Young Frankenstien

Hi Sidra,

Well maybe the title to the post is a bit of an exaggeration. You haven't actually been trying to make a monster but you have been doing some scientific experiments and learning a lot about science.

I guess the first of these exploits was your science project for school. You did a little demonstration for your classmates. You didn't exactly create the experiment but you performed it for them and explained to them what was happening. The activity was one that was in one of your National Geographic For Kids magazines. It is called the Dancing Raisins. Your mom says that you are the only kid your age that did one for the class. The others who did a project were all older. We didn't get to see you do it at school so we had you demonstrate for us at home for the video. The vinegar and baking soda react to make carbon dioxide bubbles which stick to the raisins and carry them to the surface. There the bubbles open up and the raisins return to the bottom.

Your mom got you a pop up book showing some other fun experiments we could do. The first one we tried is similar to the dancing raisins because it uses vinegar and baking soda, too. It's a volcano. We put the bottle containing the liquid inside a box folded to look like a mountain. And we used food coloring to make the 'lava' look red. We tried to video that also but on our first attempt we used a bottle that was too big causing our 'eruption' to be too small. On the second take you put the baking soda in while I had my back turned and wasn't ready with the camera. You say it was bigger and redder than the first try but we don't have pictures of it.

You have an interest in the solar system, too. You learned some things about it at school and I've heard you say that the earth goes around the sun and the seasons happen because the earth is tilted either towards or away from the sun. So your mom got you big puzzle of the solar system. You are posing with it in one of the pictures here. We put the puzzle together and then in an odd combination of your interests you bring out your Barbies and they have a solar system party. As always, I'm allowed to use one of the boy dolls. In this case I have made the Beast a comet rider while one of the Barbies is attempting to surf the Milky Way.

On Passover you exchanged your interest in the Afikomen for a solar system gift. It was a set of the planets to hang from the ceiling. They glow in the dark. I hung them in your room as if the overhead light was the sun. I doubt the light is the right size, but the planets are all proportionally distant from the rim of the light fixture. In order to make it authentic and have the inner four planets to appear on different orbits Neptune and Pluto are out in the hall. One of the pictures here shows the inner 5 planets.

You pick up some of your scientific rhetoric from a PBS show you watch online. It's called Wild Krats and you're a little smitten with a couple of the regular cast members. While eating lunch last week you mentioned something about 'arm regeneration.' I questioned you and learned it was in reference to Octopi. My parents were here last night for dinner and we asked you what it meant. You said "When a predator bites off one of the Octopus' tentacles then it grows back."

I don't really have an explanation for the picture of you on the exercise bike. I guess you're just being acrobatic. The picture of you and your mom was taken at your front row seats at the Go Dog Go performance.

Love, aba