Good Heavens She's Seven

Alternate Title: It's been a literal age since I blogged

The sweet sissy had a birthday (also, hello - did you miss me?).

We have a tradition to ask 20 questions of the birthday child (see Penny's past answers here) and while posting them 3+ weeks post birthday, I did actually ask them on the morning of her birthday. Here are her answers:

1. What is your favorite color?   Green

2. What is your favorite toy?  Diana (her "new" American Girl doll... this cracks me up because she plays with this doll *maybe* twice a month).
3. What is your favorite fruit? Still tomatoes (as she reads last year's answers over my shoulder)
4. What is your favorite tv show?   Star Verses the Forces of Evil (this show is weird. Well, all kids shows are weird, but this one is extra odd).

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?   Grapes (which is a  lie. It's peanut butter & jelly, same as last year. We buy grapes a handful of times each year, and while she does enjoy grapes, she has a PB&J every day during the week. No lie. Child eats PB&J like it's going out of style).

6. What is your favorite outfit?   My new Christmas dress (which she had, at the time, not yet worn).

7. What is your favorite game? Tag
8. What is your favorite snack? Goldfish (year 2 of this answer, I would have guessed an apple, since the house is littered with her discarded apple cores).
9. What is your favorite animal?  Parrot (ok, I'm recording this because she did say it, but I don't think it's true [note: I may be sad that giraffes aren't her favorite anymore]. We don't have any parrot things, she doesn't request parrot themed clothes or toys or anything. I have no idea when she started liking parrots).
10. What is your favorite song? Bad Blood (Taylor Swift). This is totally true - although now, 3 weeks after her birthday it may have changed to Hello by Adele or Exs & Ohs by whats-her-face.
11. What is your favorite book?   Harry Potter (2nd year in a row, which makes my geek heart happy but I don't really think it's true. She's been glued to her Star Wars Encyclopedia for the last month).

12. Who is your best friend?  Astarta
13. What is your favorite cereal? Cheerios (note: Honey Nut Cheerios)  

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?   Jump on the trampoline

15. What is your favorite drink? Lemonade
16. What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?   Stuffed animals (we've reached the point where there's barely any room for her on her bed with all the stuffed animals).

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  Didn't you already ask me that? (It's Cheerios, ftr)

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  Spaghetti (she didn't get it, I can't remember what we had but it wasn't a spaghetti night)

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?   An scientist (score!) side note: she's really interested in being a zoologist lately.

Here's her favorite thing to wear:

The girls with Santa. The boy child did NOT want to meet the man in red. #xmas

A photo posted by Jessica Black Rodgers (@1981sinatra) on Dec 12, 2015 at 8:43pm PST

She is 6, going on 16

Precocious children are precocious.

Especially precocious 6 year olds.

Penelope has been reading independently since before the end of TK, but she's always still enjoyed being read to and reading with her brother and me. Until recently, when she discovered the joy of 3rd-5th grade chapter books that are well within her reading level/stamina. While she still loves Harry Potter, we're on Book 5 and those chapters are loooooong and the print is small, so she's not quite ready to read them all on her own yet (soon though, so soon). Instead she devours books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Nancy Clancy, and Neverland Stories (or something like that). She read 2 DoaWK books in 2 days - which is pretty much what I do with books.

Today she spent a good 4 hours reading either the Marvel or Wolverine Encyclopedias. Seriously. The ENCYCLOPEDIAS of Nerd-dom.**

So now she doesn't read with us anymore. She sits on her bed and flies through chapters as Bubby and I make our way through Sneeches and Green Eggs and Ham for the 1 millionth time.

I guess I can't blame her, if I could read a new book almost every night I would too.

Griffin claims he'll always want me to read to him, even when he's 30 (he also claims that he'll want to live with me then too, and help me cook). But I can see the end of this snuggle time fast approaching as well. He's already got a handful of sight words, about what Penny had at this age, and is starting to "read" the books he has memorized. I will not be shocked if he's reading by the start of Kinder in August. Maybe he'll need more time than that, but he'll definitely be reading before he's 6.

At least the baby will still want to read with me... I should probably get us some new books. But by that time, Bubby & Sis may want to read *to* the baby. Then what will I do with myself?

Maybe I should get myself some of my own books.

**Speaking of Nerd-dom, Penelope has decided to forgo the cute apricot colored skirt and shirt we bought her for Christmas and instead wants to wear the dark wash skinny jeans and Wonder Woman t-shirt her brother bought her for Christmas. I brought this upon myself, and I can't say that I'm all that upset about her superhero obsession (because I think it's awesome), but it kills me how pre-teen she is already at 6.

