A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

I got a Kindle for Christmas. Two Fish downloaded this book for me before he gave me the kindle because he thought I might like it (and it was free.- The best part of my new Kindle is all of the free public domain books.) So I figured I might as well read it. It was a quick, fun read. There was a part of me that was still picturing everyone as mickey mouse or goofy because the disney movie is still ingrained in my brain from my childhood but even that didn't ruin the story for me. I liked the richness of the descriptions and the details of the character personalities. The way the transformation of Scrooge was portrayed was really lovely. This book is definitely worth reading.

Fishy Fun

Red Fish took Gammie and Grandpa to one of her favorite places today- the aquarium.

Petting sting rays

Super Freakanomics

By Steven D Leavitt and Stephen J Dubner
The results of an economist and columnist researching a random sprinkling of topics. The authors explore how incentives matter and how actions have unintended consequences. I enjoyed the chapters on global warming and car seats the most. It was entertaining and well written but the research feels random for randomness sake. They were trying a little too hard this time. I liked the book but not nearly as much as the first one. Maybe it's because it isn't as much of a surprise to me this time around and I've been reading a lot of Malcolm Gladwell. His work is very similar.

Random After Christmas Fun

After a fun Christmas we are totally worn out around here. We've spent the day slowly putting away Christmas gifts and playing with a lot of fun new toys and having random fun.Red Fish got tub markers and tub fingerpaints (they turn into bubble bath when you run the water,) in her stocking. Obviously the proper way to use them is to put on a bathing suit, snorkel, and mask.

This little baby thinks her Daddy is REALLY funny.

Highlights From Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Our first Christmas as a family of four!I mean five.

Childhood Magic

Rainbows

We sprayed diluted watercolors on the snow today. You can't see the color on the snow because Blue Fish made it his business to run through it everytime we would color some snow. It was fine because Red Fish thought it was funny.

Discovering icicles for the first time.

Dress Up

When Red Fish found this Cinderella dress in New Fish's closet she was so excited. We immediately had to play dress up. I had quite a time trying to convince Red Fish that I needed to help her dress the baby. After they were both outfitted they sat on the big stuffed dog and had a nice chat like the glamorous little women that they are.
You would think a little baby would hate playing dressup, especially because she isn't fond of getting dressed in the morning. New Fish must have just loved the attention or something because she was having a great time. It's moments like this that make me so excited to have two little girls. I hope they will always be little buddies.
Red Fish is always glamorous. The few dress ups we have are getting used almost daily along with all of my scarves. The mirror in the toy room gets used quite a bit as well.

More Print Making

I cut pieces of foam out of takeout trays. Then Red Fish drew on them with a pen. It was hard for her to press hard enough to leave grooves.

Then we covered them in paint.

and pressed a paper over the top to make a print. This would all go much smoother and look better if we had ink brayers, but we don't. We just used sponge brushes to put the paint on and smoothed the paper with our hands.
We must have made 30 prints in about 45 minutes. I finally had to cut Red Fish off. She decided after the first five or so that she really liked the printing part and made me do all the painting. After I covered the tile in paint, Red Fish would put the paper on, rub it real hard, and we would have a count down for each big reveal followed by a round of applause. Then Daddy (who was trying to watch football- silly daddy) would have to ooh and ahh over each one.

As for New Fish- she has been doing a lot of hanging out

and playing with her sister.

Rolling Over

This little baby rolled over from her tummy to her back last night for the first time.

Little Drummer Girl

Wrapping paper roll full of rice and some things to beat on. What could be better? Yes, she is wearing her blankie as a dress.

The Holiday Has Begun

Red Fish has started noticing that this Santa guy keeps popping up a lot. He is in some of her Christmas books and hanging on the tree. She's been pointing him out for the last few weeks. It was time for her to meet the big guy for the 2nd time. It ended up being a little bit of a weird picture but still something fun. We went to the dive shop to see Santa this year. He was kind enough to interrupt his dive for a quick picture with us. He was doing underwater shots but the girls are too young. Red Fish was totally awed by Santa. She kept clapping her hands and giving him five. Much better experience than last year.
Every year Two Fish's side of the family makes gingerbread houses. We all get together and let the kids go wild with little houses, frosting, and candy. This was Red Fish's second attempt. It went about the same as last year but this time I actually made her a house. Well, my version of made is buying a kit at the grocery store. I can't see spending all that time baking gingerbread when nobody ends up eating the actual houses anyway. I actually really considered just hot gluing the thing together when the frosting wasn't sticking very well last night. The frosting is great for the candy but not so great for the structure.

As you can see the candy is serious business.

Red Fish was so excited when she saw her little house. She wanted to play with it and when I told her we had to save it so we could put candy on it her eyes got huge. A little house and candy? Red Fish was mostly interested in tasting each piece of candy before she put it on the house. I was actually kind of surprised any of the candy even made it on the house. She had a good time.
This week I got to go on TWO dates with my husband. It was a treat. My brothers both gave me a night of babysitting for my birthday. (That is always a fabulous gift.) First on Wednesday we went to a benefit dinner for Two Fish's mom's chorale. It was fun. Good food and a fun Christmas concert. Thursday night I got to go to girl's night with my friends from my old neighborhood. I've been spoiled this week. Then last night Two Fish and I went out to celebrate his birthday. We went to a Middle Eastern restaurant. It was fun because I love to order tapas and taste new things without committing to a huge meal that could be weird. Then we went to see A Christmas Story at a local theatre company. I'm not a huge fan of the movie but the play was really fun. It was just fun to be out of the house with my husband. Brother M said the girls were really easy to take care of but he warned me Red Fish's new discovery of the piano key and yes she does know how to unlock it.

More Matching

Red Fish loves to tickle New Fish. She can get New Fish laughing pretty good.