Of water on my shirt. I was curious to see what it would look like in photographs*. Now I know.
*I did not drop water on my shirt just to see what it looked like. In fact, I missed my mouth and noticed that it was not absorbing into my shirt, so I thought I’d take pictures.
This is a piece of a bigger picture. I welcome one and all to guess at what it is. In one week I’ll give the answer, and post a new one. Good luck and may the guessing begin.
Esta es una parte de la foto grande. Hay que adivinar lo que es. En una semana regreso con la respuesta y otra foto. ¡Suerte!
I wasn’t working per se, but I did go in to the preschool. I donated 5 fish, 2 Yellows and 3 Hammers, very pregnant Hammers. So now I have about 42 fish in the tank still. I went over to take the fish, and to take more “class photos.” The kids are cute, but very active and some absolutely refuse to smile for the camera. Some say “cheese” and this is what the mouth ends up doing.
Now, I am sure they think they are smiling, but that is not the shot Mommy and Daddy will want to use to order prints for the grandparents. We need to come up with a better word to use to make kids smile for pictures. Any suggestions?
It is an absolutely great feeling when a person (young or old) tells me they won’t smile, and they eventually do, or I am able to catch them off guard and make them smile for me. In the end, I was able to get natural smiles out of these three, but I had to work for it.
Today I was at the preschool again. The funniest thing I heard…backtracking, I was on the infant side, and I was also taking pictures for class pictures. So the best thing I heard a kid say was Girl J (3 years) “I do not have a camera like that at my house.” I told her that was ok. I got a hand full of good shots, but it was a little too chilly for the kids. I am hoping that tomorrow will be a nicer day temperature wise so we can get a lot more good shots. One of the student workers saw some of the pictures I had on the camera and said she thinks I “should get into photography”…. Speaking of which I have a couple more good shots of a spider, another barn spider (I think), this one is outside my desk window. I think this one is the male or female, which ever the other one is not, since it has just slightly different coloring. If it is a different kind, I am interested in knowing what it is. I seem to feel less afraid of them when I know what they are and where they are coming from.
I took the spider in to the preschool this morning. I looked through Karen’s book about them and the closest we could figure was a Barn Spider. So, I looked on line for a picture to match better and sure enough the underside is better for identifying. She is a Barn Spider. Her full name is Charlotte A. Cavatica. It was kind of fun to learn that she is Charlotte, for whom Charlotte’s Webb was written. Here is a picture of her in her new home aka not my kitchen….
This also happens to show off her belly quite well, and her missing back right leg (her right).
This is Hope the praying mantis I gathered off a car at Enrichment last night.
And this is Hopper that I retrieved from the same car.
Yesterday morning as I was taking the trash to the “curb” I noticed it was very foggy out. I looked up and this is what I saw:
I love this. So I took a minute and grabbed the camera for a few shots.
This morning Jacob and I had to take my car in for an alignment. We walked laps around the town square for two miles, and walked a mile home*. It was nice to have him walk with me, my normal walking buddy wasn’t there this morning. We were talking about how the preschool is doing a unit on bugs and insects and spiders and such. When we got home, Jacob was in the kitchen and told me he found something I can take to the preschool. There was this giant spider! It took a lot of convincing, but in the end he trapped it for me. I am too short to reach the celing even with a chair. It would not come out of the glass, so it will stay in there till I get it to the preschool (likely tomorrow). Here are some pictures.
The spider in his/her current home.
The face.
The tookus.
A side view.
One more.
Now, I do not know what kind this is, if any of you do know, we(I) would really be interested in knowing. In any case s/he can’t eat my food now.
*What I am not telling you is that we stopped for a healthy breakfast on the way home. It was good.
Yesterday and today I found myself working at the preschool. Lots of fun. Here are some of the conversations:
I was asking some of the kids yesterday about how the weekend went for them. A number of them talked about the ballon rally (an annual event in our town-pictures at the end as seen from the train station).
Boy M (3 years 5 months): I had a mommy weekend and a daddy weekend
Me: That sounds exhausting (not really sure what he ment by that)
Boy M: Yeah… *sigh* it was.