Penelope had a birthday party

And I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I wanted to.

But that's ok, because it was fun. And I have these, which are fun too.

The table set up with the photo shoot area in the back.

We found tea cups, saucers, and tea pots at various thrift stores, along with doilies, lace things, and a pink-ish lacy curtain that was our photo shoot backdrop. I made the cupcakes look like flowers (which was crazy easy, thanks youtube!). They also had mason jars as glasses for lemonade.

All the tea was fruit tea (peach, blueberry, etc) and they actually drank it.

The food table: fruit, rice krispy treats, lemonade, cheese & crackers, candy dipped pretzels.

I briefly thought about making scones and mini cheese sandwiches and then had to reign myself in. She's 6, I'm pregnant. This was just fine. I liked the fancy punch bowl, provided by a friend. It was a nice touch.

Table + wall and ceiling decorations

The wall garland was super cute, I wish I had gotten a better shot of it. I do still have it, but I'm not about to drag it out of the kid's room just for a picture. The pom-poms hanging from the ceiling are still up in the house. We'll see how long it is before someone finally gets annoyed with them and takes them down. They're just tissue paper, and easy (but time consuming) to make. My dad & Bryan made half of them while mom and I prepped food the night before. Proof that my dad and husband are pretty freaking awesome.

The hat decorating station

So THIS is where I went overboard budget-wise. The girls each got a hat and a feather boa. They could add ribbons & flowers to their hats to make them super-fancy and tea-party ready. I had to ship the damn hats express to get them here on time because I suck at planning (well, I just got busy), so they were much pricier than I had originally planned. BUT they turned out insanely cute, see:

Birthday Girl in her fancy hat, boa, and party dress.

And then there's these:

My mom, who is awesome.

Penelope, blowing out her candles

I have more, mostly of Sissy and her friends or of her friends posing with the background, but since I don't have permission to post those I think I'll hold off. I'll print them for each girl though and we can include them in her Thank You cards.

I was pretty exhausted by the end of the party, and it was only a 2 hour gig.

Now to start planning Bubby's 5th. I think he wants a Robot theme. Hello Pinterest!

20 Questions for the Birthday Girl - Age 6

Here are the answers for age 4, and age 5

1. What is your favorite color?   Pink

2. What is your favorite toy?  Frosty, my American Girl doll
3. What is your favorite fruit? Are tomatoes fruit? (me: I think they are)
4. What is your favorite tv show?   Dora and Friends: Into the City

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?   Peanut butter and jelly

6. What is your favorite outfit?   My birthday party outfit (note: she hasn't actually worn this for a day yet, it's for her tea party themed birthday tomorrow)

7. What is your favorite game? Sorry
8. What is your favorite snack? Goldfish I guess
9. What is your favorite animal?  Giraffes and owls (note: giraffes have been on the list for 3 years in a row now)
10. What is your favorite song? The More We Get Together, it's a nice song
11. What is your favorite book?   Harry Potter

12. Who is your best friend?  Lila
13. What is your favorite cereal? Cheerios (note: Honey Nut Cheerios)  

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?   Go on the trampoline

15. What is your favorite drink? Water
16. What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas! (said without hesitation)
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?   My white tiger

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  I already answered that question (note: cereal, Cheerios)

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  That soft bread, and we could have some chicken with it (note: she means sweet French bread)

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?   An actor (note: she's recently really gotten into plays and musicals).

Below, Sissy at approximately 10 months. 

Family Pictures

Today we go for our annual family pictures, which is something that Penelope and I enjoy but Bryan and Griffin participate in solely to make me happy.

I thought I'd go back and look at the last few years of pictures before today, and they made me cry, so I decided to make a post out of it.

But before that, quick updates. I'm 23 weeks pregnant, 118 days to go. Everything still looks good. Penny had her 1st Kinder parent/teacher conference and she's doing really well (on track in some areas, above grade level in others - everything assessed in Spanish). She's bossy and popular (she only gets one of those from me and apparently none of those from Bryan - or so he says). She's writing sentences in Spanish (unprompted) and is reading at a 1 grade level in Spanish (4th grade in English). She loves math and is quite good at it. She's still taking piano and still loves it.

She wants to be an astronaut or a jungle scientist, depending on the day - but she's very much into science and art and loves Harry Potter (we're in the middle of Goblet of Fire).

