Iron Girl

While Mommy was napping, Madison put on her Iron Man suit and had some fun.  Apparently, Jarvis took a photo of her while in the suit, and she appears to be having the time of her life!  She flew around the neighborhood a few times, launched a few repulser blasts here and there, and returned safe and sound without Mommy ever knowing what happened.  Ah, such is the life of a six-year old!

This morning, we continued our series "Big Top," with a day dedicated to clowns.  As such, it was pretty funny.  Daddy had a big mime skit all planned out, involving a spotlight idea he picked up years ago from the Cirque du Soleil production "Varekai."  It has always been a big hit with the kids, and today was no different.

Madison had fun at church as always.  Our message this morning was a simple one, from 1 Thessalonians 5:16:  "Always be joyful."  There's the tie-in to clowns and having a merry spirit.  Speaking of which, Madison came to church this morning with red envelopes again, handing them to her teachers and friends to wish them a happy Chinese New Year.

It was rainy and cold today - the good news is that Georgia is officially out of drought status again.  In fact, there's more rain on the way this week, and a flood watch is in effect for certain parts of the state.  We've had quite a wet month, but nobody is complaining so much.  Sure, we'd love to go out and play, but we need the rain - and it's pretty cold out there anyway.  Plus, it's nothing as bad as they are getting up north, with Nemo's snow.  Although... we still want just one good snowstorm down here.  A day off with snow.  Daddy can't wait to play with Madison again in the snow!

In any event, we spent all the day inside, as you would expect.  We didn't want to go anywhere - Daddy was a little tired for that.  SO, we did our typical piano practice after lunch, and this time Daddy rewarded Madison with a bowl of ice cream!  It's amazing how well she plays when really motivated.  She was playing as well as, if not better than Daddy with that song "Monkey Sounds."  She's getting the hang of the three chords we've learned so far, playing them at the same time as a melody with the right hand.  Not bad for a six-year old again.

After ice cream, she was cold, so we dove under the covers on the couch, and had a Chinese movie festival to celebrate the New Year.  We watched "Mulan 2" and "Big Bird Goes to China," and a DVD of the Twelve Girls Band performing, while Madison ate some dinner later on.  For dinner, she insisted on long noodles, because it is a tradition at Chinese New Year.  So Daddy cooked up some Ramon noodles, and we munched on them for a long and prosperous year.

At bedtime, Daddy had a host of Chinese New Year books to read - but we only had time for three:

This artist and author has a series of books aimed right at children from China.  The book is called "Bringing in the New Year," and it highlights some of the traditions and fun of the New Year.  The artwork is certainly a highlight in this book, and others by the artist.

This book is more story-driven, and was really appropriate reading last year, when it was the Year of the Dragon.  The book takes place as the Year of the Dragon is kicking off, and features a boy named Chin Chiang, who needs more confidence before he can do the dragon dance.  Today we were calculating when the next Year of the Dragon would be.  That's 2024, and Madison will be 18.  Yikes!

And this was Madison's favorite book of the night.  It's a lift-the-flap book, which have always been popular with Madison.  She just loves peeking behind to see what's hiding there.  In this book's case, it's usually something related to the New Year.

Anyway, these are just a few of our collection, but Madison enjoyed listening to all three again.  She remembered plot points too, so Daddy had better go find some new books soon!