Tristan's Snake Project

Tristan did a project about snakes for his kindergarten class. He worked on it all by himself at school, and was very pleased to show us when we all came to see it. I thought he did a good job. That kid loves snakes.

When I grow up. . .

It is funny that sometimes kids think it's so hard to be kids. Oliver and Rachel have been talking lately about things they're going to do when they grow up. Oliver is really excited about growing up so he can build a fire all by himself. In fact, I just realized something - the other day I asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up (meaning, what job does he want) and he said, "go camping", and now I'm realizing it's because he wants to build a fire. Anyway, he came up to me and told me he thinks he's figured out how he can do it. He said he would have lots of little kids go pick up little tiny sticks, and put them in the fire, and then he would get some big logs, and then he would get a match and throw it on the fire. He kept repeating this sequence to himself and to me; he was really trying to think through all the steps and try to imagine if he would really be able to carry it all out by himself. I told Daniel this story and he decided maybe we should go camping this weekend. I think he wants to let Oliver try out his plan.

Rachel has just told me recently that when she grows up to be taller than a door she'll be a mom and then the only thing she'll do is make macaroni and cheese for her kids.

Elizabeth at 9 months

We're at that fun stage of life when she makes messes faster than I can clean them.

Special Beautiful Princess Rachel

Rachel has started giving me very specific directions about my "lines" in our conversations. They often revolve around what I am supposed to be calling her on any certain day. I will say, "Rachel, come on over so I can get you dressed" and she'll say, "No, Mom, you need to say, 'special beautiful princess Rachel, come on over so I can get you dressed.'" This is not an exaggeration. "Special beautiful princess Rachel" is currently one of her favorite names.

Other days she goes with more simple names, like Arwen (from Lord of the Rings) or Lucy (from Narnia), but it can still get confusing, and she insists that everyone stick to the "right names". A few days ago she was Lucy, but she wanted both me and Elizabeth to be Lucy, too, which started causing some problems. Whenever she wanted to talk to me, she would say, "Lucy. Lucy! TALL LUCY!", and that usually worked. Yesterday she was just "Special Rachel Girl", but I didn't know this until I told her to hurry and get out of the car because it was raining and we didn't want to get all wet, and she informed me that she was "Special Rachel Girl" and "Special Rachel Girls never get wet." I don't know where she got that idea.

She is in love with princesses right now, which is so funny to me. I know all little girls are supposed to love princesses, but I really don't think Rachel even has a clue what they are. She just loves them, somehow. She has never seen any movies or even heard any stories about Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Ariel, or any of those lovely ladies. I guess she just has an idea in her head about princesses being special girls who get to wear fancy dresses, and that's enough for her. Most days when I get her dressed she checks out her outfit and then in a very dramatic fashion, proclaims, "OH, this is just BEAUTIFUL! I look JUST like a princess!" Usually it doesn't take much to make her think she looks princess-like, but the other day I guess she felt she didn't come quite close enough- I got her dressed in red stretch pants and a tie-dyed shirt (which usually she loves - she calls it her paint shirt) and she started prancing around and clapping her hands and giving her "this is so beautiful" speech, but when she got to the "I look just like..." part, she paused and glanced down at her outfit again, and then finished with "I look just like a ... kid!" She sounded kind of surprised.

Rachel seems to get a big kick out of everything she says. She will say something that she thinks is clever, and then repeat it several times in case anybody missed it: "Mom, did you hear? I was like this: blah, blah, blah. . Did you hear when I said that? Now you say this, Mom: blah, blah, blah. Dad, did you hear when I said that? Am I SUCH a funny girl? That was TOTALLY weird when I said that."

After she either says something she thinks is crazy, or if she accidentally messes up while talking, she is very fond of rolling her eyes and saying, "What am I even TALKING about?!" (And then, of course, "Mom, say this: Rachel, what in the heck do you think you're talking about?")

She might be developing a defiant/bossy attitude. When she wants to do something bad, but she doesn't want to ask me because she knows I'll say no, instead she comes up to me and says, "Did you know I am in charge of what I do?" She has been trying this one out on me a few times a day. Yesterday we at Barnes & Noble hanging out while we waited for our car to get some work done on it. She wanted to hold some stuffed animals that she found on a shelf there, and I told her she could only take one animal off the shelf. She was fine with that for awhile, but then I saw her reach her hand up to the shelf to grab another animal. She looked up and saw that she was about to get busted, so she just calmly said, "Well, I am in charge of what I do, Mom." She usually doesn't act that upset when I tell her that actually, I'm the one in charge; it's like she's just throwing it out there in case I might believe her.

I guess that's probably more stories about Rachel than you wanted to hear. I just have had all this new Rachel information skittering around in my brain for awhile and it wouldn't stop bugging me until I got it all sorted out and written down. And you just are all lucky enough to be the recipients!

Oliver is done with reading lessons!

Oliver finished his reading lesson book last week, so we celebrated with a little party. I asked what he wanted to do for the party, and he requested a cake that was shaped like a book and had words on it. I thought he would want the words to say something like "Hooray, I can Read!" or "Congratulations Oliver" or something like that, but he said he wanted it to say "Oliver's reading lesson party" on it. Apparently the cake was supposed to label the party, not the achievement.

Anyway, he finished his 100th lesson last Thursday, and Anita came into town Thursday evening, so we had the party that night. We didn't really do the whole "shaped like a book" thing (unless rectangle cake pans count) and I could only fit the words "Oliver's Reading Party" on it, but he was thrilled.

He's been way more excited about reading than Tristan was when he finished, and he goes around reading labels off of everything. I think I should finally go get my library card so we can pick him up some beginning reading books.

Austin's Park and Pizza with Grandma Nini

Daniel's mom (Grandma Nini) came to visit and we went to Austin's Park and Pizza with her. The kids had such a fun time playing around with Grandma.