Griffin doesn't get p/t conferences in preschool, but we did get to chat with his teacher and he is doing well in school. He talks in both Spanish and English in class, often responding in English to a teacher's questions in Spanish. He's always singing Spanish songs at home and exclusively names his colors in Spanish. He, more so than Penny, is excited for the baby and he often talks to or "hugs" the baby. He wants to help me do *everything* - he insists on helping me put on my shoes so I don't have to bend over. He helps me cook, he helps Bryan with dishes, he helps sort socks for laundry.

The kids are only about a pound apart in weight. Sis is tall and slender (like her daddy) and Bubs is tall and solid. He's strong and can quite easily overpower his sister.

Work is fine - just got back from taking 7 girls to Washington DC for a student journalism conference. That was a trip (in all the ways that phrase implies). It's been almost a week since we got back and I'm still recovering. But it was fun - for all of us - and I'm glad we went.

Ok, so pictures. I don't have all the years scanned in, so maybe I'll revisit this in a few days and add in the ones I scan.

2009: Penelope's 1st birthday and I'm 20-something weeks pregnant with Griffin

Also, one of just Sissy because it's adorable

2010: In my parent's backyard, not professional. We did end up going to JC Penny later, but I can't find those (probably because I hid them because I hate the way I look in these, but whatever. I had birthed two children in as many years)

2011: At a park in Sacramento, Griffin's 1st birthday pics.

Also, one of the kids together and one of Bubba separately, because they're fricking adorable.

And then one of my brother teaching Penelope how to blow a dandelion because it's also totes adorbs.

2012: I don't have digitally, will have to try and scan.
2013: Griffin's 3rd birthday, on the beach in the Aptos area

2014: That's today! 2015 pics will be after baby is born.

I love seeing how much bigger they get each year. Also, my husband is HOT (and apparently doesn't age).  ;)

Summer and reading

This post is mainly to write down some updates so that I don't forget these things later. No pics this time around, just an informational post.

This summer we enrolled both kids in a summer reading course. Griffin is in the 4-5 year old pre-K class and Penelope is in the pre-2nd grade class. For the last few months she's been reading independently and her reading level quickly progressed - the child always has a book in her hand (or a marker, she's also slightly obsessed with drawing).

It reminds me a lot of me and I've had to tell her the same things my parents used to say to me.

"Please put down the book and eat."
"Please put on your seatbelt before you start reading."
"Please close the book while you walk across the street/parking lot."
"Please close the book and go to bed."

I love that she's a bookworm, but it can be a little exasperating as a parent. She's reading everything - the baby books, the level 1, 2, & 3 books, chapter books (like this series of Nancy Clancy books), and together we've read Charlotte's Web, started the Harry Potter series, and are going to read Island of the Blue Dolphins.

Best.Stage.Ever.

She also started piano lessons today with a hilariously crazy and wonderful Russian pianist. It's going to be a great fit.

Griffin will wait another year for piano - he wants to play the drums, but we're going to have him learn piano and how to read music before we get him drum lessons.

Other than that and the disastrous swimming lessons (which we quit midway through, FTR), we've been hanging out a home. Between the trampoline and everyday errands, we keep pretty busy.

Bubby's new 2 wheel bike came in the mail the other day and we're just waiting on Sissy's. Then we'll add bike riding lessons into our daily routine. Ideally they'll be able to ride to school once the school year begins (with my Dad, of course).

We went to Wyoming again this year for B's grandma's 80th birthday and that was a mostly good trip. I have some pictures I'll try and post later in a longer post. The kids had a blast and it was nice to see some of his family that we rarely see, even when we're in WY.

That's all I can remember for now. Goodnight!

Tax Day Ramblings

I haven't written in a long while because forces outside of my control (ok, not really) have conspired to keep me so busy I don't have time to vacuum my floors (unfortunately true) let alone blog.

But it is spring break, I've filed my taxes (ouch), and have had a celebratory glass of wine. My youngest child turns 4 tomorrow (cue tears) and I absolutely REFUSE to do any work (not true, I'm e-mailing people in between writing sentences for this post).

Griffin's birthday makes me sad because he is my baby and I have to face that there really is no baby left in him. He's a big kid. A very big kid... and I desperately miss the chubby cheeked baby stage where they actually FIT on your abdomen when they snuggle (G tries to fit... he does not). There are things from the baby stage I don't miss (say, teething... or the half a dozen wake ups from Sir Griff) but I genuniely like babies and I do miss the baby wearing (which really means I miss having complete control over their whereabouts).

Has anyone else noticed my propensity to use parenthesis as my inner monologue? Have I always done that?

Anyway. Kids.

Are big. LE SIGH.

