Jordan's birthday

As the first-born Jordan gets to be the leader in many things, but in birthday timing his comes second... so I have a lot less to say. :) His party was originally planned for Matthews Beach, but with the weather cloudy and cool we relocated to here, thus it felt a lot like Aaron's party. But with only one guest in common! How great is that, that we have enough friends for two completely distinct parties? More than enough -- lots of people were out of town this weekend that we'll have to catch up with another time.

The kids mostly played by themselves upstairs while the grownups sat around the living/dining room and chatted... it may as well have been a grownup party?! amazing how the youngsters have become so independent. We had tasty tacos for lunch. There was some outdoor soccer:

And there was cake. Pretty cool, no?

Cake math

Jordan and I are in the midst of baking his birthday cake (even as I write, the layers are in the oven) and we encountered some interesting math situations in the process. He requested a red, white, and blue cake, one layer of each color, with white frosting, and raspberries and blueberries on top. Very seasonal. So he and I made up a big batch of cake batter. He was entertained to learn that it is a 1-2-3-4 cake: 1 cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, and 4 eggs. We needed three layers and I only have two nine-inch pans, but we can handle that. When the batter was prepared, though, we found ourselves with a puzzle. How would we make three different-colored layers all the same size?

Jordan: I know! Split the batter into three halves. Put one half in one bowl and make it red, the other half in the other bowl and and make it blue, and leave the third half where it is.
Rachel: Great idea. Now, this is going to be a little tricky, because see my three bowls? They are not the same size. So how will we make sure each one gets the same amount?
Jordan: Fill them up to the same height.
Rachel: Hmm. But if I do that, this bowl is bigger so it will get more. See?
Jordan: (blank look)
Rachel: Here, I'll show you. See this little bowl and this big bowl? If I fill the little bowl up to the top, and the big bowl up to the height of the little bowl, the big bowl has more.
Jordan: OH! Because it's wider.
Rachel: Right.  So what should we do?
Jordan: Put less in the bigger bowl so that it comes out the same.  Not as high.
Rachel: That would be good.  That's what I was thinking I should do.  But it would be hard to know just how much less, you know?  So I had another idea:
(I show him my kitchen scale.)
Jordan:  A waiter!!  (Weighter, I guess.)
Rachel: I suggest that we put the same amount of batter in each bowl by weighing it.  Now, here is a trick: I just want to weigh the batter, not the bowl.  So I put the bowl on the scale and press this little button to make it be zero with the bowl on.  Now, I don't know how much to put in, so I will just guess. Here, can you remember this number?
Jordan: Twenty!
Rachel: Twenty ounces in bowl number one.  Twenty ounces in bowl number two.  What will it be in bowl number three?
Jordan:  Twenty!
Rachel: Well, I want that, but I don't know if I did it right.  Maybe twenty was too much in the other bowls and there's not enough left.  And look, it's not enough, this is only twelve.  What should we do?
Jordan: Take some from the other bowls to make twelve, so that it will be twelve, twelve, twelve.
Rachel: That would make it even.  But then we would have leftover batter, and I want to use all the batter.  Hmm.  Okay, here's my idea.  How much batter is there all together?  Twenty plus twenty plus twelve, can you do that?
Jordan: No.
Rachel: Twenty plus twenty?
Jordan: Forty!
Rachel: And then forty plus twelve?
Jordan (intense look):  FIFTY-TWO.
Rachel:  Wow, awesome!
Jordan: Mommy I thought about the forty and the twelve and the ten part of the twelve goes with the forty and that makes it fifty and then there was the two part of the twelve and I remembered it was fifty and two more after fifty is fifty-two!
Rachel: Fantastic.  That is some great addition.  Now, we have fifty-two ounces, and we want to put the same amount into each of the three bowls.  How much should we put?  Can you figure that out?
Jordan: No.
Rachel: I don't blame you.  That is a tough one.  I can figure it out and it's between seventeen and eighteen.  So we will take about two ounces out of each of the bowls of twenty, and put those in the bowl of twelve, and that will make them just about the same.

That's a lot of math.

Aaron's birthday

[I wrote this post a week ago, then went to a busy conference with poor internet access and forgot to actually post it. sorry!]

What a fun birthday party! Dale and I are fans of keeping it simple, and our wonderful house makes it so easy to host. The guests were Aaron’s classmates Adam, Bodhi, and Spencer, and younger friend Lucy; older siblings who joined the fun were Ian, Marley, and Ravenna. Nine adult guests, including Grandma, brought the total to 20 including us. The weather was great so we spent the whole time in the backyard. How cool is that?

Dale picked up a bunch of pool noodles and I personalized them.

These were put to use in various creative ways, including whomping, cheerfully demonstrated here by Ian and Marley.

There was also your basic general mayhem.

The birthday boy was very into his new-to-you jeep (we plucked it from someone’s discard pile a few days ago) and also shared nicely.

