We posted the photos for November 2009. They are, of course, incredibly late as these include the Thanksgiving pictures.

The kids have been learning a new song at school. This one reviews the capitals of the Eastern Border of the United States. Each capital/state pair is repeated twice. Eleanor knows the song a little better, so she leads this song, with Miranda repeating each pair. I missed Eleanor singing “Tallahassee”, but we have the rest of the song.

[If you can't see the Flash player above, you can download the video in MP4 format appropriate for an iPod: MP4 (14MB).]

I think it’s interesting that you put anything to music and kids this age can memorize it.

There is a game for the Wii Fit where you are a penguin trying to catch as many fish as possible by sliding left and right on a tilting ice floe. The kids can more or less play this game on their own and they were talking about it this morning.

ELEANOR: It’s okay when you fall off (the ice floe).
MIRANDA: But you waste time.

I like Eleanor’s attitude about the game and Miranda’s insight into how to score as many points as possible.

We posted the photos for October 2009. We made cookies twice, and there was, of course, also Halloween this month. Now I need to start preparing the November and December pictures.

When Miranda wants something in the middle of the night, Eleanor yells and screams on her behalf.

Miranda wanted to wear glitter nail polish that my sister won at some holiday event.

ME: Miranda, you’re not old enough to wear nail polish.
MIRANDA: Four is old!
ME: You have to be a woman to wear nail polish.
MIRANDA: I am a woman!

Miranda likes to argue with us, and she reads voraciously, so I started calling her “Miranda C_, Esquire”.

MIRANDA: What does esquire mean?
ME: It means you’re a lawyer. You can be a lawyer when you grow up.
MIRANDA: But I want to be a doctor, like you!
ME: (swelling with pride) Oh. You can be a doctor.

We posted the photos for September 2009. There were fewer pictures month than in the last few months. It was a very busy month last month, and we just didn’t take as many this time around.

The kids started wearing some dresses this month that they got for their birthday from Terry and Anne. While it was starting to get colder, they really liked the dresses and wanted to wear them all the time.

Eleanor painted her hand. Miranda came to tell us and when neither Agnes nor I had a reaction, Miranda went to paint her hand, too.

The kids were talking about how you can reach the moon. Eleanor suggested an airplane at night. Miranda suggested a tall ladder on a tall mountain.

Tonight, as we were getting ready for bed, Eleanor got it in her head that she wanted to play hide-and-seek.

ELEANOR: Let’s play hide-and-seek.

ME: Bedtime’s not the time to play hide-and-seek.

ELEANOR: Let’s play hide-and-seek.

ME: Bedtime’s not the time to play hide-and-seek.

ELEANOR: Let’s play hide-and-seek.

ME: Did you hear what I said?

ELEANOR: I’ll start counting. You hide.

ME: Eleanor, did you hear what I said?

ELEANOR: One… Two… Three…

AGNES: Eleanor, did you hear what Daddy said?

ELEANOR: But I love hide-and-seek…