Penelope is reading. READING. Like, all by herself! She reads everything you put in front of her and delights in reading to herself and to anyone willing to listen. It is, I noticed, mostly whole words with a generous sprinkling of phonics. I had assumed that early reading would be more phonics - but I'm not a reading teacher so what the heck do I know? All I know is that she is reading and enjoying it. Her "report card" was very positive this trimester and she still loves school... which is good.

Griffin loves to pretend to read and while he's warmed up to school, he still doesn't quite love it with the same enthusiams as his sister. His new obsession is Lego Batman (don't get me started, not my idea).

When discussing his obsession at lunch today he asked what "obsession" meant. My mom asked him "what do you think it means?" and he said:

"When you really want to do something and nothing else."

Yup. Sums it up quite nicely.

The positive is that since he can only play for a limited amount of time each day and he has to clean up in order to earn video game time, that the house has remained remarkably picked up over the last few weeks. So that's a plus.

Oh, softball! Penelope started softball and she loves it. Bryan is coaching and I'm the manager and I love it less than she does, to be honest. It's not the playing, it's the actual managing that is pretty much awful. I won't do it again. I'll chaperone, I'll even coach, but I will NOT manage.

I'm glad she likes it though, she's made some friends and her coordination is improving, so that's good. I think we'll sign Griffin up for T-Ball next year and keep her in softball... who knows. I guess it all depends on what they like and how much time Bryan and I have to shuttle them to various practices and games.

The rest of our lives are work, which is boring to talk about. I'm so thankful it's Spring Break because I needed it. My students did too. All work and no play makes us all a little loopy, so I'm looking forward to having some (hopefully) reenvigorated students next week. We really only have 5 weeks of school left before summer, which is practically nothing. I have to finish Romeo & Juliet, go through the Greek gods, and teach Oedipus Rex in 5 weeks. Eep! We'll get it done, I have some pretty awesome students this year.

Ok, time to sleep. Maybe I'll have the time and/or energy for a blog post before the school year ends (doubtful) but since I've already said I'm not teaching summer school I may actually get time this summer to blog (or, better yet, to finish the damn novel I started over a year ago).

Happy Jackie Robinson Day!

Birthday Girl Questions - Age 5

Last year I started asking the kids a series of 20 questions on their birthday and will attempt to keep the tradition alive every year.

It was amusing to see what had changed and, perhaps more remarkably, what stayed the same.

Here are Sissy's anwers.

1. What is your favorite color?  Pink (no change)
2. What is your favorite toy?   A doll... my Rapunzel doll, the little one (no change)
3. What is your favorite fruit?   Those cutie things (last year: melon)
4. What is your favorite tv show?   Olivia (last year: My Little Pony)
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?   Turkey and cheese sandwich (last year: macaroni and cheese)
6. What is your favorite outfit?   The cupcake shirt and the long skirt with my leggings (last year: owl shirt. Note: the long skirt I actually made her and she would wear it every day if we let her).
7. What is your favorite game?   Twister and the Olivia LeapPad game (last year: Tangled LeapPad game)
8. What is your favorite snack?  Tortilla chips (last year: apple)
9. What is your favorite animal?  Giraffe (laughs hysterically - no change from last year, she even laughed hysterically last year).
10. What is your favorite song?   The Peter Pan song (the one where they're marching, it's the Lost Boys' song, last year it was A Part of Your World)
11. What is your favorite book?  Green Eggs and Ham (last year: The Little Mermaid)
12. Who is your best friend?  Audrey (the only girl in her class, last year it was Hailey from daycare)
13. What is your favorite cereal?   Cheerios (last year: Life cereal)
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?   Playing on the plasma cars (I assume that's something from school, last year it was riding bikes)
15. What is your favorite drink?   Milk (no change)
16. What is your favorite holiday?   Christmas (last year: Spring)
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?   My pillow (last year: dolls - all the dolls... she really doesn't sleep with anything anymore unless she's sick)
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?   Cheerios (last year: cereal)
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?   A sandwich (same as last year, which is weird)
20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  An artist Princess (last year: Astronaut or Alice from Alice in Wonderland)

We had a nice birthday celebration. Dinner out and then a trip to Starbucks. She had fun.

5 thus far has been rougher than 4. She's much more moody that she was before. I'm not used to a weepy girl-child, that's usually the boy. So we'll all be adjusting... She's still usually very happy and sweet and easy going, she's just starting to assert herself and she's she's entering this new stage where she'd rather play by herself than with her brother (which I totally get because he's rowdy and I have a little bother brother as well.) But even though they do quarrel more often than they used to, they still get along well the vast majority of the time, so we're still very lucky.

