Lady Gaga

Annabel's favorite music is lady Gaga, and she loves to make up jokes.

Here's a recent joke she told:

"How do you wake up Lady Gaga?"

Answer:

"Poke her face."

Invention box

 

Recently Annabel has been asking if I can help her put together an invention box. An invention box is a shoebox or plastic bin full of parts of broken toys, pen springs, magnets, paperclips and other ingredients for inventions.

She likes to make things. Her imagination is way bigger than her abilities at this point. Some of her invention ideas involve conveyor belts, like the one she had in mind yesterday that would "bring food to dogs, cats and people". Some of them are rube-goldberg like contraptions that do household tasks, like making her bed, and others involve airplanes that can actually fly.

The invention box is a real throwback for me, as I remember having one of my own back when I was Annabel's age. I remember a broken cassette player in particular that I rescued from the garbage to salvage the motor and battery pack.

I've long since upgraded to computer software as my invention box, but the urge is the same.

Brandeis' featured artist of the month

Annabel's is the featured artist at her school this month. She has
her work displayed on a big wall just outside of the gym.

Her first solo show and it's already a retrospective that covers
several of her phases of development. It features several of her
monster food drawings along with a variety of self portraits and
several rainbow and butterfly themed works.

She is very proud.

And the training wheels are off!

After seeing a younger girl riding without her training wheels last week at the park, Annabel asked if she could take off her training wheels yesterday. "It's time." she said to Kristin.

She was a little bit tentative but certainly up for the challenge. After a few runs back and forth on the driveway with Uncle Rick and I, she was off to a wobbly but auspicious start.

Today we went to the park just before dusk on a cloudy and drizzly cold San Francisco afternoon, and she was riding off on her own in no time. She wasn't the best student in the world, preferring to "do it her way" then to listen to instruction or coaching. That meant falling several times, but not hard and it never seemed to upset her.

As I think back now, she really didn't seem to respond much to feedback at all, whether suggestions for how to improve of just words of encouragement. Once she got going though, she was LOVING riding her bike. When she crossed over from the green center to the red box of the basketball court, I heard her say:

"Annabel Goldman is riding through fields of hot lava!" That was awesome.

When we got back into the car for the ride home I said.

"I'm so proud of you guys! You both learned how to ride on two-wheelers in just one day!"

I sensed that Anabel may have been feeling a bit strange because Gaby too had managed to ride unassisted today.

"and Annabel, you could have learned when you were four and a half too if you had wanted. You never liked the idea of taking off the training wheels."

"I didn't want to then though because no one else had theirs off. But now everyone is taking them off and so I did too".

"You sure did. And it only took you one day too. Awesome job!"

I looked back in the rearview and could easily see that he was proud of herself.