Same Boy M and Girl L (4 years 1 month) were running around the room in the morning talking about how they were going to get married. They came up to me and told me how excited they were to be getting married, I cogratulated them, and off they ran to Girl E (4 years 8 months-dressed as Cinderella) who promptly married them. Right after they got married they came to me:
Girl L: We just got married
Me: Congratulations! Are you excited?
Girl L: YES!
Boy M: I love you!
Girl L: I love you.
Boy M: Now we can have a baby!
Me: What are you going to do now?
Girl L: We’re going to go out to get icecream!
At morning meeting Mr S was telling abouthow he saw some ants move from one side of his yard to the other side. He had pictures and the kids were brainstorming why the ants may have moved. (This point in the school year they are talking bugs, insects and spiders.) Girl T (4 years 7 months) suggested that they moved “because they have legs.” Valid. Then the teachers asked how many of them have moved ever, and how did they move their stuff, and why. Boy A (4 years 6 months) said they moved “because we couldn’t afford the yucky house anymore.”
Today at the very start of the day some of the kids were playing in the sandbox-table-thing. Girl T, same as above, was whining that other kids were playing too, and that she needed all the sand. She used her whiny voice the whole conversation.
Me: T did you get much sleep last night?
Girl T: No, I didn’t!
Me: Why not?
Girl T: I was too excited for school.
I then explained to her why she needs to get good sleep at night before she comes to school so she can play nicely with her friends and share. I noticed that a light bulb seemed to go off in her head, and she made effort to be nicer, but she was just cranky. I asked what her mom says about sharing, her reply was, “that I need to be nice and not loud at nap time.”
While getting ready for morning meeting, Girl T came up to me holding out her hand in a fist…
Girl T: I hurt my hand
Me: Well then, appologize to your hand.
Girl T: (leaning in to her hand) I’m sorry.
Me: Give it a kiss
Girl T: she kisses it and sits down like that made it all better
After Nap time ended I was playing counting games with Girl A (3 years 4 months):
Me: 1
Girl A: Chinese
Me: 2
Girl A: Chinese
Me: 3
Girl A: Chinese
Me: In English, I don’t know Chinese.
Girl A: (rolls her eyes) one, two, three
Shortly after that, I was helping Boy M (from above) tie his shoes:
Boy M: (lifts his pant leg) look I have my pajamas on under my clothes
Me: Is that so you can be warm, or so you don’t have to change clothes as much?
Boy M: Yes. Do you have pajamas on? (lifts up my pant leg, and dissapointed by not seening them)
Me: No, but my pajamas have monkey’s on them.
Boy C (4 years 2 months): Are you going to wear them on pajama day?
Me: If I am here on Pajama Day, I will wear them.
Boy C: Cool! My Thomas (the Train) shirt has words that glow in the dark.
Boy L (4 years 4 months): My bed has Thomas on it.
Me: My bed has stripes. Blue and white stripes.
Boy C: Cool, do the stripes glow in the dark?
Me: No, but I can ask my husband if he wants me to make them glow in the dark.
Boy C: You have a HUSBAND? (very excited voice)
Me: Yes
Boy C: Did you marry one?
Me: I married him and he became my husband.
Then the afternoon snack with the newlywedds from yesterday morning…
Girl L: I’m gonna marry my boyfriend
Boy M: I have a girlfriend
Me: I thought you two got married yesterday
Girl L: We did
Boy M: pokes her arm, softly
Girl L: DON’T touch ME
Mr S: They ARE married, aren’t they?
A few minutes later Girl L declares that when she is grown up she wants to be a CHEERLEADER….
Me: What an embarassing life’s ambition (not said to her, just another adult)
This is a piece of a bigger picture. I welcome one and all to guess at what it is. In one week I’ll give the answer, and post a new one. Good luck and may the guessing begin.
Esta es una parte de la foto grande. Hay que adivinar lo que es. En una semana regreso con la respuesta y otra foto. ¡Suerte!
A few weeks ago my friends Jessie and Aiden went to the park and had a picknick. Aiden insisted that Jessie play tag with her instead of talking with me. I held the blanket down and took pictures.