So happy birthday to our sweet Amazonian child. We love you!

Then:

Now:

An overdue update

I haven't blogged since September 25th, which blogger promintely dispalyed on my login page, as if to shame me from being away for so long.

In my defense, work has been insane. Which is my fault - 100% - because I agreed to take on an additional class, which means I have no prep period, which means I have 5 academic classes plus Journalism (yearbook and the magazine) AND I was crazy and signed up to advise a few clubs (um, 5).

So I brought this craziness all on myself, and it's kept me busy. Really busy. In fact this weekend I finally finished grading essays that I had the kids turn in October 15th. Eep! I still have a giant stack of grading, but I feel good that at least those essays are done.

Finals are in two weeks. Le Sigh. I will enjoy Winter Break.

The good thing is that all of my students this year are wonderful. I really do mean this. Yeah, some of them are obnoxious at times, but they're teenagers. I do love being a teacher, even if the job is the most stressful job I have ever had.

The real reason of this post wasn't to talk about work, although that happens a lot with me lately. I can't seem to shut up about work... the point of this post was to chronicle what has happened in the lives of the kids since I took my unintentional blog hiatus.

Let's start with the youngest.

Griffin goes to school 3x a week and started to like it mid-September. His behavioral reports are always good and his report card for the 1st trimester (which I think is hilarous and adorable) was exemplary. He does well, he behaves well, he's energetic. Pretty much sums up the moster.

He's lost most of his lisp/stutter and talks up a STORM. Between the two of them it's a miracle B or I ever get to talk. Our dog, Harley-Quinn, is his very best friend, but I'm not 100% sure if she feels the same way.

The tantrums one normally expects of a 3 1/2 year old are becoming less frequent - which is awesome. Looking back, the Terrible Twos and Terrorist Threes were pretty tame compared to the stories I've heard of these ages. Insisting that he use his words to express his frusrtrations has started to bear fruit and he's much better and talking about why he's upset instead of just disolving into tears.

He's grown a lot. In 5T and some of his 5T clothes are starting to get a little short. Which is insane because we just bought him clothes. He's not quite as tall as Sissy, but on occasion people will ask if they're twins.

He's still a big snuggler and asks for snuggles all the time. And while he does spend a few nights a week in his own bed, most nights he crawls in with us anywhere from 3-6am.

Penelope

She is growing up too fast. She'll be 5 on Thursday. She lost one tooth in October and another two are loose. She's in size 7. She reads. READS.

We had her parent-teacher conference a few weeks ago and she knows 34 of the 100 1st grade sight words - the words 1st graders are supposed to know at the end of 1st grade. Thirty four.

She'll sound out words and read signs, books, and my text messages. She would still prefer to sit upstairs and read (or color) rather than go outside and run around. She is defintely my daughter.

Her teacher also said that Penelope is a very enthusiastic learner: "Sometimes very bright children will get bored, but Penelope is always so excited for whatever it is we are doing in class, she loves to learn."

And she's really social - she knows the names of her friend's parents and will greet them when she gets to school or on the way out. She loves everyone, they're all friends she hasn't met yet. And her memory is crazy - she remembers what she wore to Griffin's brithday party in April. She remembers playing with friends she hasn't seen in over a year. She remembers things I promised and forgot (which, boo).

I am planning on having her do the 20 birthday questions - last years are here.

In other news, I ran my first 5K and didn't die. I didn't walk or throw up either. Woot! My time was something like 39 minutes, so I ran the slowest 5K in the history of 5Ks. My next scheduled 5K is in March, running it with my Journalism kids.

The back tattoo is in progress. I have the outline and a little over 1/4 of color done. It hurts, a lot, but I love it.

And I think that's it. I'm sure I'm missing a ton of things, but I should probably get to all of that grading I have. The pile is staring at me accusingly right now.

An Audition, a Play, and Kinder

This has been an eventful week for Miss Sissy.

On Monday she auditioned for the Missoula Children's Theater's production of "The Secret Garden" and got a part as a plant in the garden. She has no lines, but the garden has a special song and is on stage during parts of the play. She was really, really, really excited about auditioning and it was pretty hilarious to watch.

It was a group audition, so all kids were onstage at one time. The directors had the kids act out lines in chorus, and then individually. Pen was really animated for the group portions, but less animated when it came to saying her line on her own. I was not surprised by this at all, especially since this is her first foray into theater. She was plenty dramatic when socializing with her new friends though, and as I told my mother, when she's a teen and is super dramatic, I will only have myself to blame.

