We’re off to Philly tomorrow morning for a long weekend. First stop, the Adventure Aquarium, which is not in Philly. It’s in Camden. But it’s close – just across the Delaware. People tell me it’s quite fun there. We’ll see – but I figure we can’t possibly go wrong with Nile hippos, sharks, penguins, a giant octopus…
All posts by Pink Me Not Mom
My Little Monkey
We have to get our act together and enroll Sophie in a gymnastics class. She can do flips on the uneven bars. She doesn’t fall off the balance beam. She has incredible upper-arm strength.
Between the muscles and the curly hair, I’m starting to wonder if they switched babies in the hospital. Either that, or she’s a family mutant. Haven’t quite figured it out yet. But while I’m trying to solve the mystery, we can’t let her talents languish.
I’m going to aim for January. She’s still adjusting to being in school full-time, and frankly, we’re not yet ready to tie up more of our weekend with another commitment. So we’re going to start mentally preparing ourselves for piano classes and gymnastics classes, and who knows what else…’cause it’s all about the kids!
Chocolate Fever, Again!
This time, it was Sophie enjoying a little prepackaged chocolate mousse snack. Instead of using a spoon, however, Sophie decided that the best way to savor the treat was to take two Hershey’s kisses and use them as spoons instead. The resulting chocolate extravaganza was not nearly as yummy as Papa’s authentic French chocolate mousse, but Sophie was happy nonetheless.
The hand in the movie was Chloe’s – we all know that she can’t let a video shoot go by without claiming some of the attention for herself.
An Ode to the Times
Chloe’s latest foray into poetry. It happens to be quite an accurate statement about our current economy (although, let’s face it, Chloe was not aiming for that effect when she thought of this little verse).
I was rich and now I’m poor
From going to the store
And now that I am broke
I can’t even afford a Coke.
She’s discovered the fun of crossword puzzles today. We’ll see how that evolves.
The Brain is the Boss
On the way home from pre-K today, Sophie said, “Mom, you know what?” “What?” I inquired. “The brain is the boss!” We then went back and forth about why the brain is the boss. Sophie says the brain makes you talk, it tells you to walk, it tells you to line up and it tells you to eat. She was very proud of her assertion. Rightly so, in a pretty perceptive pre-K kind of way.
I always thought I was the boss. But the brain as boss works for me. Maybe the bossy brain will do a better job of telling her she should eat her vegetables. That would be one cool brain.
Doing Homework Brings out Another Beast
It was Chloe’s turn tonight. She had to write a paragraph about her favorite animal. A short paragraph, with few rules other than the subject, and the need to include a topic sentence and conclusion. Easy, right? Nope. Complicated as hell.
She struggled for an hour. Losing patience, shedding tears and getting increasingly frustrated. She didn’t want it to be boring. But she didn’t want to do something that was too original out of fear the teacher wouldn’t like it. In the end, she went the boring route. Because it was easy and safe. She wrote about pandas. And told me it was all a bunch of crap, anyway. Yes, she used the word crap.
So, I hope this isn’t a harbinger of what’s to come. Is she going to be bored the whole year? Will she be in tears every time she has homework that doesn’t inspire her? Maybe she was just tired and cranky. I hope she was just tired and cranky. If not, we’re going to have a very long year.
Writing Letters Brings Out the Beast
Well, I think I’ve decided that Sophie is no Chloe when it comes to academics. OK – that may be an exceedingly unfair statement, and one made prematurely, but let’s just say that three weeks into pre-K, she likes to color pretty pictures, but when it comes to learning penmanship, she wants to do it her way or no way.
This week’s letter is “F.” But she doesn’t want to write “F” or “f” – she wants to write an “E” without the middle line. When I tried to explain to her that she’d be better off doing a real “F” (which, by the way, she knows how to do), she not only balked, she told me she didn’t love me anymore.
I am a bad mommy. I stifle creativity. Hell, if she wants to create her own alphabet that’s fine with me. But I’m not going to continue to throw out an insane amount of money on preschool tuition so that she can create a Sophie version of cyrillic letters that she alone understands.
I took the homework away from her before she could tear it into shreds, and told her we’d look at it again when she was willing to concede that there’s “F” and “f” and that’s it. The homework may never get done, mind you. But we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.
Chloe Wants to be a Book Critic
Chloe’s talking about be a book critic and an author when she’s older. She wants to know how much money she’d could make if she wrote a book and publisher bought it.
She wanted to know if kids have ever had books published. When we answered in the affirmative, she was very happy. Will it prompt her to take one of her super sentences and turn it into an award-winning children’s book?
Not sure about her follow-through. But how cool would that be? Anyway, enough with the fantasizing. We’ll continue to encourage her and who knows? Maybe she’ll write a short story. “Cricket” still accepts submissions, don’t they?
Happy 4th Birthday, Sophie!
We love you very much, little Sophie bear. Happy 4th birthday! She’s getting so big, so fast. Overall, she was much happier than yesterday, although she gave us a bit of a scare with some tears as the party was getting started. Her super Papa, however, quickly succeeded in quelling the watery eyes. After which, she much enjoyed being the center of attention, as evidenced by the accompanying audio-visual aids.
Sophie Turns 4 Tomorrow
I hope Sophie will be in a better mood tomorrow than she was today. Today, she decided that she would kiss away her 3s with a bang. She was pretty much a nightmare the entire morning.
“I’m hungry! I’m hungry! I want a bagel! I want to go home!” On and on and on. I hope she’ll be in better spirits tomorrow. Over the last few months, she’s started to express herself using her face. Who needs words when her face amply suffices to let us know what kind of mood she’s in? Especially when she’s pissed off at us. The eyes go big and her mouth forms an angry ‘o’ pout. Sometimes, her eyes become narrow slits – that’s when she’s really annoyed.
It’s a good thing she doesn’t know that I completely forgot to make arrangements to bring a special treat to her class to celebrate her big day. I think that makes me a pretty bad mom. But there are all sorts of restrictions on ingredients, and I don’t have time to bake from scratch. So I’m a bad mom. At least I remembered to organize a birthday party for her.
I am crossing my fingers that she doesn’t pull any of her faces tomorrow while at her party. That would be embarrassing. Only smiles. Just smiles.