No NaNoWriMo for me

I give up. I'm just not feeling the NaNoWriMo love this year. Last year was so much fun. The story pretty much grabbed me by the hand and pulled me along the entire month. This year it's just painful and boring and just plain old *work*. I'm only in it for the fun so since that's not here this year, I'm passing. Bummer. I was looking forward to having another "winner" cert on the wall ;-) Well, if I get inspired at all, I'll work some more on last year's story. At the rate I'm working on that, I figure only another 10 years before it will be ready for someone to read :-D

So, on to other things.

Bridget asks a lot of questions which is, of course, good. The attention span for the answers isn't always long though. When she asks me a question about something I know I have to reduce the answer to 3 lines or less or risk losing her attention. Now most of her questions aren't black and white so often part of the answer is a quick "well, no one really knows for sure, but most authorities believe . . . ". but it works. Not everyone gets this though and not everyone thinks this is "ok" but I'm the same way so I don't see it as a problem that needs fixing. She and I just want to have a little information on *everything* and if we're really interested in something, *then* we'll delve into it more later. But we're not really interested enough to read a whole book or listen to a whole lecture on every little thing we ask about. We ask way too many questions to go in depth on every one! We just want a brief answer, enough to satisfy the curiosity of the moment, and then we move on. With Bridget, I know that even if she doesn't want to hear much at the time, if she's actually interested in something I'll later find her looking for info online, or reading about it in a book or asking more questions. But the "later" is on her timetable, no one else's. Maybe it's later that day, maybe it's later that month or year but she needs to have time to mull it over and come to it again naturally. It's really cool watching it play out. I love some of the things she comes up with.

Yesterday, in the car, we hit on one of those questions that actually did spark a conversation. She asked me about skin colors and why everyone is different. We've talked of this before and as I was trying to formulate a quick, 3 line answer, she said "oh yeah, I remember" and went on to lecture me about melanin's role in resisting sun damage and how if you live where there's a lot of sun you need more of it (though I produced the word melanin for her since she had forgotten it). I bought up vitamin D and why light skin would be a benefit in an area with a lot less sun but also mentioned that nowadays people live all over and worst case you can get your vitamin D from supplements (or your skin protection from sunblock). She then mentioned Egypt (where her uncle is from) and how it's in Africa and went from there to say that her friend K must have African ancestors because she has a lot of melanin. I told her that I believe everyone has African ancestors since most scientists agree that all human life started in Africa. She thought that was the coolest thing. But yes, K has much more recent African ancestors than we do. And suddenly she went on a tangent and asked me why there are so many different languages in the world. I tried to answer that one but I didn't do a great job and she got bored and started playing with her brother or something. That's ok. If she's really interested, she'll be back to the topic again. And again. And again.

I almost forgot why I wrote all that :-D I was reading HEM magazine today and in one of the articles it was mentioned that the little dip under your nose is called a philtrum. I mentioned that to Bridget because awhile ago (days? weeks? I can't remember) she had wondered what it was and we forgot to look it up. So today I told her. She said ok, but what does it *do*. A quick google and the answer is "nothing". It's just the design that you end up with as parts of your facial structure forms in utero. And that was the end of that conversation.

Owen is sick today. He was just sniffly and hoarse yesterday but today he's actually feverish so we're skipping the playdate we had planned. I thought Bridget would be ticked off but she wasn't, which makes me nervous she's coming down with something too. I hope not.

Owen asked me to get a Christmas video to watch and I tried to remember where I stored them. I reached up to get a box down off the top of a bookcase and it was the wrong box but a nice surprise. In it was a ton of videos we haven't seen in years. I have no idea why I put them there but there are 4 Teletubbie videos and 20 or so Blue's Clues. So you can guess what the kids are doing now. I love that about Bridget. I love that she doesn't feel the need to put on an attitude about being "too old" for things like this (usually at least!). She thinks Nu Nu is funny and the Teletubbies are cute so she's watching it with her little brother. She'll read easy readers and picture books if she thinks the stories are good, she doesn't cop an attitude about them being "babyish" and she doesn't make fun of other kids for being into stuff like that either. I really like that about her.

And a bonus. Going through them we found that about half the Blue's Clues episodes are in Spanish! Ah, I remember now. That was when Bridget (4?) was taking a homeschooler Spanish class (before I realized that things like that are pretty much not a good fit for her). I got these with the idea that we could watch an English Blue's Clues and then watch a Spanish version of the same thing. Sort of like the Muzzy idea. Not that Bridget was ever interested in watching them. And I doubt Owen will be either. Maybe I'll watch one later. Because at 37, I also have the confidence to like what I like and not cop an attitude about how I'm "too old for that". And besides, Steve is a hottie ;-)