Smarty Pants Dance

(from February)

Freckles

She wants them so badly! She makes me smile. I remember once wanting freckles so bad that I marked up my face and was heartbroken when no one believed they were real.

Bring Your Child to Work Day

She insisted that Mommy wear a hat to match her. Something tells me that not a single one of my colleagues were surprised by that.

Words of Truth

ELLIE: (to Daddy) I do trust you... NOT around cookies, though!

Little Who with an Attitude

Ellie's birthday party

ELLIE: Mommy, can I tell you something?
MOMMY: Sure, what's up?
ELLIE: People keep asking me what I want for my birthday but I don't really know.
MOMMY: Oh?
ELLIE: Yeah. I don't know what I want for my birthday because I already have everything I want.
MOMMY: Wow. That's very mature! In fact, that's more mature than many grown-ups!
ELLIE: Really?

Ellie decided that for her birthday she wanted to have a party at her best friend, Brynn's, house. Alas we scheduled the party over spring break and it was a bit of a flop when no one showed. Did that put Ellie down? Heck no! She had a blast spending the entire day with her bestest of best friends!  She even wrote a thank you letter to tell her friend that she had the best birthday party ever!

These girls are getting so big!!!

Hangman

ELLIE: It's a three letter word that ends with OU? What could it be?
ADDIE: You?
ELLIE: No I already guessed U. Daddy what is it?
ADDIE: You?
ELLIE: i told you.  I already guessed U.

The answer? 
You are a goose.

Ellie Draws

I wonder who this could be from. Too funny.

2nd Grade Thank You Letters

Daddy gave Ellie's class a presentation about some of the projects he is working on. It included a brief description of some satellites as well as a demonstration of how blurry an object can be if you are looking at a pixelated image. I got a big kick out of the letters that Ellie's classmates wrote to him. I've posted images of some of them below. It's amazing the range of writing skills present in the same classroom, but allow yourself a good chuckle on some of the responses. It made my day.

Age is mind over matter

ELLIE: I wish I was Addie.
DADDY: Why is that?
ELLIE: Because when I am 100 years old I will be dead.  But when I am 100, Addie will still have 3 years to live!

Gratitude

It makes it a lot easier to not say no.

Overbearing Mom

Sometimes I am shocked at how early particular conversations happen with my girls. They started talking about marriage at the age of 2 or 3. They started having sincere conversations about racism and religion not long afterwards. Of course these conversations have an age-appropriate level of details, but I'm often surprised at how "real" so many of the topics are.

Alas, this happened again last night when Ellie frustratingly told me "MOM! Stop telling me about all the things you want for me! I've made up my mind and I don't want to change it!"

Yeah, I wasn't expecting that one until the teenage years.

And yes, it was about career choices.

Last night she informed me that she decided she wants to be a stay-at-home-mom when she grows up. Without intending to, I apparently insulted her dream and couldn't seem to fix it no matter what I said.

ELLIE: I've decided I want to be a stay-at-home-mom when I grow up!
MOMMY: Oh, really? That's a really tough job but I'm sure you'll be good at it.
ELLIE: No it's not. It's not going to be tough. Why would you say that?
MOMMY: Well, it's not easy.
ELLIE: I'll just do what the kids want to do and play all the time. Why would that be hard?
MOMMY: That certainly sounds like fun.
ELLIE: Then why would you say it is going to be hard? Why would you say that Mommy?
MOMMY: Um... well one of the things I really like about working is that it gives us extra money to do the things we love to do like vacations or date weekends.
ELLIE: So? What does that have to do with anything?
MOMMY: I was just thinking that if you stayed at home, you might have less money for things like that. It might be hard to do all the things you want to do.
ELLIE: Mommy, if I need more money I'll just sell my kids' toys. I can sell the really big ones for $10, the medium ones for $5 and the little ones for $1. I won't worry about money because I always have options.
MOMMY: Well I'm glad to hear you've thought this through. I'm excited to see what you decide you want to study and what kind of job you'll have before you.... (Ellie interrupted before I could say "decide who you want to marry and start a family with.")
ELLIE: MOMMY!!! I ALREADY TOLD YOU WHAT I WANT TO BE!!!
MOMMY: I'm sorry. I just want you to be... (Ellie interrupted before I could say "happy")
ELLIE: MOMMY!!! STOP TELLING ME ABOUT ALL THE THIGNS YOU WANT FOR ME!!! I'VE MADE UP MY MIND AND I DON'T WANT TO CHANGE IT!!!

