Phoebe the Head Hair

 Phoebe's kindergarten class has been learning about the body for the past two months or so. They talked about skin and hair, bones and blood, lungs and heart. During that month of night shifts, Scott came off a shift and went to the school to teach the class a few things before coming home and sleeping for the day. Phoebe's class presented a play about the things they learned. Each member of the class represented part of the body. Phoebe wanted to be hair. So did another boy. They bickered about it before deciding that Phoebe should be "head hair" and the other kid "body hair." You can see Mister Body Hair in the photo above wearing the costume with pipe cleaners coming out of it. Awesome. Phoebe was stoked about her role. She said something like, "Hair keeps your head warm and keeps it from getting sunburned." Well said.

 Nancy, Jared, and new baby cousin Ethan came to visit from Philly for a few days. They got to witness the excitement of the class play. We also did the typical Boston touristy stuff: lobster rolls, Freedom Trail, Mike's Pastry, and Old North Church. They also cheered me on at an indoor track meet. It was me with a few dozen college girls in the 3K, the shortest distance I've raced in who-knows-how-long. I was dead last at the first lap and 8th place by the end. I ran an unimpressive time of 11:16, but I shook some rust off and got "The Old Lady Award," as Phoebe called it (I was the only "open athlete" or non-collegiate runner in the race). I am hoping to race a 5K on the track soon.

 This is Phoebe's amazing teacher Val. She and Justin were Bruce's kindergarten teachers too, so we know them well and just love them. At the beginning of the year, I was worried that they would be expecting a Bruce Junior and would be disappointed when Phoebe was not what they expected. But they have embraced Phoebe and her antics, and have done so much in helping her mature a bit this year.

 On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Scott went hiking with a friend who is trying to hike all the 4000-foot mountains in New Hampshire. He has done 40+ of them, and Scott helped him check one more off his list: Mt. Osceola. They made it to the top, snapped a few pictures from the cloudy and snowy summit, and made it home for dinner. While he did this, the kids and I went to a community service project and made valentines for veterans. Bruce's valentines were almost all roses-are-red-violets-are-blue poems. Phoebe's said things like, "You are strong" and "I love you" scrawled in her all-caps handwriting. Oliver's were the typical toddler paint and marker mess, so I helped him make his.