Snowflakes, Scaloozies and Mr. Rogers

While in Fresno this past week, I was pleased to introduce Lia to something very special from my childhood and something from Sarah's childhood.

I was playing with a piece of paper one evening, trying out a fold that would enable me to cut out a 6 pointed star. I then took that star and with a few more cuts made a snowflake. Lia was pretty impressed with that and wanted to do one of her own. I helped her do a couple and then remembered what my dad taught me when I was Lia's age: how to make Scaloozies. You just take a piece of paper, fold it several times and make random cutouts in it. When you unfold it, you have a Scaloozie. That's what he called it. I think he would have been pretty pleased to know that his great-granddaughter would carry that tradition on. I don't know why I never showed Sarah or Paul how to do it. Just didn't occur to me.

The other special thing I showed Lia was from Sarah's (and Paul's) childhood: Mr. Rogers Operas. We watched Mr. Rogers every afternoon when the kids were little. I was very impressed with the operas, knowing that Rogers actually wrote them. He was so talented in many ways, and music was one of them. The stories were simple and the music was easy to listen to. And a half-hour opera was just right for a child to listen to. After Mr. Rogers died, I really hoped that the operas would be available on DVD, but PBS has a stranglehold on the shows and will not let go. I did find 3 of the 13 operas on PBS Kids online that could be viewed. Two of my favorites, Spoon Mountain and Bubbleland were there. So one day, Lia and I watched them. She clearly liked the Spoon Mountain one the best and has since requested to watch it again. The only thing is: she won't let me sing along!