MERRY CHRISTMAS from Marcus and Alyssa	Alyssa's mini gallery Gus the wonder dog picture

(links and info updated Dec 2002)

The Curious Kitten

By Alyssa P. as told to her daddy (11/3/98)

Once upon a time, there was a curious kitten. It was in the forest eating flowers by the green berry palm tree. Then the curious kitten was walking away from the pond. It was getting more hungrier and it saw some lily pads on the lake and it was hungry and thirsty. Then it went to eat the lily pads first and then it was getting to be night time.

It heard some werewolves and it saw a cottage and went inside. In the cottage was 3 chairs. one was big, one was short, one was small. It tried the big chair first and then it tried the short chair and then it tried the baby chair. After it tried the chairs it sat on the baby chair and it was just right. It tried the soups. The daddy soup was too hot. Of course it wasn’t so good. And then it tried the mommy one. And the mommy one had a dog pepperoni pizza but the soup is a dog one too. It tried the baby one and it was just right. It was a kitty porridge, so it ate it all up. (yes it is gross but this is a 5 year old after all)

Kitty saw some couches. It was trying the daddy couch it was too hard, didn’t have no pillows. It tried the mommy one but it was too fancy and too soft and too much pillows. It tried the baby one and it was only having a little bit pillows and it was little bit soft and it was just right. So she sat on it and she tried the remote controls. She tried the daddy one and it was too big and she dropped it. And it tried the mommy one and it was too heavy so she put it on the ground before it will drop. And it tried the baby one and it was just right. It wasn’t dropping and it was just right. So it needed to change the channels. It tried the daddy one and it was the news the kitty hate the news. It tried the mommy one and it was about kissing stories. (eewwwwwwww!!!!) And it tried the baby one and it was about sesame street. The kitty likes sesame street so it watched sesame street.

It was getting to be night time it was getting to be bedtime so it went to the bathroom and it needed to go p_e_e_p_e_e. Then it was trying the daddy toilet. She falled in the daddy toilet. And it tried the mommy toilet and she almost slipped in the mommy’s toilet and it already had p_e_e in it. And then it tried the baby one and it was just right so she p_e_ed. And then she needed to try the sinks and needed to brush its teeth so it went up to the daddy’s sink and then it was too high..couldnt even reach it. And it tried tried the mommy one and it could almost reach it. It tried the baby one and it was just right. And then it needed to brush its teeth so it tried the daddy toothbrush and but it was too big and almost brushed its eyes. It tried the mommy one but it was almost too big. It tried the baby one and it just the right size so it brushed the teeth. Then it tried the baby bed and it was just right. it wanted to try the baby bed cause it was sooooo tired. So it went to sleep.

Then the 3 dogs came and the daddy said someones been eating in my dog soup. and the mommy one said someone’s been eating my dog pizza. And the baby one said someones been eating my doggy sesame street soup and it ate it all! So they went up stairs to check the bathroom and they checked the toilets. The daddy one said someone’s been p_e_eing in my toilet. The mommy one said someone’s been p_e_eing in my toilet. And the baby one said someone's been p_e_eing in my toilet and it didn’t flush the toilet!! Then they checked the bedroom and the baby dog said someone’s been sleeping my bed and there it is! So they chased the kitty outside and then it went home. It went past all of the parts she been through but she didn’t eat a single bit of lily pad. So it went home and it never went back to the cottage ever again.

The End.

Want more? See her other story, A Unicorn and a Frog, a very convoluted tale of frogs and unicorns, or visit some of the Children's Stories Links listed below

VISIT Alyssa's 1998 Merry Christmas Picture !! or the 1999 Christmas picture

Coming up:

2000 news: Alyssa has started 2nd grade. Finally after all these years we went to Mt. St. Helens and saw my videowall at the Coldwater Creek Visitor Center. I finished that project literally the day Alyssa was born and had to rush from Monterey to SF on my motorcycle to see the birth ....had 45 minutes to spare. Went digging for thunder eggs at Richardson Ranch near Madras Oregon, explored the Oregon Caves, got rained on, stayed a night in a treehouse and other things. Pictures forthcoming in November.

2001 news: Alyssa has started 3rd grade.Over the summer I took her and Zoe to our secret campgound site in the Lake Tahoe area for a few days. They had one tent I had another ( I snore). Nice warm weather, hardly a mosquito in sight. They had a great time in the lake and also at the miniature golf course we went to up in North Shore. Hopefully we'll do more camping, even in the cold weather as now I finally have my old Coleman lamp up and running (new pump courtesy Traders in San Leandro) and all my camping gear is boxed up for quick getaways.

