Jumpoline

Our little neighbor friend got a trampoline for christmas. Tillie calls it a jumpoline. Her joy in this picture is so cute that it transcends focus standards.

Unhappy Valentine's Day?

As Tillie and I were busily making valentines for the holiday exchange at school, I looked down and noticed that she had drawn sad faces on all 19 construction paper hearts. Of course, I didn't want to tell her that sad faces are "wrong" for valentines, as this is supposed to be her creative effort and her interpretation of an expressive tradition--not a strict directive from The Man to be enforced by a draconian mother with no sense of artistic voice. Plus, she very happily draws mostly sad faces these days, and I have been suspecting that she did not know that her smiles looked like frowns. Thinking that this could be a great teaching moment, I said, "Tillie, are those sad faces or happy faces?" She replied with a maniacal expression, "Some of them are sad and some of them are angry!" Apparently this was a teaching moment, and I was the student. Hence, all 19 of Tillie's beloved schoolmates will receive sad/angry-faced valentines this year.

Time Capsule

Found these in an old book I was about to throw away until Scott protested:

The latter is a picture of my younger brother during high school - hah look at that baby face! The former is a check my grandma wrote me for my 19th birthday--the last gift she gave me before she died a couple of months later. I'm glad I saved it rather than using it to buy a month's worth of Top Ramen. I wish I could know you now Grandma Winnie.

Balloonicorn

This is actually just a picture of Tillie's best friend Freddy the Unicorn wearing a beautiful "princess ring" (btw, thank you Eva for the beloved princess jewelry!). However, the previous week she had tied a helium balloon to her horn and dubbed her "Balloonicorn" which made her pun-loving mama very proud.

Dog-o-vision

Snow Day!

Tillie finds out how fun snow is until your hands get painfully cold.