Dane just ran...

Dane just ran through the house wearing his Incredibles costume from five years ago, yelling "I'm Dash! I'm Dash!" -- and let me just say, once you see Dash with a camel toe and booty thong zipping round the Christmas tree you will truly feel the joy and peace of Christmas.

Man, we love this kid...

 

Happy 11th Birthday, Dane!

It's too baaaaad he isn't any weirder.

Birdiom

Last night I told Mick I'd killed a couple birds with one stone.

Dane overheard and shouted out, "Wow! Could you teach me to do that?"

What to do with this kid

My American Girl...

magazine reader.

Two more reasons to love Dane:
1 - This morning he got up and read Aubrey's American Girl magazine for thirty minutes, and
2 - He's now made her a tent for said doll and wants me to buy him a zipper so he can sew the doll a sleeping bag.

The Spirit of Little League

After an intense playoff game resulting in a Cubs loss to the Phillies, we get down to what's really important about baseball.

Box R Brrrrr....

Thanks, Uncle Garth, for capturing this crazy cold 

unforgettable moment in the life of a Box R Ranch 4th grader.

Electric Info: Electricity -- and How Different Types Work

After thumbing through The Dangerous Book for Boys and Totally Irresponsible Science, Dane decided he wanted to demonstrate how electricity works. So, this year, he and his buddy Nic teamed up for their Science Fair project. They made up separate boards for their presentations, but their boards were both focused on the three types of electricity. That means they did their experiments/demonstrations together, but then made sense of them on their own.

One project was about static electricity, demonstrated with salt and pepper in a pie tin. Each kid then rubbed a plastic spoon in their hair or against a wool sock, and the charged spoon attracted the pepper.

For their second type of electricity, they demonstrated the DC of AC/DC familiarity. For this, they created a battery cell where a direct current briefly lit up a tiny light bulb as the copper wires, quarters, blotting paper, foil, vinegar, and salt worked their science. (I was going to write 'magic' there, but that could be a little misleading.) 

For the final part of their project, the boys put a blue box together and demonstrated how electricity with Alternating Current would work when plugged into a wall and a power source.

 

After hours and hours of evening and weekend work, the board was done. Dane particularly liked drawing and diagramming and doing the layout.

Above, Dane meets with one of the judges (his teacher, Nancy!) and discusses different aspects of his project with her. It was exciting to listen to his main points and to hear what he'd learned about his topic.

Dane Gets Fit

Dane: Today at recess, me and Nic ran around the playground 2 times and then did 15 pushups. Then we ran around it again and did 15 more pushups. Then we ran around it 2 more times and did knuckle pushups. We're going to do that every day.

Me: Wow. That's impressive. What made you decide to do all that?

Dane: Zoe P. beat me at arm wrestling.

Boys Behaving Beautifully

Dane's buddy Nic is spending the night. They spent a good part of the evening working on their electricity experiments for the Science Fair (a post yet to come).

Now they're watching How to Train Your Dragon.

This is what I heard earlier when they were deciding to watch the movie:

Dane: You wanna watch How to Train Your Dragon?

Nic: Sure, I've seen it before, but I like that movie.

Dane: I know, I love that movie. You know how it's, well, kind of touching?

[Folks, I kid you not.]

Nic: Yeah... I know what you mean. There are parts when he's with the dragon that really give me a sense of longing.

[Again, I kid you not!]

Dane: Yeah, there are parts that really get me. Even though I might see them like eight times, they just always get me.

And scene.

It kind of reminds me of this post a few years ago. I hope some things never change.

Sick of Sick

Dane's missing another day of school due to sickness. He and Aubrey have missed a lot of school again this year -- I"m afraid to count how many days. Anyway, Thursday he was diagnosed with an ear infection. He's got a cough and sore throat, too. He's been on antibiotics since then and he's not contagious, but he's still dragging, so it's another day home.

Here's the kicker: When I called the school today, the secretary said there are 14 kids out from Dane's class today with the Flu! That's half his class! And his teacher's out, too! Dane doesn't even have the Flu (he was swabbed for Flu and Strep on Thursday and came up negative), but wow.

The nurse also said she had 2 pages of names of kids out for some reason or other today.

What's the scoop in your area? Are kids getting sick, too? Do they all have the same symptoms? Sheesh.

Of Motor Bikes and Van Rides

A couple weekends ago, Mick needed to drive to Washington to pick up the motorcycle of his dreams. It was Dane's dream to drive up with him. When I figured out it would work to send Dane along, I called Dane's school and sent a message to him in class that we'd pick him up early.

When I picked him up, I asked him how he felt when he got the message in class. He pumped his arms and yelled, "Awesome!" When I asked him why it felt so great, he answered as if it should be obvious: "Because I get to go on a trip with Dad!"

As I drove him to meet Mick at the dental office, I told Dane I'd packed him some books and some books on CD in case he needed some entertainment. It was my turn to think "Awesome!" though, when he turned to me and said, "We might not need those. Me and Dad might just chat the whole time."

Yes, he said chat.

And they did. He didn't crack a book or pop in a cd the whole drive.

Bud, Not Buddy and my buddy

"If I had to give a rating out of a thousand stars for Bud, Not Buddy, I'd give it a thousand. This is the best book I've ever read."

I love my boy. He's sensitive and insightful and says things like that when he's sitting around on the couch -- and he says things like that even after he's read the Percy Jackson series five times.


Here's what the book is about: A ten-year-old African American boy in 1930s Detroit who leaves foster care when he gets sick of being treated poorly. This is the story of his journey to find the man he believes is his real father, a renowned jazz musician, and how Bud deals with rejection, adventure, and his own sense of identity. It won the Newberry Award in 2000 and I love that a book with such big ideas spoke to Dane. I also love that there are writers like Christopher Paul Curtis out there.

Teaching Note: Dane chose this at the school library for his upcoming book report, which is supposed to be Historical Fiction, and he's supposed to create a diorama along with his written portion. He's already decided to depict a scene at a train station.

Blog Question: Would you have given a book a thousand stars when you were a kid? Which book(s)?

Feeling The Music

We got up early the other morning and walked to Puck's Donuts to get the dog some exercise (*wink wink*). While we were walking, the kids listened to their iPods. At one point, Dane turned to me and said, "Boy, Mom, I have to be careful when I'm walking with my iPod -- so I don't just bust out and start dancing."

A Post Only A Grandparent Could Love

No, seriously.

 As promised, photos from Dane's Surprise Birthday Party!