Lucy learned this trick from Aaron:

Meanwhile, the adults lounged comfortably on the deck. Eventually there was lunch for everyone.

And finally cupcakes! My visiting colleague Renee Michelle had just taught me to pipe frosting and I had a lot of fun with that. We devised a tiered cupcake platter out of a chip-and-dip and a plate – cute, no? And then another plate because we all need more cupcakes. It was tricky lighting the candles in the breeze, but on the bright side, it made it very easy for Aaron to blow them out.

Thanks everyone for celebrating with us. We love living here, we love our house, we love our family, and we love the community we are increasingly embedded in. Happy birthday Aaron!

Complaining

We went on a family walk that unfortunately became something of a long trudge, and Jordan was pretty annoyed about it. I didn't blame him, but the complaining was becoming difficult to bear. It happens that the Torah portion for this week deals with a lot of complaining (from the Israelites, who are in the wilderness, a long trudge if ever their was one). I told Jordan about it, and he wanted to hear the story. Numbers 11, if you are interested: here's Chabad's translation:

1. The people were looking to complain, and it was evil in the ears of the Lord. The Lord heard and His anger flared, and a fire from the Lord burned among them, consuming the extremes of the camp.
2. The people cried out to Moses; Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down.
3. He named that place Tab'erah, for the fire of the Lord had burned among them there.
4. But the multitude among them began to have strong cravings. Then even the children of Israel once again began to cry, and they said, "Who will feed us meat?
5. We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt free of charge, the cucumbers, the watermelons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.
6. But now, our bodies are dried out, for there is nothing at all; we have nothing but manna to look at."

Nothing but manna! Jordan and I were quite amused by the idea that the Israelites had this delicious gift of food that rained out of the sky every day, and there they were, complaining that they missed the leeks and cucumbers in Egypt. But I am even more amused (sympathetically!) by Moses's reaction: He tears his hair out over all the complaining, saying something like "What did I do to deserve this -- give birth to them? Why don't you just shoot me instead?" Which says a lot about the patience expected of parents.

10. Moses heard the people weeping with their families,each one at the entrance to his tent. The Lord became very angry, and Moses considered it evil.
11. Moses said to the Lord, "Why have You treated Your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in Your eyes that You place the burden of this entire people upon me?
12. Did I conceive this entire people? Did I give birth to them, that You say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom as the nurse carries the suckling,' to the Land You promised their forefathers?
13. Where can I get meat to give all these people? For they are crying on me, saying, 'Give us meat to eat.'
14. Alone I cannot carry this entire people for it is too hard for me.
15. If this is the way You treat me, please kill me if I have found favor in Your eyes, so that I not see my misfortune."

The story concludes with God dividing Moses's spiritual burden among seventy elders, then practically burying the complaining Israelites in quail. He says something like "You want meat? Here's your meat," and then when they eat it, God kills them "with the meat still between their teeth."

In my liberal reform way, I felt compelled to discuss with Jordan that perhaps God was not being perfectly patient or fair himself in this story, and we brainstormed other responses that one might have when annoyed by complainers. (Rabbinic commentators, on the other hand, say the Israelites deserved it because they were faithless ingrates.) Jordan didn't seem disturbed by any of it; on the contrary, he was highly entertained, and enjoyed the rest of the walk quite a bit.

Bowling

Jordan and I went bowling with our friends the Zappas (no relation) and cousin Ed, visiting from Idaho. I was my usual totally random bowling self - I've only played about five games in my life, so I have no ego about it - sometimes I hit 'em, sometimes i don't. Ed, who has taken a course, gave me some tips that helped tremendously... for two turns. Then I scored almost nothing for the rest of the game. Perhaps I was overthinking it. Eric was rather good:


Meanwhile the kids had a blast in their bumpered lane. I can't decide which of the photos I like best.

Weekly

Here's a sample of what Aaron has been up to at school.

Long words

When I was putting the boys to bed last night, Jordan and I had the following conversation:

Jordan: Mommy what is that word we were talking about, that long word, when something makes a sound and you just write the word that sounds like the sound that it made?
Rachel: Onomatopoeia?
Jordan: Right! Onomatopoeia. Today in class I got that mixed up with metamorphosis.
Rachel: You were talking about metamorphosis?
Jordan: Yes. Mrs. Murphy asked if anyone knew what metamorphosis means and I was the last one to raise my hand and no one else knew and I said the other thing. The onomatopoeia.
Rachel: Metamorphosis, wow. That means a big change.
Jordan: Yes and there is another word that starts with M, that starts with meta, another long word. I can't remember the whole word but it means thinking about thinking.
Rachel: Metacognition?
Jordan: Right, metacognition. That means when you are thinking so hard that you are even thinking about your thinking.

He intends to tell Mrs. Murphy today that when she asked about metamorphosis, he was thinking of onomatopoeia. I would think a kindergarten teacher would be uniquely entertained by that.