2002- I moved back into my house last December and have been busy working on the house whenever I'm not working. given the current economic and client situation I hope to remain more busy at work than at the house. We'll see. Current project is removing the old knob and tube wiring from the ceiling and updating it with non-metallic sheathed cable. Just added an exterior light to the driveway so Gus can play ball there at night. Then there's insulation to add when I'm done. Alyssa is in 4th grade and having a good time of it. She's taken to chapter books like no tomorrow. We just finished the last Harry Potter book and she's working on a couple from an author by the name of Avi as well as All Creatures Great and Small. This past fall she joined up with a soccer league, learned a lot and played a lot. She'll be doing spring soccer. Also this spring, around May we'll be visiting this website a lot: http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/peregrine_cam.htm note that there is an underscore (peregrine_cam) in the addy. In the 2002 season 3 baby falcons or 'eyases' resided in a nest box on top of bulding 400 at the Oracle complex in Redwood City California. The Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group runs this operation. The babies hatched May 7th and 8th. A fourth egg did not hatch which is just as well. 3 hungry mouths for Sadie (the mom) and her mate Jimbo to feed are enough. Unfortunately two of the birds died on a very windy day, the consequence of having buildings around and lots of high winds. Sometimes those things can't be helped. Despite the setback this and other hatching programs do seem to be adding to the population.

This is a picture that Alyssa colored in pre-school when she was 5 years old.

Software Review-UPDATE on Orly's Draw-A-Story - it's harder to get.

Unabashed plug for a product from Broderbund that Alyssa just LOVES and has been playing with for the past several years. It's called Orly's Draw-A-Story, a delightful CD-ROM that let's kids paint, draw, interact with characters and they can watch their artwork become part of the animated stories. The setting is in Jamaica where you meet a girl named Orly who tells stories about her and her frog Lancelot. Good stories too! The music is great. Never in the past 2 years have I felt the need to toss the computer out the window as one would upon hearing the music of other software titles over and over and over again. You can even play the soundtrack in a regular CD player, though maybe that's pushing it if your kid is playing with it a lot. It allows kids to experiment with all kinds of colors and textures and make their own illustrated stories. You can save each story at any point, just in case if you need to interrupt your child's creative time with dinner, playtime or bedtime. It's available as a MAC/PC CD-ROM so it has portability which I have taken advantage of. Give this one the Alyssa rating of 5-stars and a kiss. She still enjoys playing with it so it seems to have a lot of durability. You'll have to seriously hunt for this piece of software.

This is an EXCELLENT piece of children's software. At some point software titles do disappear so I would not hesitate..run and get this as fast as you can! Don't ask me for my copy because I'm hanging on to it for dear life.You can get a taste of Orly's Draw-A-Story at http://www.tjande.com/orly/parents.htm This website has the characters and a description of the activities. It also has a downloadable demo.

WARNING - there are problems when you play it on Mitsumi CD Drives..so be warned.

***Best Interactive Storybook”, Bologna New Media Prize Children’s Software Review / Bologna 1997 Int'l Book Fair and “Best Children’s Software” Award, British Interactive Multimedia Assoc. for other award listings- http://www.tjande.com/orly/parents.htm

Children's Stories Links - updated 4/15/02

Special Links:

Visit the Comet Hale-Bopp Home Page for what Alyssa calls "pretty pictures". She still remembers looking at the comet in 1997, a great experience for any kid. This great site is constantly updated with new information and has more than 5000 images taken from everywhere in the world by both professional and amateur astrophotographers. Also check out: the Astronomy for Kids home page, NASA Photo Gallery, Earth and Moon Viewer, Space Weather Now which shows sunspots and can tell you if you can see the Northern Lights from your location, Nanotechnoloogy movies and pictures, the Smithsonian Institution's page on the Vikings, the Interactive Math and Puzzle page, National Weather Center Storm Prediction page has alerts for storms, fire conditions, Geology Central has virtual geologyfield trips around the world, and Ask Dr. Universe about your scientific questions.

Finally, for one of Alyssa's favorite television shows (and her daddy's), tune in to cartoon network for the:

Saving the world before bedtime. Or after bedtime.

also

and Alyssa's favorite activity is ----- dissect a leech at http://www.holidaylectures.org/grants/lectures/biointeractive/vlabs.html

This incredible site allows you to do a virtual dissection of a leech with no mess and no stink. Then you get to probe it for electrical nerve impulses. WAYYYYYY COOOOOOL! Also other lab experiments. http://www.hhmi.org/grants/lectures/biointeractive/vlabs/index.htm And here's the link for the rest of the Biointeractive website: http://www.holidaylectures.org/grants/lectures/biointeractive/

Alyssa's Bedtime Stories
All original material copyrighted 1998-2003 by Alyssa and her dad
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