Family

Clara came home from the library yesterday with a copy of The Brain, by Seymour Simon. Last night she and I sat on the couch as she flipped through the book, showing me what the brain looks like dissected, in MRI, in models. I pointed out different parts of the brain. Karen quizzed her on […]

Clara, last night: “Daddy, do you know what the best part of Halloween is?” “No, Clara, what’s that?” “The part where the candy goes into your bucket.” She confirmed that she likes that part even better than the part where you actually eat the candy. I have to say I agree.

sycamore, uploaded by bitmapr. A month or two ago, we were walking through a parking lot on our way to Fresh Choice when we walked by a young sycamore tree. There were a few sycamore seed pods lying on the ground: Small, round, hard green things with spikes sticking out all over. Clara said: “Look,

Two weeks into her Spanish-language immersion kindergarten class, Clara already knows at least three songs, ten separate color words, how to say she needs to go to the bathroom, how to count to thirteen, and the days of the week. Her pronunciation, while still quirky, already has more in common with

Clara’s latest obsession is the Magnetic Fields song “The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side,” which also happens to be my favorite. She heard the very beginning of it yesterday, just as I was switching it off, and demanded to hear the whole thing. Then she listened to it a few times. Last night […

Just a note for those of you who are family members or especially interested friends: I’ve been posting photos in two places lately, Smugmug and Flickr. Here are the links to see the latest pictures (along with corresponding feed links, in case you’re using a news reader). Tweney photos on Smugmug —

Hey, look, my daughter’s on Boing Boing! Boing Boing: Earth-children vs. Space Robots: things get ugly. We are all so proud.

Today after preschool a mom I haven’t seen before is putting her son into her car. She greets Clara effusively as we walk by on the sidewalk: “Oh, hello, sweetheart! I had so much fun talking with your grandma last week!” I look quizzically at the woman. “Actually,” I say, “Clara’s grandma hasn’t be

Clara wanted to read her new book Clara and Asha before bedtime. As I’m bringing it over to the bed, she says, “Next time when I’m a baby, I don’t want you to name me Clara. I don’t like that name any more. I want you to name me something else.” Me: “Oh yeah? What […]

Clara has been completely enchanted by The Nutcracker for the past several weeks. She first heard the music at preschool, where they’ve got two different CDs of the ballet, and the teachers reported about two weeks ago that she was requesting these CDs and listening intently to them for long periods

Today our excellent crew of carpenters put the roof beam in place, and we celebrated in traditional style by hanging a pine wreath on the end of it.

by Clara (transcribed, and annotated, by a teacher at preschool) Once upon a time I rided a bike to school. Cause it is hard to get to school on the freeway cause there is traffic. Traffic is so you can’t get through. It never ever lets you. Traffic is cars and they make sure you […]