I saw an ad for Dragon Voice Recognition today and thought it would help...temendously.

HK, Emily also chooses the power of flying .... every.single.time!

I just remembered a little anecdote that was not so much intelligent as just plain quirky and funny.

I was at DD's dance recital and was stage mom so I was sitting in the holding room with the dancers in my DD's group. My sister came back and said hello and wished my DD luck and took some pictures.

About 30 minutes later DD asks me how my sister got backstage.

Tongue in cheek, I told her that she probably sneaked past security. (Mind you, there is absolutely no security there except for the stage moms).

DD says in the most serious tone: Wow, the security here really sucks!!

Even though I don't like the word sucks, I honestly had to laugh. You would have thought by her over (reaction) that a deranged lunatic came back to wish her luck and not her aunt!!

DH and DS19mo picked up some library books on hold and were reading a lovely picture book on space (for anyone interested, it's titled "Big and Small, Room for All".)

A few pages in, DH gives me a queasy/impressed look and says, "I opened the page and he identified Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Earth, our moon, and Mercury right away by sight." Then, on the last page showing micro-organisms, DS correctly identified Protista, which DH found pretty trippy. I wasn't too surprised, since he's known those things for a while, but DH seemed shocked.

On a more casual note, these also made me smile:

1. DS and I had a blast yesterday morning planting our first balcony garden! He already knows all the plants' names and woke up asking to water the honeysuckle and begonias.

2. DS has discovered the joy of psyching his parents out. This sequence, or one like it, happened several times this morning.

Me: Would you like to go to the grocery store with Mummy and Daddy?

DS: Yes, to grocery shopping now please....NOT! (*devilish giggles*)

----

Heavens, I'm so glad to be able to share these not-quite-brags here.

DD proudly announced to me that she found a way to use "intoxicated primate" in her SAT essay yesterday.


:groan:

Upon seeing my horrified expression, she quickly reassured me; "No, really, mom... it was COMPLETELY appropriate in the context of my essay. Really."

I was still skeptical, though, and she then elaborated; "I thought it was far more erudite than 'drunken baboon.'"


Ohhhh, well, sure, when you put it that way...

{While I can't talk about her essay topic yet, when she explained FURTHER, I had to admit that the colorful metaphor was, in fact, probably a point-grabbing way of phrasing things.}

DD: "Who do you think was the first person to realize that there was such a concept as time?" (Asked while sitting on the toilet, reading a fishing magazine.)

DS19mo was kicking his legs wildly at one point today, effectively doing dragon flags. He characterized these as, "Big kicks, big like galaxy."

Surprisingly apt.

My 9yo wants to make money, and his current idea is to find pencils at home and sell them at school. He employs his little brother and sister on a commission basis for pencils they find.

I told him I'd be willing to pay him to write programs in Python. He said he'd rather write programs in JavaScript and thought my language mandate was silly -- "Why do you care about the language a program is written in as long as it works? You can't say JavaScript isn't a popular language." I told him that employers get to dictate language choice and that Python is a language I know, so I'd be able to understand and change programs written in it.

Debating the choice of programming language is not a conversation one often has with a 9yo.

DS5 wants a pet goat. After I told him it was against our city code to have a goat at our house, he decided to write a letter to the city council asking them to change the law. He dictated it to me and then he copied it in his own writing.

After he was done he said, "I have an idea! I will put some money from my piggy bank in the envelope with my letter. That way when they open the letter they'll be really happy and do what I ask!"

Ah-- future lobbyist you have there, eh?

You should move to Toronto if you don't get traction on the goat zoning. Rob Ford could use some positive press.

Imagine the headlines: "Alleged crack pipe mayor supports housing equity for goats."