Milestone Minutiae

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Emmett has been reading and re-reading and re-reading all of the Murderous Maths books, and enjoying them immensely. He told me that you can't have a right triangle with an obtuse angle in it. I, being a geek and kind of mean, said, "Well, you can't unless the triangle is on the surface of a sphere." We've talked about triangles on spheres before, but I was a bit surprised when he confidently responded, "Correct!" His dad, not to be outdone, wondered about a triangle on a hyperbolic plane (shaped like a pringle), but shortly concluded that it could only be done in spaces with positive curvature. Emmett has it coming at him from all sides...

I got chocolate advent calendars for each of the boys. Emmett and Luke understand what's going on, but Henry was intrigued by the idea that there were all of these chocolates inside and he could only eat one each day. He carried the calendar with him all around the house. He opened a future door or two, but he didn't eat the chocolate. At first we thought he'd eaten it, but we found it later and it had just fallen out. One day about a week into December, I saw him open a future door and dragging his nail across the chocolate, eating just the tiny shard he scratched off. He had no intention of eating the whole thing, but he just couldn't resist a little taste. I would have loved to see how this all turned out over time, but later that day Henry left his advent calendar on the floor and Jenny (our greyhound) had far less restraint. Nothing could be salvaged, though we did go get some replacement chocolates so Henry still gets his daily treat. (and no more for Jenn

The kids are frequently awake before I am. One day a couple weeks ago, I was still asleep when Henry came right up next to my face and said in a loud whisper, "Mom! Guess what!" In a groggy state, I replied, "What?" Henry said, "Chicken butt!"

Earlier this winter, the kids stayed outside longer than it took me to dress them for the cold - not sure if I mentioned that here or not. I think Henry never would have stayed out that long if it hadn't been for his brothers playing with him, so siblings are finally pulling some weight around here. :) Today we made gingerbread houses, and Luke and Emmett both decorated their houses completely independently! I just showed them how to use icing in a piping bag and let them go at it. I piped icing for Henry, so that house is a collaboration, but I can hardly wait until he can do it himself, too!