April Fool’s on us. Early this morning Grandma to help take care of A- and L-, who are both sick. She taught them both about April Fool’s jokes. A- tried out a bunch of different ones on Grandma and me, but it took a while to explain what makes a good joke: it has to be just barely plausible and able to get the listener worked up-but not so scary as to really terrify them.
At lunch later in the day, A- turned to Angela and me and said, “This morning L- threw up and Grandma had to clean it up.” This kind of freaked Angela and me out. After all, L- is sick, but we hadn’t realized that she was actually vomiting.
After a slight delay, A- added, “April Fools!”
Plausible and got us worked up: she actually did learn how it works. perhaps a little too well!
-Jan
Wall Street Journal: “Cozi just works.” Yay yay yay yay yay! Today’s Wall Street Journal has a FANTASTIC review of Cozi Central: Getting Families Synced Up.
“Cozi just works. It looks clean, organized and uncluttered, regardless of hectic schedules. It’s also easy enough for anyone to use, and Cozi Group Inc. is constantly working to improve the program, which is a good sign.”
The Journal’s research into our product was extremely thorough. I’ve fielded dozens and dozens of fact-checking questions in the past two days alone.
We had just finished dinner last night, and I was incessantly hitting the Refresh button in the browser to see when the article would appear on the WSJ site. I was simultaneously IM’ing with our friend Bruce, who was also waiting for the article to appear. Bruce noticed that the article went live on the WSJ site, but behind their subscription-only wall. Bruce forwarded me a copy of the article. I was in the process of forwarding it to everyone at Cozi while Bruce scanned through the article. He sent: “It’s a rave”. This was a good sign.
It was a HUGE relief to see that the review is so favorable—reviews just don’t come much better than this one.
-Jan
The girls new favorite hobby is writing letters to people we… This family message was sent from Cozi Central to Blog (email): The girls new favorite hobby is writing letters to people we know. Sample letter:
“Angel and Leah: I love you L– loves you too I hope you come to our house soon but be quiet because we have a cat. Love A–”
Today we were reminiscing about a recent story involving A–… This family message was sent from Cozi Central to Blog (email): Today we were reminiscing about a recent story involving A–. We had mentioned something about a fleece vest, when A– asked, “What’s a flea’s vest?”
Monster tracks in the bathroom. These days the girls have a little game they play when they get out of the tub. They step on to the bathmat and make little footprints on the mat with their wet feet. They then dip a foot back in the bathtub to make another footprint. They then make some handprints and maybe some more footprints. Eventually they announce that a five-handed, three-footed monster has been in the bathroom.
-Jan
A– plays Mahjong game on computer and wins for first time…. This family message was sent from Cozi Central to Blog (email): A– plays Mahjong game on computer and wins for first time.
May it also be noted that it was Angela, not Jan, who introduced A– to the game.
A– gets frustrated playing Mahjong computer game and wails… This family message was sent from Cozi Central to Blog (email): A– gets frustrated playing Mahjong computer game and wails for help.
Gone are the days when we could selectively edit what we rea… This family message was sent from Cozi Central to Jan (email) and Blog (email): Gone are the days when we could selectively edit what we read to the kids.
For dinner last night, we tried a very family-friendly Greek restaurant called Vios on Capital Hill. Angela read A– the choices on the kids’ menu, focusing on the kids’ souvlaki plate and another Greek entree. Angela omitted reading the last item on the menu, knowing full well that A– would pick it as soon as she heard it.
A– read the last item on the menu for herself and exclaimed, “I want Mac and Cheese!”
Sigh.
This morning as Angela and I were getting ready for the day, we heard a lot of banging and discussion downstairs. L– happily called up to announce that, “We’re setting the table and making cereal for you!”
We’ve let the girls dress themselves from the moment they were able, and this has produced some interesting fashions. The latest: They wear two pairs of socks at once. This started when they each got some cushy new socks, and apparently liked them so much they wanted to wear more than one pair at a time. This extends another fashion they’ve got going, in which they wear multiple dresses at a time, often in combination with pants and shirts.
Monster marimba. We took the girls to a little concert for kids that was held at our health club. A marimba ensemble played a number of songs that had many of the kids up and dancing. Between songs, the leader asked the kids some questions. After one song, he pointed to marimbas of various sizes saying, “This is the soprano marimba, the next one is the tenor, that one’s the baritone. and does anyone know what we call the really big one that makes deep sounds?”
A-’s answer: “The Monster.”
Ninth anniversary. Today is our ninth anniversary!
Liya
Car accident (but no injury). Angela came out of the I-90 tunnel this afternoon and discovered a large green recycling collection bin just standing there in her lane. She swerved to avoid it, hit the left median barrier, then ricocheted off to the right shoulder. Miraculously, she wasn’t hurt, nor was anyone else. Her doctor recommended having the baby checked out, and everything looked okay. As a silver lining, on the ultrasound we got to watch Pixie’s little four-chambered heart beating away just fine.
Science project: Making a simple telescope. This month’s little science project with the kids was making a simple telescope. For the last few months I’ve been doing projects from kits we’ve bought online or at places like the Pacific Science Center. The telescope kit was super easy, and it only took a few minutes to assemble the tubes and lenses into a simple telescope. The girls thought that part of the project was okay, although frankly they got way more excited by a simple “Eye Exam Chart” that came with the kit. The idea of including an eye exam chart in the kit was to show kids how the telescope makes it possible to see details from far away that aren’t possible with the naked eye, but the girls just had fun quizzing each other on what the letters said from far away.
-Jan
Oatmeal pancakes. Like some mornings in our house…
Jan took Liya to her tap dance class. There were eight three or four year-old girls in the class. The teacher put on music and began leading them in basic exercises like tapping their heels on the wooden floor, or rising up on their toes. Most of the girls could do the initial exercises. The teacher gradually increased the complexity. Finally one parent standing next to Jan pointed out, “None of them can do this one.” Sure enough, they were all just watching or doing something other than the intended exercise. The girls seemed to be having fun anyway, and it was all pretty cute to watch.