carter has conquered scissors and now appears on his way towards wanting to write.

he keeps asking me how to make the primary colors. to him, if you can make green from yellow and blue, you should be able to make yellow from some set of pre-existing colors. he looked at me oddly when i suggested he take some blue out of the green. i thought he might get the joke, but he was very dissatisfied with that answer.

ava adores her microscope.

yesterday she asked me how to make milk. we reviewed the concept of mammals again, and then that prompted her to ask how many animals there were that were mammals. answer: 4500-5000, though it is a number in flux.

it did dawn on her how arbitrary our choice of cow is for our milk, and then she had great fun considering alternatives. chipmunk milk was the funniest.