Merry Christmas!

Thanks for sticking with us for another year!

Wordless Wednesday: Happy December the 23rd!

Two sleeps left until Christmas. Not that ANYONE at Caterpickles Central is counting. Related Links: More Wordless Wednesday on Caterpickles

“Did any of the Presidents not like toys?”

Back when The Eight-Year-Old was only five, we spent a lovely afternoon building a village for her toy dinosaurs out of Lincoln logs. After carefully installing a sunlight in the roof of her sauropod stable, my daughter asked, “Mommyo, did any of the Presidents not like toys?” When I said that surely they all played with toys as kids, she clarified: “No, Mommyo, I’m talking about grown-ups. Did any grown-up Presidents not like playing with toys?”

What’s The Eight-Year-Old reading this week?

This week, the 8 year old reviews Dragon, Hound of Honor by Julie Andrews Edwards and Emma Walton Hamilton and Polo’s Mother by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

The Eight-Year-Old investigates retail book pricing

Now that NaNoWriMo is finally over, it’s only natural that The Eight-Year-Old, who spent November drafting tales of Snoopy, the World War I Flying Ace on her manual…

Wordless Wednesday: The Eight-Year-Old from outer space

Related Links: The Five-Year-Old watches movies: The Cat From Outer Space (Caterpickles) More Wordless Wednesdays on Caterpickles

“What are saddle bugs?”

I have been fielding so many questions about butterflies, moths, and ticks, that when The Eight-Year-Old asked me what a saddle bug was, I leapt to the obvious and told her I thought it was a type of flea. Spoiler alert: It’s not. As far as I can tell, my daughter was actually thinking about a type of caterpillar.

What’s The Eight-Year-Old reading this week?

Our mostly-weekly survey of the tidbits that cross The Eight-Year-Old’s desk. This week, The Eight-Year-Old begins an artful campaign to make a pilgrimage to Dedham, Massachusetts.

Wordless Wednesday: The Eight-Year-Old helps the University of Chicago get into the Guinness Book of World Records

Last week, in an effort to keep patients safe and prevent infections, the University of Chicago hosted the #BigWashUCM — 24 hours in which the various wards and ICU units across its three hospitals strove to achieve perfect hand hygiene. I know what you’re thinking… How could they possibly know?