Books Zorah Has Read This Week

Latkes, Latkes Good To Eat by Naomi Howland

Starry Tales by Geraldine McCaughrean

Meet Josefina; Josefina Learns A Lesson; Josefina's Surprise; Happy Birthday, Josefina; Josefina Saves The Day; Changes For Josefina; Secrets in The Hills; by Valerie Tripp

The Golden Slipper: An Ancient Egyptian Fairytale by Saviour Pirotta and Alan Marks

The Sunflower Farmer by Jessica Gunderson

Magic Tree House books 6-11 by Mary Pope Osborne

The Fairy-Spotters Handbook by Rosalind Kerven and Wayne Anderson

The Gingerbread Doll by Susan Tews

Amelia Bedelia 4 Mayor by Herman Parish

Castle: Medieval Days and Knights by Kyle Olmon

Gone Forever! Sabretooth by Rupert Matthews

Lugalbanda: The Boy Who Got Caught Up In A War by Kathy Henderson and Jane Ray

From Peanuts To Peanut Butter by Kristin Thoennes Keller

Nickommoh! A Thanksgiving Celebration by Jackie French Koeller

I think I'd rather say what she has read for a day. Would you like to know what the books are about? I was thinking of having Zorah say a few words about each book as she finishes it. What do you think?

Moving Day

Since we landed here in late August we've been in a site conveniently located right next to the bathroom (wireless towers are on the roofs) and the swimming pool. The only space next to our front door is a small one, so hardly anyone ever parks right next to us. Usually a neighbor will be a foreigner in a rental RV, who if we are lucky are about to return their RV and will leave you goodies that they can't bring home with them such as spatulas, canned tuna, vodka, and port wine. We had the misfortune of being given a six pack of extra-thick Charmin with Aloe, which has completely clogged our septic system, but that is a different story.

Anyway, we got a bit tired of people peering into Zorah's room; the back wall opens down and we prop it parallel to the ground to make a porch. Not a lot of privacy. So today we moved to a new site.

What is significant about this? Well, as I was reorganizing everything from the move Zorah offered to help. So I swept the floor and then she mopped. I showed her how I pour a little hot water on the ground to wet our mop (well, a Swiffer WetJet), then spray once the mopping pad is wet. I also showed her how to hold the handle so that she was pushing with the weight of her body instead of trying to just use her wrist and arm. She had fun mopping the entire 45 square feet, lol.

It was interesting to try to explain how to do something which I don't even think about anymore since I've done it so often. And it was gratifying that Zorah was willing to listen. Since she could talk, she's been saying "Please just let me do it my way." I am curious as to whether her new willingness to listen is due in part to me being less of a disciplinarian of late.

There was no gymnastics triathlon today because her musical theater class had an extra rehearsal today. One of her teachers says that Zorah is a riot and has asked that I bring her to one of the acting/voice classes at the teacher's studio. We're thinking about it.

Zorah's Triathlon

Zorah has gymnastics on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Thursdays, hers is the first class of the day, so if we get there early she can use any of the equipment that has been set up. Since traffic here in Las Vegas is highly erratic, we sometimes arrive pretty early. Today, Zorah told me to watch her do her triathlon (her own words). Here it is.

Clothespin Dolls

This summer when we were in Golden, Colorado, we went to the Clear Creek History Park. It is one of those living history museums like Sturbridge Village or Colonial Williamsburg. There, Zorah was able to see a real spinning wheel (it was broken), card wool, and use a drop spindle to make yarn.

Anyway, one of the projects there was clothespin dolls. She had so much fun with them (as did I), that when we saw a bag of 20 clothespins at the Dollar Tree, we grabbed it. Tonight she started a new doll to join our clothespin family. She said she didn't want to mention it in her blog entry because she didn't want to make other kids jealous. We'll have to get some yarn tomorrow for hair...

Zorah's Impression Of Today

It was a nice day today. I'd like to come back to it. I'd go back in time, but I just can't. I don't have elf magic! I liked today, I don't know why. It was a simple day but a nice one. It was a nice day today because I did some nice things today, but I didn't play with my friends. I'm really disappointed because I didn't. I would have loved to.

One of the nice things was that I watched Winnie The Pooh. But nothing else, I'm sad to say.

Zorah Is Featured On The Radio

We have Sirius Satellite Radio in our truck. It was really handy when we were putting in all those long hours on the road. We listened a lot to Kids Stuff (Channel 116), and Zorah particularly likes the song "The Great Escape", Kidz Bop Kidz version. She called in once to try to have it played and was summarily ignored by the Sirius team.

However, Sirius recently merged with XM Radio and now Channel 116 is called Kids Place Live or something like that, where there are DJs who talk and play live requests. In a way I find that it is like having commercials, and the song selection is of poorer quality, but we still listen when we're in the truck. So now to the point.

