. She managed though with training wheels — looking pretty proud of herself. We’ll keep the 12″ bike for when Allison ditches the training wheels at 4 (which is the earliest we’ll let her try).

Katherine’s scheming today involved how she was going to obtain hangers for her Build-a-Bear pink armoire (her other prized gift from Christmas). Much to her chagrin, we had thrown away several BAB hangers that would have fit the armoire. Her scheme went something like this, “Allison, do you want to take some of your dollars to the mall? You can buy clothes at BAB!”

Pretend Play

Ever since Katherine had her lungs X-rayed for pneumonia, she’s been preoccupied with X-rays. You can see the picture that I took of Allison at the doctor’s office getting X-rayed.