I grew up on Raffi.  Who is Raffi?  He’s a Canadian singer-songwriter who was very popular in the children’s music set back in the 80s.  He sang Baby Beluga, Bananaphone and Down by the Bay, among many, many others.  We had a whole section of Raffi records in our record collection and listened to them regularly.  I even went to a Raffi concert when I was about eight and waited in line to get his autograph (which I’m sure my parents still have – along with all of the records). 

I’ve sung Raffi’s biggest hits many, many, many times – first as a kid, then as a baby sitter and preschool teacher and then as a parent.  We sang I Like to Eat Eat Eat Apples and Bananas to Clare when we were trying to get her to eat applesauce and bananas.  We sang Down by the Bay daily for about a year when it was Clare’s favorite song.  Tonight Jeremy sang Baby Beluga to Sammy at bedtime since he asks for it as his bedtime lullaby.  We are big, big Raffi fans around here. So when I saw that Raffi was playing a concert in Portland – well, I jumped on it.

 

 

 Sammy’s been at school for three months now and has pretty much loved it.  He has moments where he’s shy when I drop him off and once told me that he cried because he missed me, but for the most part he’s very happy while he’s there.  

His teacher is really good at sharing pictures from the classroom, so we get a nice view of what his classroom days are like.  What he shares is different than the pictures show – we hear his exploits of touching a slug on the playground and when someone did something silly to make him laugh.  The pictures are off the quiet times when he’s working in the classroom.

 

 

 

Christmas doesn’t begin at the Mac House without a trip to the Christmas tree farm.  We headed up to a farm outside of town, saw reindeer, waved at Santa and trekked all over the farm looking for the perfect tree.   The weather was oddly warm and the kids played and played all over while trying to convince us to bring home 15-foot high trees that wouldn’t fit through our front door.

 We settled on a nice 6 foot tree and brought it home for some preschool decorating.  Some people decorate their trees with a theme.  They choose a couple of colors or decorate with all glass balls.  Our theme this year was… Unbreakable Ornament Clump.  I only pulled out ornaments that would be hard to break and let the kids have at it with the decorating.  They had a ball.  Our ornaments are mostly about 2 feet off the ground and are kind of clumped together.  I spent the first week the tree was up artfully redecorating and then gave up.  The ornaments are fun to play with and it’s more important to me that we have a tree that makes all of us happy rather than one that is perfectly arranged. 

 

The kids gave Santa their wish lists.  Clare wanted a real kitten, a real puppy, Elsa and Anna’s Castle and red high heeled shoes.  Uhhhh, no we’re not getting a cat or a dog.  Elsa and Anna’s Castle is sold out and there ain’t no way I’m buying my five-year-old high heels.  Sammy had one simple request – ducklings.  Stay tuned for how well Santa Claus handled those requests. 
 

It’s been a while since we’ve done a book update.  We still read a lot of books around here, though maybe less than in years past since we’re all on the go so much.  Nap times and bed times are always reading times and the kids will pull books out during the day to look at.  

It’s fun to see Sam’s taste in books develop.  He loves books about animals, preferably books that have complex pictures.  He isn’t always interested in story lines, but he loves to study pictures.  His current favorite book is  1,001 Things to Spot in the Sea.  We “read” it almost daily – and by read it, I mean we look at the pictures and talk about what the different animals are doing.  I’m getting a bit tired of it, but Sam can’t get enough of it.

 Before the 1,001 Things to Spot in the Sea, the favorite book was Animalia.  Graeme Base’s books have beautiful illustrations that defy description.  They are beautiful and complex with lots of details and things to explore.  Sammy and J especially studied each picture, finding every little detail and picture-story within the picture.

We’ve long been fans of Mo Willems books (Knufflebunny is a perennial favorite).  Sammy loves the Pigeon books – he laughs out loud at the obstinate pigeon and his buddy the duckling.

 We’re starting to check out more Early Reader and Chapter books from the library for Clare.  She’s ready for something a little more complex than a picture book and can follow a story over several nights.  Mo Willems has a series called Elephant and Piggie, some of which Clare can read herself, which has his same humor with a little more complex stories.  Sammy also loves this series. 

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