Today we were listening to the Absolutely Mindy Show when I finally heard the call-in number fast enough to put it into my phone. Zorah has been wanting to hear "The Great Escape", so I dialed the number and heard it ring five or six times. To my surprise, Mindy answered! I handed Zorah the phone, and she gave her name, where she was from (Las Vegas), and politely asked for her song. They didn't have it. She declined the offer of a second choice song and hung up. Right after the song that was currently playing was finished, Mindy came on and played VIva Las Vegas for Z, making sure to mention that the song was specifically for Zorah, "who vivas in Las Vegas". She listened with an impish smile, swaying her head from side to side. As Zorah would say, it felt like my heart would burst!

Zorah's Dog's Bed

For the past few weeks we have been making a bed for Zorah's Shining Stars poodle. I cut a beer box into a sort of bed shape. We traced the head and footboards, cut out the shapes, and Zorah decorated a few of them.

When her panel designs started looking sort of rushed, she took a break and did other things. After getting all of the panels decorated, we glue-sticked them onto the sides of the bed. Voila!

Now it was time for the mattress. She was concerned that Louisiana would be uncomfortable without one. She chose one of her old dresses to use for material, sewed it all together, and stuffed it with cotton balls. So far she has sewn two sides of the pillow, also in tie dye. The puppy has not slept in the bed yet because the pillow is as yet unfinished. Instead, Louisiana has been sleeping in Zorah's bed.

A Fancy Day

Zorah felt like dressing up today. Of course, she always wears dresses except when swimming, in gymnastics class, or musical theater, where she is required to wear pants. So what is dressing up to a girl like that? Here you go:

Arts & Crafts Today!

One day at TJ Maxx we found a really great crafts book. Today, Zorah was looking through it and decided she wanted to make one of the projects to send to her cousin Allie. She read me the instructions for what we would need, and we went around gathering our supplies. When she found that we had no pink construction paper, she got out her markers and colored a white piece. I drew the ballerina after I saw that she was getting frustrated with it. She colored it and added in the roses on the slippers.

After writing a short but sweet "I love you" on the front of the card (Zorah still hates penmanship!), we sent it off. I forgot to take a picture of the front.

Wednesdays Are Free Days

Wednesdays and Sundays, Zorah has no rec classes. This Wednesday she read a lot. After dinner, we cleaned her room, and made her bed. It looked so inviting that she got cozy with Edward Eager's Half Magic.

She read the whole series already, but likes to read them again, sometimes skipping to favorite parts. I found a set of them in paperback at the Amber Unicorn, a used bookstore on West Sahara by Trader Joe's. They have a great children's section, and they allow you to linger there as long as you like. Of course it's all the wat across town, so we don't go often. I'm hoping we can go through our books sometime soon and trade some in for new old goodies.

Monday Ballet

Every Monday Zorah has ballet at one of the many community centers here in Vegas. It's anywhere from 30-45 minutes away, but Zorah loves it, mostly because at the end they have a freeze dance. In it, the girls grab scarves and dance around the room with them. When the music stops, they have to freeze and make a silly face. Here's a movie of ballet on her birthday!

This Monday she went for a swim, and her hair was all wet and kind of sticky from chlorine, but there was no time to wash it. This was actually a perfect opportunity for an adorable hairdo! The prima ballerina.

When Zorah first started these classes, I was making myself anxious about whether Zorah was listening to the teacher and following instructions. Then I realized what I was doing and laughed it off. If she doesn't enjoy it, she won't want to learn it anyway. I actually did the same thing with her musical theater class and tried to make her rehearse at home. Forget it. Now I just enjoy watching her do her thing.

Zorah Sees Sleeping Beauty Live

One good thing about living in Vegas is that there is usually a free show happening somewhere in the vicinity. Today we saw Sleeping Beauty at the West Charleston Library. It was an amateur production by a small theater company in California who drove all the way out here to put on the play. As you can guess, Zorah loved it. Her favorite part of the play itself was when the prince wakes the princess. Her favorite part overall was when she got to say hello to Sleeping Beauty and get a picture taken with her after the show was over.

Anyway, it was fun for her to see a different version of Sleeping Beauty. In it, the story focused a lot on the question of ignorance versus information. Should her father have burned all the spinning wheels or should he have taught her how to use them when she was old enough to learn but not old enough for the spell to activate? When she asked what a spinning wheel was, should they have refused to tell her? Zorah thought the princess should have been told.

When the play was over we borrowed about 20 books from the library, most of which she read on the way home. We had picked out a bunch of the easier picture books this time. At some point, if you're interested (and probably even if you're not), I'll be listing Zorah's reading materials for the day or days or week.

What Do We Do All Day?

People often wonder what we do all day. I mean, we have no jobs, no schedules, very few commitments. So I decided to start this blog to answer that question. I hope I will be able to keep it more consistently than I did my previous blog, which I haven't touched for more than a year, I think. I guess it will have a little of everything. I'll let you all know more about it when I have a few entries put up.