Ouch. Did that really just happen? Did I really just have a "don't pick my career for me, Mom" conversation? In case you need a reminder, this girl is only 7 years old. This wasn't supposed to be an issue until much later. Haha.

Adventurous Bob*

Bob is no ordinary rock. Most rocks are stubborn. They don't like change, but not this rock. Bob loves to explore and have adventures. And quite honestly, sometimes I'm surprised he comes back at all.

Last week was one of those times. We could not find Bob anywhere. I looked in all the normal places - my pockets, my car, my office, my bed, my bedside table. I asked my family for ideas of where to look - under the couch, daddy's car, in the laundry, in the gift wrapping supplies. I even looked around all the conference rooms at work, and asked my colleagues if they have seen a black rock. "A black rock? What does it look like?" Uh... really? Seriously, dude. If you see a black rock, chances are it's mine, regardless of what it looks like.

I even cleaned out my car (trust me, that's getting desperate) and we cleaned the house. I was avoiding making the official declaration that he was lost until after we dealt with all the holiday stuff, but considering all the places I looked, it wasn't looking good for us.

Then we had Aunt Erin and her family over for the holidays. Randomly, Erin notices that Clive is holding a black rock. "Uh, Clive, did you find Aunt Jen's rock?" Sure enough, Clive just stumbled on the right spot and didn't even notice he had found something special. He just knew the rock felt good to hold and was proceeding to do just that.

And where exactly was Bob hiding?

Apparently he took a long nap under the bridge of Mommy's favorite snow globe. Maybe he was pretending to be a troll. Though I cleaned up all around the snow globe, I did fail to look under the bridge. Who knew?


* This post was brought to you by Ellie, who found a "safe" spot for Bob to rest.

Gifted

Ellie has always been ahead of the game with academics but we have never pushed her to perfect her understanding. We have just focused on cultivating her love for learning.

Unlike another girl in her class, Ellie has never had private tutoring and yet is always pulled out into the higher level groups.

So recently askew tested for the Gifted and Talented program.  We got the results today. Without knowing any details around what this means (a letter is being sent home tomorrow) we were told that she didn't qualify as gifted but she did score high enough to be put on the "watch list," whatever that means.

Our initial thought was about how we have failed Ellie. No doubt she could have past that test if we focused a little on pushing her. Have we failed her in not giving her more opportunity through external lessons?

Or is it ok for kids be kids? This likely won't scar her for life.  Isn't it interesting how easy it is to feel into the trap of making everything into a competition for labels?

Cheering up

MOMMY: Addie, you seem to be having a sad morning.
ADDIE: Yeah. I just don't think I'm going to be happy.
MOMMY: I have an idea! One thing I know always makes you happier is if you do something very nice to make someone else happy. I happen to know for a fact that it makes you happy when you make others happy.
ELLIE: Mommy, don't worry. I can help her!

... and at the end of the day, I had this gem to cheer me up. When I expressed how happy I was to receive such a beautiful gift, Addie smiled her big beautiful smile and said "It worked! I had the best day EVER!!!"

Four Thumbs Up

Addie approved with four thumbs up.

And not to be out-done by her sister, Ellie insisted that she approved with six thumbs up.

The best present

With celebrating Christmas among 4 sets of grandparents, as well as our own little family, combined with celebrating a week of Hanukkah with Aunt Erin's little family... let's just say that with gift giving spreading across the month of December is prime time for our kids to develop a strong sense of entitlement.

So it comes as a bit of a shock and definitely a pull at my heart strings with both of my daughters, on separate occasions, whispered in my ear something along the lines of:

"Mommy, I don't know what to ask for Christmas because the best present is my family."

With all the frustrations that come with the holidays, and trust me... they exist even for me, it warms my heart when my girls can remind me that it's not about the frustrations or materialistic things. I love them for it.

Wordless Wednesday

Ellie's Steps to Preparing for Christmas

Time to dust

I can take the hint. It's been a while.