Family: Bragging about Liana and the Girls

Liana, Ivy, and Rose

It occurs to me that I haven't yet put up a photo of my family, so here they are. This is Liana, my lovely wife, and my two little girls, Rose on the left and Ivy on the right. I'm extremely proud of them all.

Liana is almost exactly my age, and we've been together for 8 years and married for 6. She's got a Masters in cellular and molecular biology, and for the most part, shares many of my interests. She's been doing a great job of the stay-at-home mom, but to help out with family finances, she's recently taken a job working at a gaming warehouse. There may be an employee discount on gaming products involved.

Ivy is five, and currently attending kindergarten, and enjoying it immensely. School has taught her a lot about reading, she now brings home a short book everyday, and while they are very easy and pattern-based, I think she's doing great. At the risk of violating Scholastic's 2000 copyright egregiously, here is the entire text of a book, titled Kevin, that she brought home today and read to her mommy and sister.

"Kevin likes kites. Kevin likes kittens. Kevin likes koalas. Kevin likes kangaroos. Kevin likes ketchup. Kevin likes kites and kittens. Kevin likes many things."

I'm also extremely proud of her math ability. She can add almost any two small numbers all by herself, and I've recently taught her some basic multiplication. All on her own she brought me a piece of paper on which she'd written "4x4=16", and said "Daddy, look what I did!" It was a really satisfying moment.

Rose is three, and is a total chatterbox. She really likes Spider-Man, and is currently "very angry" because we didn't take her to see Spider-Man II in the theater. Now that it's out on DVD (today, I think), we'll probably pick it up as a holiday gift. It is hard, as of yet, to brag about anything other than her language skills and personality, but they're both remarkable, so that's probably OK.

Today I asked the girls what they wanted for dinner, and I gave them three choices, pizza, chicken, or spaghetti. I always find it's better to offer choices rather than simply ask, because if I just ask they'll take forever to decide, and then pick something they have all the time that I can't make.

Whenever I do this, Ivy picks the most meaty thing, and Rose picks the most carby thing. Ivy wanted chicken, Rose wanted spaghetti. I said we couldn't do both, and asked if there was any way they could compromise, saying that if they couldn't, I would have to flip a coin. Ivy thought about it for a bit, and we talked about it, and she said "Maybe we could have some meatballs." So, the kids had spaghetti and meatballs, and I got to feel proud.