Since she is my daughter, she's caught on to the songs rather quickly. This means that evenings post-rehearsal are filled with her sweet and yet slightly off key voice. She's off key in the way all pre-schoolers are off key (i.e. they're almost always flat), and I actually think that she'll have a really lovely voice when she's older.

The kids rehearse for one week and then they perform, so the shows will be this Saturday at 1 & 3:30. I'm not allowed to take pictures of the performance, but they will have pics taken, so those will be posted as soon as possible. If I can, I'll take video of her performance (not the whole thing, because - um, I don't care about the performances of the kids who aren't mine).

I think this will be great practice for her drama camp, which starts the 2nd week of June. There will be a performance for that as well, and then after her birthday she can start to audition for the full length productions our local children's theater puts on. She also wants to sign up for basketball next season, so we're going to have a full plate of extra curriculuar activties (also, she has a summer dance recital and probably a winter recital as well).

Speaking of curricular, we found out yesterday that our district transfer agreement has been approved and we can enroll her in KinderBloom (i.e. transitional kindergarten) for the 2013/2014 school year. She is, of course, SUPER excited about going to school and is already talking about all the new friends she's going to make.

We'll see after this year where we put her for Kinder, but the new district (Spreckles) has full day Kinder, while our local district does not. So odds are we'll keep her at that school as long as she's in Elementary or as long as we're still living in this area.

The 4-5 age is pretty exciting, yes?

Poor G-Man is still a little too young for all of these activities. We will try to sign him up for soccer and T-Ball, but he's 2 years away from Kinder (and he will not be eligible for transitional kinder due to his birthday, unless we hold him back a year -  but we'll probably just enroll him in full time kinder the school year after his 5th birthday). Oh yes, and probably swim lessons this summer if I ever get my act together.

Thinking about my kids in elementary school is bittersweet. I really do love this age - even though some people think 3 is the worst, I haven't found it to be anymore challenging than the ages before it. It has different challenges than 2 or 1 or the baby stage, but then a lot of the previous challenges resolve themselves. So I can be thankful that we don't have to deal with teething, and that potty training is over (although G does still wear a night diaper) - even while we deal with occasional tantrums (which are 90% predictable and thus can be anticipated/avoided/quickly dealt with).

And so I'll end this with some of the things the kids have said lately that I don't want to forget.

Penelope (as she's watching me clean the bathroom): Mommy, you are so good at cleaning the toilet. And you are so beautiful. I am SO proud of you.

Griffin (as he's falling asleep): *sigh* I love you bunches mama.

Penelope (watching me make dinner): Oh mommy, you are so good at cooking. I love the food you make.

Griffin (while we're all play wrestling): No mama, no tickles. Only snuggles.
(because apparently mama is made for snuggling and daddy is made for wrestling)

Penelope (to Bryan): You are my best daddy.

Griffin (at bedtime): You give me 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 more kisses and then nigh-night, ok?

Mommy, where did you get me?

A few days ago Penelope asked this very simple, yet very complex question.

"Mommy, where did you get me?"

"Well love, what do you mean? Where did I pick you up today?"

"No. I mean where did you get me. Where did you first get me."

"Oh, I see. Well, I gave birth to you. I made you in my uterus, which is in my belly, and then I pushed you out."

"But how did you push me out?"

"Once you were big enough, the muscles in my uterus helped to squeeze you out of my belly."

"Oh" long pause "But where from your belly?"

"Here, let's get your birth book and look at pictures from when you were born" (note: these pictures don't actually show the birth)

"Oooh! Ok!"

We then spent the next 10 minutes going through all the pictures in both her & Griffin's yearbooks (books I made chronicling their first year of life).

It was a conversation I hadn't expected, but overall I think it went well. I'm sure we'll have this conversation over and over again - in slightly more detail as she gets older.

Ah, my precious love.

Another conversation we had recently was about love and marriage...

Penelope: Daddy, who is your best friend?
Bryan: Mommy.
Penelope: (laughing) No, she's your wife!
Me: We can be married and be best friends.
Penelope: My best friend is Kayla, but she's not my husband.
Me: No, no she's not.
Penelope: But mommy, princess can marry princess.
Me: Yes, sometimes princesses do marry princesses. If they love each other.
Penelope: And princes can marry princes.
Me: Yes, if they love each other.
Bryan: You can marry whoever you want, when you're 40.

I wasn't kidding when I said they don't stop talking

The car. Today.

