What Came First – The Easter Bunny or the Easter Egg?

We like to fancy ourselves scientists at our house.  We try to approach things in a logical and methodical manner.  So when the question came up recently on how the Easter Bunny carried around all the eggs, we decided to do a little research in the lab (aka the kitchen table).

 First, we got ourselves the Easter Bunny. 

After washing our hands and administering the proper amount of anesthesia, we made the first incision in the bunny’s suspiciously distended midsection.  If you have a weak stomach, you may want to stop here.

After successfully incising the fibrous muscle wall of the abdomen, excitement ran high.  We were getting close to the answer….

Anxious scientific hands pitch in to carefully remove the cyst like growth….Could it be?  Was this the evidence that kids have been waiting for?

The serious scientist Sophie is captured at the moment of discovery.   It is now proven…the Easter Bunny lays these brightly colored eggs and does not, as is erroneously depicted in childrens’ storybooks worldover, carry the eggs in a basket.  We all knew deep in our hearts that a basket of eggs carried by an animal that hops was just not logical.  Now you all know, too. 

Please look for the findings that will be published in April’s Scientific American magazine.

A Long and Winding Road

There might not be anything better than watching your children find and LOVE music that you remember finding and loving.  Sophie is completely obsessed with The Beatles.  She is full of amazing trivia.  She knows all about Yoko, even.  And her favorite member of the band is Ringo.  Quite fitting.

Sorry about the shaking, but I was laughing with no tripod.  It just gets funnier the longer it goes….

Birthday Extravaganza – Day Two

I know, I know…this has taken forever.  I’m sorry.  The girls and I joined the YMCA and have been there every single day since.  They swim and I ride madly on the stationary bike, going nowhere, but liking it anyway.  What does that say about me?  So basically I am feeling svelt-er (I acknowledge this is not a word) and at the same time less blogger-ish (Again.  Not a word.). 

 But…I digress. 

Maya decided she didn’t want a big blowout birthday party this year with scads of kids and goodie bags and the general craziness.  She wanted to spend a day in Seattle with two of her friends.  I was completely and giddily fine with this.

As I expected, she chose to go to the Crab Pot down on the pier for lunch.  The girls likes eating crustaceans with hammers, what can I say?  She has a bit my Norwegian taste.  Alejandra (back left) and Samantha (back right) were not impressed with the idea of dining on clams, mussels, crab, corn, and red potatoes.  The ordered burgers, and I suggested that they could get a hammer with which to eat them with.  They did not take me up on it.  Strange, strange children.

Then they had to run up this ramp thingy….

 

And pose by the fountain.

Then I surprised Maya with a trip to the newly renovated aquarium.  This was a very cool interactive exhibit where you could actually ask questions to the biologist in the scuba gear.  She was mic’d up and was able to swim around and point out interesting fish, etc.  I wanted to be closer.

Don’t worry, in the following picture, the girls are not standing on a real Orca.  Just in case you were fearing for their lives or something.

 

We followed all this rigmarole with an hour of shopping at Pike’s Place Market.  It was a wonderful day.

Birthday Extravaganza – Day One

Of course there is more than one day!  Geez!

Yes, Maya’s birthday (eleven) was Friday.  It was the culmination of an entire week of fever and general malaise.  She wasn’t feeling perfect…but there is nothing that will deter us from celebrating a birthday! 

This year the girls informed me that they wanted to spend their birthdays with me BY THEMSELVES.   Sans sibling.  I fought back for a few minutes, but then relented.  Just because it has always been a family thing, does not mean that I can’t change that and make it a birthday girl and Mom thing. 

I can change.  I look change in the eye and laugh!  Ha! 

Of all things, the first thing Maya wanted to do was go see my work.  She has been there before, but things have changed since the last time.  I suppose it sparks her curiosity when I come home laughing and telling stories about the fun and crazy things we do at work.  My co-workers did not disappoint.  Because Maya’s picture is actually part of one of the items that all employees have on our desk (that photo shoot a year or so ago has paid off in numerous pictures of the girls floating around my work environment) – many of my friends accosted her right away with her picture and a Sharpie markers in their hands.  Autographs were scribbled.  Blushes were blushed.  Giggles were…well, giggled.

Below you will see Maya enjoying her coffee (decaf) and bagel in my work lunchroom.

 And here she is posing charmingly by my work waterfall.  Yeah.  We have a waterfall.

After the work excitement, we went to a great outdoor mall nearby to do some shopping.  She is lacking in pants that fit.  The girls is growing so stinking fast it is ridiculous.  She didn’t get much from me – the big present was a crisp $100 bill that was hers to spend as she saw fit.  As I had desperately hoped, she bought a ton of new clothes!  I would have had to do it anyway…. I like the age of not spending money on plastic toys.  I like it alot.

We then went to Johnny Rocket’s (restaurant) and had sodas and cheese fries.  From the expressions below, you can surmise that she liked it.

We then went to the movie “Penelope”.  It was adorable and a perfect movie for a preteen.  Any movie that has the main character (a girl) that is born with a pig nose and learns to love herself just as she is….well, it is alright with me.  I recommend it highly to anyone with preteen girls.  Or anyone with self esteem issues.  Plus, the love interest guy is super cute.  Maya thought so, too.

Exhaustion hit about half way through the movie.  I was surprised she didn’t fall asleep during it.  She made it through and we limped on home, a bit earlier this year than in prior birthday extravaganza days.  We almost set fire to the lemon meringue pie that she chose for her birthday confection…then tucked her newly eleven year old form into bed to prepare for the next big birthday day!  Stay tuned…….

White Lab Coats Are Cool

As promised, here is the first installment of the awesome Science goodness that the girls produced this year.  This is Sophie’s project. 

The testable question -  “Do males or females wave back more often?”

Hypothesis – “I think male drivers will wave more than female drivers”

On this side of the board you will find the list of materials and the procedure for her very serious experiment.  Pepper seems interested.  I especially like the Materials List that includes:

• My hand
• Car
• Cars to drive by
• Pencil
• Paper

She also points out in the “Procedure” section that I will be driving and she will be riding safely in the back seat.  Safety in Science is important.

 Next, the data.  The data show many interesting facts. 

And the conclusion?  Disappointingly inconclusive. 34.7% of men waved and 33.3% of women.   We determined that maybe it seemed that more men waved than women because so many more men seemed to be on the road.  Who knew?

The best part, however, was her Science Journal.  This is a journal that the budding scientist keeps from the beginning of the experiment all the way through the end.  It is a place to note down ideas, questions, results and research.  My favorite part of Sophie’s journal was this:

 Reasearch

 I don’t know if males or females wave back more often.  We looked for reasearch on the internet about waving experiments but found none.   But, I’ve waved at people from the back of the car for a long time.  That is my reasearch.

A Mom’s personal input: 

What you can take away from Sophie’s research:

For Chrissakes people, wave at kids!  It is fun!  A funny face, smile or silly behavior is encouraged and makes our roads a happier place to be.

One (Or Two) Flu Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Well.  That was fun.

Last Friday (not the one two days ago, but the Friday even before that) I was called from work by the school nurse.  Sophie had a screaming headache and a rapidly rising fever.  She was incredibly miserable – and often delirious – for the next 7 days.

 Did you get that?  SEVEN DAYS!!

This new strain of the influenza bug is hard core.  Maya came down with something that had her projectile vomiting for two days somewhere in the middle of the whole ordeal.  I stayed home the entire time and did my best to work.  It can be a daunting task when fevers, vomiting and general boredom makes your children into quivering messes of misery.

I won’t lie to you – I will be happy to see the office again tomorrow.