Zoe’s teachers sent this photo of her in action yesterday afternoon. Presentation done, mission accomplished!

-M

As mentioned below, Zoe has been hard at work on a project about San Francisco landmarks. She chose the “painted ladies” (i.e. the colorful Victorian houses the pepper the city), and as she did her research, took photos, and put together her PowerPoint presentation over a several-week period, we all learned tons about them. Her oral presentation was today, and I’m betting it went pretty well.

-M

“Avery, that is NOT acceptable,” I heard the little mommy (i.e. Zoe) yell while playing with her sister the other night. “What happened?” I called out, and a beat later: “Oh, nothing. We worked it out.”

-M

Avery’s not the only one who has been doing cool things at school. Zoe has been hard at work on a research project on a San Francisco landmark (more on that soon) and, as part of her unit on measurements and fractions, she and her classmates made play dough one day this week.

-M

This is pretty cool: Earlier this month, a cardiologist (the father of an 8th grader at the school) visited Avery’s classroom to teach the first-graders about the human heart. From the school’s newsletter on the visit:

Dr. MacGregor and Jacob asked the first graders what they already knew about the heart (they knew a lot); then, using a model of the heart, they explained the heart’s structure and function and the causes and effects of heart disease and then answered questions from the class.

“The highlight of the presentation,” said teacher Barbara Eisenhauer, “was when Dr. MacGregor brought out three human hearts for the children to examine and touch. One heart was healthy, one heart was from someone who had had a heart attack, and the last heart was from someone with high blood pressure. By the end of the presentation, the children could tell which heart represented each condition.”

Little doctors in the making?

-M

Avery recently got invited to a birthday party for four (male) classmates. When I told her who the party was for she said, “I don’t want to go because there will be boy things there.” I took her comment as a teachable moment – and I started to explain that girls and boys can like the same things and that there are no such things as “boy things” and “girl things.” “There is in my land,” she replied.

-M

For Q’s birthday last week, per tradition, we went with a bunch of friends to Golden Gate Fields. Each year keeps getting better and better: The kids are older (look how much change five years has brought!) and more into the races than ever before. We didn’t win big, but we had fun!

-M

Avery is sick, which is part of the reason I haven’t written in a few days. It’s nothing major – she has a low fever and just generally feels blah – and when she inquired about whether we would be going to the doctor, I told her that it probably wasn’t necessary. “You just have a little bug,” I said. “You mean I swallowed a bug??” she asked, to my amusement.

-M

Q’s birthday was yesterday, and look at the sweet note Zoe gave him. (Even sweeter: In a separate card she told him he was a “beyond perfect” daddy. Awwww….)

-M

Our recent vacation and winter break were pretty great, so I was kind of bummed about having to return to our normal life and schedule on Monday. The girls: not so much. They were both just fine about getting back to school and seeing their friends! It seemed to be a pretty mellow week for both girls, and I was able to capture a moment from one of Zoe’s mornings, when she was reading to a kindergartener as part of the school’s “reading buddy” program.

-M

I posted this on Facebook, but it’s too good to not share here… I was getting ready to go out with Q one night last week when I mentioned to Avery that I needed to change my clothes. She asked why I didn’t wear the shirt I had on, and I responded that it wasn’t quite right for date night. With a surprised look on her face, Avery asked, “You mean you’re dating Daddy?”

-M

Another perk of our recent trip to Hawaii: Avery became a full-fledged swimmer. She’s been taking lessons for awhile, but it took a week of every-day swimming to make her comfortable enough to glide through the water on her own. Here she is during at swim class last week – and for those of you who have seen the new Star Wars movie, doesn’t she kinda look like Maz?

-M