Bryan: The guys at BNI were giving me a hard time about shaving my beard. I told them how I had it when I dropped off Penelope at dance class last week, came home and shaved it, then went to pick her up and she didn't recognize me. She finally said "Dad, where'd your beard go?"
Penelope (from the back): Yeah Dad, you just shaved your beard.
B: Yeah, but I'm growing a little back, just for you. (he's growing a goatee)
P: Will it be rainbow colored? Or just black.
Me: (DYING)
B: Probably just black. Is that ok?
P: No, I prefer rainbow colored.

Last night she had a dream that she was a big girl and could read all by herself.

Today she insisted on taking her new library book (Little House in the Big Woods) with us to dinner. As in she brought it into the resturant and flipped through it.

I like this new stage. It is full of awesome.

An Impomptu Conversation about Gay Marriage

Today while Bryan and Griffin took the dog for a walk, Penelope and I stayed at home and played with her Horde of Dolls (HD). For her birthday she got a dozen Disney Princess dolls from my parents and has enjoyed changing their clothes and making them fight dragons.

While we were playing today, she wanted them all to get married. And since they're all Disney Princesses, they all have Princes... I'm not quite comfortable with that, for a variety of reasons.

I know that her obsession with Princesses is a stage. As is her obsession with marriage. Bryan and I are married, so are her Granny and Grandpa. Her daycare provider is married. A significant number of the adults in her life are married and it's natural that she would replicate the relationships she sees in her imaginary play.

And while I have a number of friends with same sex partners (some married, some not married), we don't see these people as often as I'd like. So I worry, because that's what I do.

I worry that the prevailing cultural attitudes towards women & LGBTQI2-S will be stronger than the message they get at home. I see this in her insistence that pink is "only for girls" and some things are "only for boys" - and while we work at home to change that, it's an uphill battle to fight against the message she gets a daycare, on TV, and even in books.

Bryan and I have had multiple conversations about our parental goals. We want our kids to be happy and healthy. College? Would be great, but it isn't necessary, our kids can be productive members of society without a BA/MA/PhD. Politics? They don't have to vote the same way we do, the just need to vote. Religion? While I do hope my children are Atheists (like we are) we will support them if they decide to join a religious or spiritual group.

But I will consider myself a failure of a parent if my children don't support equality for all people.

And so, when Penelope insists that all her Princesses marry Princes, I can't just let it be. Here's what that conversation look like:

Our conversation...

 And then, after we talk, Mulan and Snow White exchange their vows...

The Wedding

Love, Love, Love. Love is all you need.

20 Questions for the Birthday Girl

This is idea I stole from many other mommies. The object is to ask your child the same series of 20 questions on their birthdays and see how things change (or stay the same!). I meant to do it last year, but never got around to it. So here's the 1st one for Penelope... hopefully I'm on the ball and get Griffin's started in 2013 for his 3rd birthday.

 

1. What is your favorite color?   ummmmm.... pink

2. What is your favorite toy?   Rapunzel doll
3. What is your favorite fruit?   melon
4. What is your favorite tv show?   My Little Pony

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?   macaroni and cheese

6. What is your favorite outfit?   my owl shirt

7. What is your favorite game?   Tangeled (it's a LeapPad game)
8. What is your favorite snack?   apple
9. What is your favorite animal?   giraffe (laughs) giraffes are so funny
10. What is your favorite song?   The Little Mermaid song (A Part of Your World for those not in the know).
11. What is your favorite book?   The Little Mermaid

12. Who is your best friend?   Hailey (a girl from daycare)
13. What is your favorite cereal?   Life cereal

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?   riding bicycles

15. What is your favorite drink?   milk
16. What is your favorite holiday?   ummm....hmmm... Spring
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?   dolls (and by dolls, she does mean multiple objects... like all of them)

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?   Cheerios

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?   a sandwich
20. What do you want to be when you grow up?   an Astronaut... or Alice (from Alice in Wonderland).

It was actually a lot of fun to sit and do these with her. She gave them a lot of thought and was very proud of the completed sheet. I'll have to place it in her "yearbook" or start some sort of scrapbook for them. 

Happy Birthday Baby

Today Penelope is 4. My sweet and silly sissy is now so grown up, that she often talks about things that "happened when I was a little kid" - things like our family pictures last year, or when we lived in Sacramento, or even things that happened last week. Nearly everything in the past is described as an event that happened when she was "little" which is both charming and hilarious.

It's also a sign that she has rather clear grasp of a linear timeline. She can also articulate things that will happen in the future using appropriate (albeit) amusing vocabulary. Example: "Mommy, when I'm a bigger kid I'll go to Kindergarten and teach my students."


