Space Blog Post, Jr.

DADDY: What were your favorite things that happened at school today? 

ADDIE: My favorite thing that happened today at school was doing Just Dance. It’s a game. And two other things is I learned in school today how to go bowling. And I knocked all of the pins down except one. And the last thing is I had lunch.

D: Wait, you played a video game?

MAEVE: Yes it was a special day for both of us for our whole school. So our classes had a party with a Wii U or whatever it is. A Wii something. We don’t nooooormally play video games.

And my favorite thing was playing on the Wii thing too. And another thing that we did was making a string of paper, like a big line of paper and we put the planets on it. Like, aaaaaaall the planets. Like the Sun and Jupiter. And here’s something about Jupiter. It is an outer planet and there's a big telescope down here on the ground and it found a red dot called “The Big Red Dot” or “The Big Red Spot”. And it spotted two dots and one is called “Red Spot, Jr.”, I think. Or maybe I think the other one’s called “And The Other One”. 

And those spots are storms! And bye folks, because I'm done. I'm done!

The right stuff. And waffles.

[Over waffles this morning, the girls decided to tell us what they know about space.  The conversation eventually got around to NASA, woman astronauts, and Curiosity.  I know this is a weird request to all the girls' readers, but if anyone knows anyone who works for NASA, there are two syrup-soaked kids here who would really get a kick to know this post was read by the Curiosity team.]

MAEVE: Pluto is not a planet it is a darf planet.  A dorf planet.  A dooooorf planet.

ADDIE: Mars is very hot.

MAEVE: Mars has a red spot on it.

DADDY: I think that’s Jupiter.  But Mars is a red planet.

A: How do you know that, Daddy?  Have you been there?

D: Nope, but I've seen lots of pictures of it.  Astronauts built a robot named Curiosity and sent it to Mars.  Curiosity takes pictures with a really fancy camera and he sends them back for everyone to look at on the internet. 

[Utter.  Stunned.  Silence.  Waffle pieces drop from forks.]

A: There’s… a robot on Mars?

D: Yup, named Curiosity.

M: How did it get there?

D: It was built by NASA.  By a bunch of really smart scientists.  It flew to Mars on a rocket and now it looks around Mars and it writes back to the scientists, talking about what it finds.

A: How many aliens does it know?

D: Well, none, yet, but it’s still looking.  Do you think it’ll find any?

M: I have an idea.  Aliens are there, but they’re really small so you can’t see them.  They’re so small you can’t see them.

D: Actually, a lot of scientists agree with you.  They asked Curiosity to look for places where there might have been water because they think microscopic aliens might have lived in the water on Mars.  "Microscopic" means you have to use a microscope to see them.

A: Can we write to Curiosity and say hi?

D: I happen to know Curiosity is pretty active on the internet.  I bet if we write a blog post, he’ll read it.

A: OKAY!  Hi Curiosity!  Daddy, who built curiosity?  What is his name? 

D: I don’t know their names, but one guy who helps Curiosity is named Bobak Ferdowsi.

A: Are there any girls who work with Curiosity?

D: Oh, honey, I’m absolutely certain there are, but I don’t know their names.  Maybe we can look that up on the internet?

A: No, that’s okay, I’ll ask Curiosity.  Daddy, can we build a robot?

M: And send it to Pluto?

D: What would we call it?

A: PLUTO!

M: METAL!

A: BUTTERCUP!

M: MARSHMALLOW!

A: GINGER!

[Here, I swear I’m not making this up, the girls’ mother did a spit take.]

A: So how do we make a robot?

D: Well, first, you study super hard, do really well in school, and become a scientist.  Then you can be an Astronaut and work for NASA.

A: Okay!

M: I don’t want to be an astronaut.  I’m scared of space.

D: Well, not all NASA scientists go into space.  Some work in Ground Control and wear vests.

M: THAT’S for me!

D: Okay, girls, what do you want to say to Curiosity?

A: Curiosity!  I think that you’re cool.  So what are you doing on space?  Do you see any aliens, Curiosity?  Did you find any holes yet?  That you can go down in?  Can you roll on the bottom of your planet because I don’t know if you would fall off.  Goodbye Curiosity!  Write to us soon!

M: Hi Curiosity!  Why are you living in space?  What did you discover already?  What are you going to discover next?  Will you write back to me once you know?  Goodbye Curiosity!  And have a good weekend!  And make sure you have waffles!  Hee hee hee.

Paternity Test: Positive

[Overheard at breakfast.  Home by Philip Philips was on the morning radio.  I swear I am not making this up.]

