mirandatime

M's number puzzle

2009-12-24T04:21:14Z

After M practiced piano, I played a few Christmas songs (badly) while she sang, ending with "The Twelve Days of Christmas." She had to go to the bathroom after that, but on the way I posed a couple of questions:

"How many partridges in a pear tree did the person singing the song get?"

"Twelve," replied M.

"Okay, while you're in the bathroom, try this one: how many turtle doves?"

"Well, she got eleven, right?"

"No, you're right that she got them on eleven days, but she got two each day, so how many total?"

She went into the bathroom and pondered that while I went down to deal with laundry.

A few minutes later she came down to the laundry room, crying a little.

"What happened, honey?" I asked her.

"I fell down on the stairs while I was coming back from the bathroom and hurt my bottom. Twenty-two."

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M on Rankin-Bass

2009-12-20T05:18:10Z

"First Rudolph saved Christmas, and now he's saving New Year's. Next thing you know, he'll be saving Valentine's Day!"

Posted via email from mirandaland

M on orders of magnitude

2009-12-16T03:38:12Z

"Zero is really the biggest number. By itself, it's nothing. But if you add a zero after a one, you get 10. And if you add another zero, you get 100, and then 1000, and so on. So zero makes everything bigger. And the symbol for infinity is like two zeros smushed together!"

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M on seeing an old friend

2009-12-14T02:51:31Z

M's friend N from her old preschool came over for the first time in a year, and they had a grand old time playing together in M's room. I always thought N was a little quiet, so it was interesting to hear her chatting away today.

"It was nice to see N today, wasn't it?" I said after they left.

"Yes, it was great!" replied M.

"N is a lot more talkative now that she's in first grade, isn't she?"

"Yes, but she's also really loveative. And likeative." said M.

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Umbrellas

2009-12-12T23:39:46Z

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from mirandaland

Mother and child

2009-12-12T23:10:00Z

Sent from my iPhone

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M invents a word

2009-12-12T18:57:44Z

Playing Chutes and Ladders. "Oh no, now you're ahead. And I'm atail!"

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M on school

2009-12-09T04:44:34Z

"I love school so much. I wish I could go every day. Why do we have to have summer vacations and minimum days? Most kids smile when they get to go home early, but I actually frown, and inside me a tear might be brewing."

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M's restaurant poem

2009-11-22T02:48:08Z

"Just when you think you can't wait anymore,
The sweet smells just feel like a lure,
You sit up in your seat and think that the waitress is late...
And then she comes and gives you your plate."

Posted via email from mirandaland

M on cartoon physics

2009-11-22T02:42:37Z

M says, "In funny movies, when something really big lands on a person,
and they push it off, they just look really flat. But in real life,
that would actually kill them. That would be disgusting if it was in
your yard! There would be lots of blood."

Posted via email from mirandaland

Love Inc.

2009-09-15T23:35:07Z

Miranda (hugging me hard): Do you know what mommies are best for? Hugging!
Morrisa: Aw, thanks. What a loving little person you are.
Miranda: That's because I was made by the Lovey Dovey Company.

[nj] her muse

2009-07-25T05:05:23Z

Part of Miranda's usual bedtime routine is going potty. Her bathroom has a big window that looks out over our backyard, and it seems that staring out the window while she's on the john inspires her; each night for the past several nights, she's made up a new song. I've been getting her to repeat the song on video (after she gets out of the bathroom), but it's never quite as fresh or purely emotional on the video as it is when she's singing longingly on the potty.

There's definitely a theme to these potty songs--they're all pensive and philosophical; so far, the songs have been things like "When is the Winter" (about a little girl who prefers winter to summer wondering when the snow will come so she can go out and play), "How Large the World Is Tonight" (about how big everything is, including her heart), and "Why Can't I Travel" (about a little girl who wants to get away from her family and friends, escape California and travel the world, but can't because she knows she needs her family to protect her).

