I committed an omission.

I was grading Noah's school work.  I circled a couple things and wrote "omit" next to them.  When he went to correct his work, he saw my note and said, "I can't read what you wrote. It looks like o-m-i-t.  What is that?"  Is it possible that he's been alive almost 16 years and doesn't know the meaning of a fairly simple word like "omit"?  If that's true, then Sarah probably doesn't know either.  Time to get teaching!

Me: Sarah, do you know what the word "omit" means?
Sarah:  Yes.
Me: Oh, good. 
Noah: What does it mean?
Sarah: It means "to pay". 
Me: What? No, that's not what it means!
Noah: It must be a church word.
Me: It's not a church word.
Noah: If I don't know a word, it's usually a church word. It sounds like something old church people say.  "Omit your sins to God!"
Me: That's "admit", not "omit".
Sarah: "Omit yourself to God."
Me: No, that's "commit".  "Omit" means to leave out.  As in, "I omitted the teaching of the word 'omit' from your education."
Noah: Nobody in our generation uses that word.
Sarah: Nobody. We've never heard of it.
[A few minutes later, Mike wanders into the room.]
Noah: Hey, Dad! Do you know what "omit" means?
Mike: Doesn't it mean to leave out?

Noah and Sarah smirk at each other as if they've proven that it's a word only old people know.

Living clothes

This happened two times in two days.  First, I hung up my jammies with feet on my bed post, and they naturally fell into this position:

 They looked like they were walking away on their own.

The next day, I tossed this hoodie across the room, and it landed like it was dancing.

Kitty yoga

Sarah and I went to a kitty yoga class today to benefit the Humane Society.  We are certainly the ones who benefitted though.  We did more interacting with the cats than yoga. 

 She's begging to take the kitten home with us. 

 He crawled into my lap and held my hand.  I came very, very close to breaking my own rule, which is "no more than three cats at a time."

 The cat did more yoga than I did.

 This is Hank.  He just walked around taking over people's yoga mats.

 Sarah tried to do a little yoga with a cat in her arms.

She really liked this little tiger.

Meatloaf dip

Tonight's dinner was supposed to be this "Turkey-Free Holiday Loaf", a "feast for the whole family", proclaimed the magazine.

I was planning to serve it with roasted carrots, mashed potatoes/cauliflower, and rolls.  But then English took longer than I expected, and biology still needed to be taught, and Sarah had to be picked up after play practice.  So I left carrots and the loaf in the oven while I went to get her, and nothing else was done.  The carrots were a huge hit, devoured in less than five minutes.  But I could tell as I attempted to cut the "meatloaf" that it was going to be a terrible fail. Mike and Sarah had no interest in it, even before I realized it was a fail, but there was Noah, sitting at the table, eagerly awaiting his meal.  I've never served meatloaf in a bowl before, but that's what this one warranted. 

I set it before him and mumbled, "Sorry. I don't know what happened..."  He asked for a spoon, stirred it around, got some corn chips and ate it like a dip.  Then the wonderful kid said, "Thanks for the...uh....meatloaf, Mom.  It was really good!" and went back for more!   He's a gem. 

The best thing I've ever done...deflated

Yesterday I had to parallel park.  It's a skill that I hardly ever use and never did master.  Noah was with me, so I really tried hard to show him how it's done.  I backed into that spot perfectly on the first try. Mind you, this was no little sports car; it was a big ole minivan.  It felt good right from the start, and when I got out to check how far the van was from the curb, it was perfect.  It was also perfectly centered between the car in front of it and the car behind it.  We crossed the street to go into the building, and I couldn't resist turning around for one more look.  It was beautiful.

Today I was still thinking about it and droning on to Noah about how great it was.
Me:  I'm glad you got to witness that perfect parallel parking job yesterday.
N:  Yeah, it was good.
M:  The golden standard for parallel parking. 
N: Yep. Good job, Mom.
M:  Thanks. It's the best thing I've ever done in a car in the 30 years I've been driving.  In fact, it might be the best thing I've ever done...period!
N:  Hmm..wow.
M:   I mean it was absolutely textbook!
N:  Did you signal?
M: What?
N:  I don't recall that you turned on your turn signal before you backed into the spot.  That's in the textbook.
M:  Well, no, I guess I didn't signal, but....
N:  A driving instructor would fail you for that in a driving test.
M:  But...but...
N:  Fail.

Playing with DNA

Noah is learning about DNA in his biology class.  Last week we extracted DNA from split peas.

Yesterday we made models of DNA with pipe cleaners and beads.  Unfortunately, the cats were extremely interested in that process, so it took longer than it should have. 

 Shiloh carried off a chromosome in her mouth.

 I ended up making a separate chromatid with one gene on it to distract her from bothering Noah while he built his strand of DNA.

 Then I attached it to their toy, which kept them interested for a long time.