ADDIE: Why do they always play the same song all the time?  Don't they have any other songs to play?

Maeve Minute

MAEVE: I want to write about school!  Well at school, math is very boring.  And here is something that gets my brain moving and that is Mad Minute.

DADDY: What is that?

M: It’s like a half sheet of paper and it’s math problems and you have to finish it in a minute because well I don’t really know.  It’s like a whole sheet cut in half and I don’t know how many math problems are there because I did not count it.  I like Mad Minute, kind of.

And other things that’s fun? Once I got to draw something on the Magic Picture Machine.  And it was really fun.

D: Is that like the chalk board?

M: No.  It’s like a magic machine you can write on it but only with a special kind of marker pen that’s really cool.  There’s a light that shines, like, up and then the light goes into a mirror and then onto a screen and you can see what I write.  We don’t have a chalk board anyway, daddy.

Can I say a joke daddy?  Then let’s do it.  How did the fish laugh?  It laughs out bubbles!  From its mouth.  You probably know that.

By the way, on Saturday, we went ice skating!  And daddy went with us.  And my cousins and aunts and uncle went with us too.  And for one fact?  I looooo-OOOO-ooooove skating!  And then when we were ice skating?  I was skating really good, but I fell over. I fell on my knee a lot of times.  And... um…

D: How about you say you'll be a skater in the Olympics?

M: No...

D: How about you say you’re a better skater than the Sabres?

M: No...

D: How about you can’t wait to go see a Sabres game with your daddy?

M: Okay!  Here’s what it is.  I can’t wait to go with my daddy to see... a... game... of... BASKETBALL!  Hahaha!  Gotcha daddy!

Addie's dream

ADDIE: Daddy, I had a dream last night and you can tell everyone on the blog. There was a huge robot that was also a teddy bear and it was scary but I made it nice at school. And then I needed to go to the bathroom and we saw a biiiig grown up bathroom. We saw so many grown up bathrooms, but only for girls because it was the girl bathroom. So I wanted to go in there but it was only for the grownups so we just went to the potty for the little kids. And then I came back and I saw [my cousin’s] class in our school and she ran up to me and that’s the part where Maeve laughed. And then I came running to bed and Maeve came running to me and I said “Maeve, Maeve!” Actually, I only said “Maeve” once, not two times. I said, “Maeve! I saw [our cousin’s] classroom in our school!” and I took them with us and we took them to school and there were more scary toys but then we all fixed them to nice ones and that’s the end.

Pac-Man Beware.

ADDIE: guys, do you wanna hear something? At school when I was in art, I drew some ghosts. There was a baby who was a boy and a sister and a brother and a mom and dad.  But they were scary!  And there's a pet eagle that's mean too I think.  

I think it's mean.  

I just think it's mean.  

I'll look for it and show you later.

The Girls' Holiday Favorites

ADDIE: Hey guys, I need to tell you something. How was everybody's Christmas? How was your New Year's too? And guys, I need to tell you something. Make this a secret. I always tried to see the sleigh with the reindeers, but I really wanted to see Rudolph.  I did not see the raindeers, but Santa came to our house!

And this is what I got for Christmas: a remote control car, Dora Gymnastics doll, walkie-talkies and a shovel! And there's a block thing that I put snow in and I put it on the ground and it makes snow blocks. I got a green one and Maeve got a red one. There are snowflakes on them. I built a snowman at gramma's house. His name is Flash. We also did it at Nana's and we made a snowman there but we didn't finish the eyes or the nose or the arms and we didn't even name it yet.

My favorite food that I ate was spaghetti. At Gramma and Papa's for Christmas. Or, wait, the pancakes were. Maybe all of it? I think? All of it was my favorite food?

MAEVE: When we were at the party, my favorite thing at Nana's? It was like a brown cake with things all around it.

DADDY: Was it chocolaty?

M: Yeah, and it had a lot of things around it.  Like on the sides.

D: You know who made that? My cousin Anna. That cake was really yummy.

A: I know her. Does she have curly hair?

D: Um, not really. She babysat you once.

A: Oh! I saw her at the Roycroft.

D: No, I don't think we saw her there. But her daddy is my uncle Dan.

A: The monkey guy? Yeah I know him. [Quietly, to herself.] That was yummy cake.

M: I got play-doh for Christmas! Here's one thing that I made out of play-doh! This is Maeve's bird.

And this is the bird that Addie made.

Daddy, take a picture with your phone and put them on the blog so everyone and Katie can see them.  And say this: Do you like them, everyone?