Tonight she explained, "I make up my songs when I'm staring out the window at the night sky, so it makes sense that they're questioning and mysterious."

[nj] mirandatwitter

2009-07-25T05:00:34Z

I often post short amusing Miranda bits to my Twitter stream, so you might want to follow me there to get more random goodness.

[nj] metagrammatical observation

2009-04-29T06:26:33Z

Miranda was in bed, listening to a CD of "Sleepytime Songs" by Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul and Mary fame). Oddly, the second track isn't very "sleepy" at all--it's uptempo. Miranda said, "I wonder why they call this a sleepytime song. It's pretty jumpy."

She paused, then said, "I wonder why when people say 'I wonder why', they put a question mark after it sometimes. Maybe they put a question mark after it because it ends with 'why'. But it's not really a question."

[nj] pedagogy

2009-04-13T22:20:01Z

Miranda had a regular checkup today with her pediatrician, who adores her. The doctor happened to have a little extra time, since she didn't have an appointment immediately after ours, so she let Miranda read her a whole children's book.

One illustration in the book is of an old lady who can't see too well, peering at a drawing some kids made for her. The doctor said to Miranda, "Oh, look, she's looking through something that makes it easier for her to see the drawing."

Miranda explained patiently, "That's called a magnifying glass."

[nj] everyone's a comedian

2009-04-13T22:13:15Z

Over the last year or so Miranda's started reading joke books, and has been valiantly attempting to make up jokes of her own. We bought a new joke book at the bookstore today, and she was reading jokes to me out of it during lunch. Later on, while she was eating and looking at her glass of orange juice, she said:

"Daddy, what's arranged with ice at the top?"

"I don't know, bunny."

"Arranged juice!"

[nj] the observer 2

2009-02-08T22:59:00Z

After Miranda finished signing invitations for her upcoming princess-themed birthday party, she said to me out of the blue, "You know, daddy, 16 is made up of a lot of 3s and one 1."

"That's right, bunny! How did you know that?"

"Well, I was counting my invitations in threes, one-two-three one-two-three, and then there was a one at the end with no two and no three."

[nj] the observer

2009-02-07T04:00:14Z

Sometime last year, when Miranda had just turned 4, she was playing an educational PC game that we had downloaded from GameTap. A lot of these kid's games are old, and have weird little bugs in modern OS versions.

Once, after quitting out of the game, she crinkled her forehead at the screen, then called me over. She pointed at a selected icon on the desktop, and said, "Daddy, how come this color" (the selection highlight color for the filename under the icon) "is usually blue, but now it's green?" It was true; the game had messed up the Windows selection highlight theme color. I told her she'd have a great future in QA.
As we were driving home from dinner tonight, Miranda mentioned that the teachers put on the recently-released Tinker Bell movie after school; she's seen the same movie at home a few times. "But you know what?" she said. "I noticed that there were some parts of the movie that were more zoomed in than the version we have at home. And some parts of the movie seemed more zoomed out. Like the scene where Fairy Mary takes Tinker Bell's hands, and in our version you can see more around them." So I had to explain aspect ratios and pan-and-scan.

Two heavens

2009-01-14T04:55:51Z

Mom, remember every word I say, and write down what I say about the two heavens.

Babies wait in Heaven in the South to be born. They wait in a long line. When it's the baby's turn to be brought to its mom, someone calls its name and says "You're first!" The baby is carried over to where it's prepared for the pelican, crawls into a blanket, a grownup gathers the blanket around the baby and ties the knot, and then the pelican brings the baby to its mom!

In the North, there's another heaven. That's where people go when they die. There's a big building there, with floor after floor. On each floor, there's a bed. There are two people who work there. They live in a house next door. A worker takes the person who died to their room. In each room, there's a bed, not a bed for two people, just one bed in each room. There's no talking or crocheting or toys or reading, because, well, they're dead. The worker puts the person into their bed, and then turns out the light. Dead people don't need any lights. They don't need anything, just a bed.

