Reading and Crushing

Becca (4th birthday not until September) phonetically sounded out the following words this afternoon: Hat Dog At Cat Go Foot Meet He Me 

There's no stopping a boulder from rolling down a mountain...

On a funny note, Sally* came home all smiles from school today saying, "I think Johnny* likes me!" I asked why, and she said at recess they were playing a game and every time they were running next to each other he would slow down so that he wouldn't pass her. Then later in the day they were playing wall ball and every time he got the ball he would give it to her and let her have a turn. I said, "Well, that's nice of him. But maybe, could he just be acting like good friend instead of acting like that because he has a crush on you? Which would you prefer?" She looked at me with the exasperated eyes of an 8 year old with a dumb mom, and said, "The second one!" Then I asked, "But wait. I thought last week you said you had a crush on Jimmy* and that you thought Jimmy* liked you?" She replied, "Oh, he was just my backup."

*Names changed to protect the embarrassed.

I was awakened by this

On Mother's Day morning.

They did it all by themselves without any help and without any spilling. They also brought me a correctly spelled with no help letter from Braden, a letter written all in Spanish from Cassidy, and a book with coloring and artwork from all of them. What fantastic kids!

Fellow blanket lover

I, too, had a blanket when I was little. I too, dragged it around the house, slept with it every night, and took it on vacation. My Grandma Shirley made it for me. Its name was My Girl Blanket - because it had pictures of girls on it, obviously. Try not to look at the wallpaper, the blanket, my overalls, and the bedspread all at once, or you might get vertigo. Or at least, a mild headache. Sensory OVERload! (I've heard the 80's were a decade of excess, but I didn't realize that applied to children's decor, too!)

I used to sneak out into the hall at night when I was supposed to be sleeping and lay in the hall while my parents watched TV around the corner. The couch in the living room had its back to the hall where I was hiding, so if I was quiet like a mouse they wouldn't find me until they got up to go to bed...

The Yearbook Verdict

Thank you for all your comments! The yearbook post attracted more feedback than usual, and even some first-time commenters, which I love! (BTW, if you're lurking, I totally want to know. I lurk too, so I won't call you a black kettle and say you're weird...)

After 5 whole minutes of parental deliberation, we have decided against a yearbook purchase. I already bought the Class Picture, which I feel counts as my contribution to the school year's memories. We told Cassidy that the memory budget had been spent, and though a little disappointed, she was very understanding. (No tears, and not even a woebegone look of sorrow! She didn't even voice disappointment until after I told her it was OK to feel so.)

We decided that next year she and Braden may choose between the purchase of a class picture or a yearbook. As a [likely lame, dorky, uncool] substitute, Cassie plans to put her class picture in a sheet protector, add some blank paper behind it, and use it as the front cover of a little memory book she can take to school and have her friends write in.

On the whole, I feel like this has been a good teaching experience about budgeting, the value of money, and weighing wants vs. needs. Yesterday when Cassie first asked for the yearbook she offered to use her own money to pay for it, but by this afternoon, that was forgotten. After our talk I gave her an open-ended, "Is there anything you want to say or talk more about?" to see if she would bring up paying for it herself again, but she said she was OK with our [my] decision.

It's just a $10 thing, which wasn't going to result in a missed mortgage payment, but in the end I'm glad I didn't just send another check. I'll be fine with it next year if that's what she chooses.

Yearbooks don't grow on trees

Cassidy comes to me this afternoon with wide pleading eyes, asking for me to buy the $10 elementary school yearbook. They have offered them in years past, and I've always just thrown the order form away, thinking no one bought the stupid things. But she told me last year she was one of a just 2 or 3 kids in her class who didn't get one. Now, I don't think you should have an ipod or a cell phone just because your friends have one, but I am annoyed at the school for creating this situation for me. I get jr. high and high school yearbooks - they chronicle extra curricular activities, sporting events, student life. Elementary schools: not so much. I doubt they have a student staff to produce such content, and I'm guessing it's just a 30 page book with the school pictures of everyone, The End. However, I don't want her to be the pitiful kid everyone goes home feeling sorry for, whispering to their moms, "Cassidy didn't get a yearbook. P-o-o-r Cassie..."

But I have been there myself. I was the kid who moved into jr. high during the 4th term of seventh grade. I was already having my pre-ordered yearbook mailed to me from a friend in Texas. I hadn't been there long enough to make many seventh grade memories, so I told my mom I didn't need one from the new school. Thus, I was the lam-o who took a spiral notebook to yearbook signing day in which the few new friends I had could write Stay Cool Over the Summer and Don't Ever Change. I had made the decision that it wasn't important to buy a yearbook for 25% of a year's worth of memories - but when it came right down to it, me and my floppy green notebook looked pretty dorky.

It could be that it is the end of a long school year, and I'm just tired of get hit up. Am I off base for giving in? Nathan thinks I shouldn't buy it, because he shares my opinion that it is dumb to have a grade school yearbook. He also says I am on a slippery slope and if I buy one this year I can't say no next year.

What's the vote: should I or shouldn't I?

P.S. No, I'm not getting one for Braden. I already threw away his order form before I realized all this. And yes, I am going to be mean and say they have to share if he acts like he cares about it. I may say he has to wait until he's in third grade. I hate school sometimes.

The beloved blanket

Becca is a blankie girl. She wore out one, traded in for another, and now has a third that she got from her grandma for Christmas. She doesn't like to sleep without one, and just recently stopped dragging it around the house.

I love how genuinely happy she looks when she has her blanket!

He doesn't understand why I was mad

Why does a six year old see spots on the bathroom mirror and think it is helping to dunk his toothbrush in the sink and then use it to "Clean" the mirror? When has he ever seen me do this? Why does he think he has succeeded in his work, when the mirror has more water spots from the wet toothbrush - which now harbors nasty mirror germs - than were there in the first place?