And tobi turned 4

Oh, and I forgot something. Tobi turned 4. He's my little brother.

My new school

Now I part-time homeschool instead of full-time homeschooling. The school I go to is not like a regular school, if you know what it is it's a free school. Manhattan Free School. You can sign up for classes and you can teach classes and you can play almost all day.

I have a best friend there. Well, not a best friend, but one of my closest friends. His name is Sam. When he gets angry, he's very scary. There's a ten-year-old girl there I like very much. Her name is Priscilla and she walks me home sometimes. My mommy pays her $5. I have two staff members. Their names are Pat and Noelle. They are very nice and they take care of my school and they are nice. That's mostly all they do. My mommy and my daddy and me teaches classes. My daddy's taught only one class and I've taught one class. My mommy teaches knitting and Korean. My daddy teaches Go. It's not like stop and go, it's an Asian game that's sort of like Chess, I guess, because I have no idea of what chess actually is.

I haven't written in the blog in so long because I haven't had a chance to, and when I have I forgot. So I didn't write in it till now.

During the time I've been away and haven't been writing, I went to France for 2 weeks. And we passed Hannukah too. Guess what I got for the 8th day? I got a Didji, sort of like a Nintendo DS, which my friend Sam gets his nose stuck in. Except it's not like like a Nintendo DS because it's bigger and it doesn't have a cover.

And at my school, I've got 5 pets: two guinea pigs and three gerbils. And that's pretty much all I've got to say. And I've got a dog. I forgot.

Wooly Bear Caterpillar

My Virginia Adventure

[A posting from our visit to Lily's grandmother and step-grandfather in Virginia.]

Today I had a real tiring adventuring day. Because we had a party, and the beginning of the party we went tubing and when you go tubing you use these big tire-y things and then you float there in the water and when I went tubing I found some friends and they were at the party too. I'm not saying their names but I'm going to just tell you about them.

I am in a big house that is my Grandma's and Grandpa's. There are two skeletons here who are Charlie and Toli and they are very nice.

When you go tubing and you get back, I was pulling the friend of mine I was talking to, the female, and I was pulling her. But there was a part that was currenty and then there was a part that was shallow and we had to walk. And then there was a deep part and she fell flat on her head in the water. And she was complaining because nobody else did, not even me.

Then I had cake and Oscar came and Aunty Emily and Uncle Chris and Adam. Then it was bed time and everyone was talking late and that leads me to this moment when I finished the story. So long from me, until the next daily news which I know won't be tomorrow because we'll be doing a lot of traveling. And I know I've already past the time when I should be stopping so I think I'll talk on for three more sentences. So my first sentence is I hope tomorrow goes on smoothly. And my other sentence is I hope tonight everyone sleeps well. And my last sentence is I hope Sadie is well. Okay, now here's the real goodbye -- So, bye and so long.

Me and Sadie, a poem

Me and Sadie went to the park
Me and Sadie played on the swings

Me and Sadie went to the zoo
Me and Sadie saw cockroach shoes

Me and Sadie went the the beach
Me and Sadie played in the sea

Me and Sadie played in the lake

Me and Sadie went to bed
Med and sadie went to sleep

COMMENT: I don't do rhyming poems. I only do just little things that aren't real things but they sound more like a poem then real things.

Narration: The wings of a butterfly

AUTHOR: A traditional South American fable

STORY: Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Chimiduye and she lived in a small house in the rain forest with her relatives and mother and father. Boys and men hunted and girls and the women cooked and worked in a farm nearby.

The other girls and she never dared to step too far into the forest because they knew quite well it was very easy to get eaten by a wild beast or a spirit. And one day, when she was making a little basket she looked up and saw a huge butterfly in front of her and she followed in deep deep into the woods. And soon it disappeared into the vines and she realized that she had gone too far into the forest. And she wandered aimlessly through the trees only getting deeper into the forest then before.

And then she heard a little tap-tap-tap in the woods. And she thought hopefully, somebody's working in the woods and they can bring me home. And she followed the tapping sound, but to her surprise it was only a woopecker. She said to herself, if only you were human you could lead me home. The woodpecker said, "Why do I need to be human to lead you home? I could lead you home the way I am!"

She said, "Really?" And then the woodpecker said, "Why not." and flew away.

And then she wandered into the woods a little bit more and saw a big hut. And there was a lady inside it making a hammock. The lady said, "Don't ask me for help! You eat so many of us and boil so many of us, so don't ask me for help!" and old lady went away. The old lady was actually really just a bird transformed and fluttered into a tree.

And then a fruit fell from a tree and she picked it up and ate it. And then another one fell from the tree. She looked up and it was a group of monkeys. Her fear soon grew when daylight spread to darkness. The monkeys came down from the tree and she hid to watch them. And then to her surprise, the monkeys turned into humans. And one of the boy monkeys said,"What are you doing here, Chimuye?" And she said,. "I got lost." Then a woman monkey said, "Poor thing, you can come with us to the festival of monkeys. The Lord Monkey invited us."

And then they went to a big hut with a bunch of other monkeys wearing masks and costumes and drinking beer. And the Lord Monkey said, "Why are you here uninvited?" And the man monkey said, "We found her and brought her with us."

And that nights, she couldn't sleep from the King Monkey snoring. It sounded like somebody talking, and she listed to the king monkey and he said, "I'm going to devour her, I'm going to devour her." And she said, "Grandfather!" and he woke up and she said "you said you were going to devour me." And he said don't be silly, monkeys don't devour people. And went back to sleep.

She saw the Lord Monkey, and he wasn't really a monkey at all. He was a big beast with black spots. He was a jaguar! She got out of bed and got a torch and ran right out to the big hut.

Daylight soon came and she started to cry. She heard a fluttering and she looked up and saw a butterfly, and the butterfly said, "Follow me. I will show you the way home." "Really?" And the butterfly said, "Sure, follow me."

And soon they were at the river and on the other side was her family and friends. And she said,"I crossed the river without even knowing it! But how can I get back?" And the butterfly said, "I'll turn you into a butterfly." And she hummed "Who do drinks dew, who do drinks dew, who do drinks dew." And soon she was fluttering across the river.

The moment she touched ground she turned into a human and she went home. The end.

REVIEW: This story is from South America. My review is Ii do not get it at all. When I think of it, i think it's a little too changey. A little confusing. That is my review. I would like to change into a butterfly so I could flutter around. I'd sleep without a blanket. I'd sleep on a wall, and the most funnest of all would be to walk on the ceiling. But now I'm not a butterfly so I can't walk on the wall at all.

Poem: Our New Dog

Our new dog is a lab.
Who is it?
It's a Lab-lab.
Who is it again?
A Lab-Lab-Lab-lab.
Oh! It's a Lab!
It's a Lab-Lab-Lab-lab, I heard.
And it's a Lab-Lab-Lab-lab.

We have a lab.
A lab we have.
We have a lab.
A Lab-lab-have.
A Lab we have.

But I do not know
if it's a lab or a bag
so what should we throw?

We have a lab mix
a max and mix.
We have a lab mix,
who's half max and half lab.

Written by Lily.