Two cute things Miranda said today

2008-12-13T23:17:46Z

1. Miranda was talking about how she and her friends at school were playing pretend karate the other day.

"Would you be interested in taking karate classes?" I said.

"Yes, because I'd like to learn real karate. Also, I already know a fair amount of Miranda karate."

"What's Miranda karate?"

"Well, it's when you imagine what kind of karate you want to do, and then you do it."

2. We were talking about gifts, and Miranda spontaneously said, "You know what my best gift ever is?"

"What's that, bun?"

"My mom. And all my friends and family, which includes Fizgig, and you too, Dad."

"Wow, that's very sweet, bunny."

"Because even though I like playing with toys and things sometimes, you're the only gifts that are around all the time, every day, every week, every month, every year. And I think about you all the time, with every breath I take, especially when I'm at school and you're not around. It's like this: I take a breath, then I think about you, then I wish you were with me. I take another breath, then I think about you, then I wish you were with me. Like that."

[nj] mirandaland

2008-11-09T05:46:23Z

Miranda was describing Mirandaland to me. There were a lot of details that I've probably forgotten, but I think this is the gist of it.

"Well, it's a continent that's completely surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, and it's made up of a bunch of islands.

"When you go there there are signs that say, 'If you're a grown-up and you're taller than this sign, or exactly the same size as this sign, then you need to bend your head down so you can fit.'

"The first land is Hotelland. That's just the big hotel where everyone stays. There aren't any rides there or anything. It has lots and lots of rooms and restaurants.

"The next land after that is Coloringland. And then after that is Artland, but Artland is only open on art days. Tomorrow is an art day, but there's something wrong with the land that they have to fix up, so it's going to be closed and you have to go around it.

"The next land is called Playworld. You don't have to go to school, but if you do, the school is just a big playground anyway. Then there's Rideland and Gameland.

"And the last land is called Everythingelseland. That's the land that has everything else that kids like to do.

"Only kids whose names have an M in them get to go into all the lands. Kids who don't have an M in their names can go to the hotel, but they only get to play with their own toys or new toys their parents get for them."

Awake

2008-10-16T17:58:28Z

I went to Miranda's room to get her up and dressed for school.
She looked at me solemnly and said:

"I had a story, somewhere. Here's what happened:

The moon and a star came down from the sky.
They went into a house
And there they turned into you and I.
We were still shining, and hungry,
So we ate a whole gummi-pie.
I don't know what came next.
Daddy woke me when he said good-bye.

Hey mommy, some of that rhymed!"

A moment of poetry as Miranda explains the weather

2008-10-10T16:35:58Z

It's cold this morning.
The air's place of miracle
has overwhelmed
the sun's place of miracle.

Number Animals --By Miranda Jaramillo

2008-09-23T20:33:13Z

A one-ber is an animal with a head and feet, and a long swishy tail. It loves to travel, and it always smiles.

A ten-ber is a two-headed creature. It has one head on its one, and one head on its zero. The heads each have two eyes and a mouth that always smiles. They are always together. The one of the ten-ber only likes to travel to hot places, like Hawaii, Australia, and Mexico. Hot places make the one smile more.

The zero likes to travel to cold places, like Sweden, Canada, and Antarctica. Even though the one does not like cold, a ten-ber always travels together, so when they go somewhere cold, the one wears a lot of layers, with a raincoat too, and the zero just wears clothes.

When a ten-ber ice skates, the one and the zero try and try to make S-shapes, but they can only make 3s, because numbers can only make other numbers.

supplemental

2008-08-28T17:56:40Z

Miranda watched me slowly make my way through swallowing my boatload of vitamins and meds, grimacing. "You don't like them. Poor Mommy. I wish grown-ups could have gummy vitamins, like my princess vitamins," she said with sympathy.

"Mmm. That would be nice, Bunny," I said.

"Only they shouldn't be princess gummy vitamins. They should be something grownups like. You should have "The West Wing" gummy vitamins. Hey, why are you laughing?"