I've already talked about how tall she is for her age - but she's also advanced in other ways. She can identify and draw parallel lines (she does call them parallel lines), horizontal, and vertical lines. She talks about organic shapes.  She can tell you what primary colors are and how to make other colors from primary colors (thank you Mr. Pencil Saves Doodleberg).

She can do some basic math (2 people plus 1 person = 3 people... she can do this with concrete objects, not yet with abstract numbers).


She's becoming quite the artist and can draw a multitude of objects, most of which actually resemble the things she's drawing.

She's got her name down, and can copy anything we write.

She can put together complex puzzles (think 48+ pieces). She knows we live on the planet Earth and can pick it out on a map of the solar system. She can also identify the Sun, Mars, the Moon, and Jupiter. She wants to become an astronaut after she graduates from Kindergarten (yes, she really said that).

She has a dozen or so sight words but isn't quite reading independently. She has almost 80% of our book collection memorized. And we have A LOT of books.

Once she hears a song, she can remember a significant chunk of the song/lyrics, even after hearing it just once. With songs she already knows well, she'll make up new words to the song.

She loves ballet and actually pays attention for a full 45 minute class - which is amazing because I have 15 or so highs school students who can't pay attention for that long.




She is super sweet and sensitive. The other day, in a rare moment of defiance, she told me she wasn't going to take a bath. When I gently but firmly escorted her into her room to get ready for said bath, she turned to me, and with big tears in her eyes said "Mommy, I'm sorry I talked back to you." Then she gave me a huge hug.

When she didn't want to sit on my lap during the holiday parade in downtown, I made an exaggerated frowny face and she scrunched up her face, came over to me, gave me a hug, and said "I'm so sorry I made you sad Mommy." To which I replied "Oh my sweet Sissy, you didn't make Mommy sad, I love you." And she replied, "I love you too Mommy, you're the best Mommy I ever had. The best Mommy in the whole world."

She loves her brother even though he exasperates her (and lets be real, who doesn't that child exasperate?)


She always uses her manners. She is thoughtful, welcoming, loving, goofy, and warm. She is amazing and we are so very lucky to be her parents.

So happy birthday baby girl. You came into this world quietly with your eyes wide open and changed our lives. You give 100% of yourself every day to whatever it is you're doing - you love almost everyone and you love them without reservations. We love you with all our hearts, and you inspire love in others as well.

Here are some of my favorite past posts about Pen. Enjoy!
Penelope's birth story
Penelope's birth slideshows (actual pictures of birth and breastfeeding).
Peanut Penny
Bats for snack

Shoulda Named her Penthesilea

Look it up ;)

Today was Penelope's annual well-child visit and she is practically perfect in every way. She may have some seasonal allergies, so we're going to try children's Claratin and see if it helps. Other than that, she's healthy and on or above where she should be.

She impressed her Ped by writing her name without prompting and drawing a heart (it can be argued that she draws a better heart than most of my 9th grade students. Seriously). I credit both Mr. Pencil Saves Doodleberg & her daycare for giving her plenty of opportunity to practice drawing. She does have some natural talent (Bryan is, after all, an artist) and we do encourage her to draw and write at home. Luckily for us, she loves to practice drawing objects and practice spelling words.

She took her flu shot like a champ. Some crying, but it was over quickly and she was able to comfort her brother who also received the flu shot (amusing side note, the nurse initially brought in the 3+ year old vaccine for him, thinking he was over 3). Next year she gets 4!!!! shots. Not looking forward to that one.

She's 41.0 pound and 43.5 inches. Here's a link to a growth chart for Caucasian females.

Notice that the "average" height is around 40 inches. Penelope's height places her above the chart for her age, although that just means that she's taller than 95% of girls her age, not that she's a giantess.

She's always been tall (well, except at birth I guess, Griffin was our Stretch-Armstrong) and if this trend continues - and we have no reason to believe it won't, she's been in this percentile for a very long time - then she may end up being close to 6 feet tall. Hello volleyball!

In other Squish-erella related news, her Winter Dance Recital is in 2 weeks. It's pretty informal, but she's still really excited about it. I'm also looking into preschools for next year, although (and I know I've debated this before) if her day-care is doing a lot of preschool curriculum, then it doesn't make a ton of financial sense to put her into preschool. I'll keep looking into it, but we haven't decided exactly what we want to do.

I do know that I want to try and get her into a really wonderful Charter school in Monterey... the bilingual school in our area doesn't have full-day Kinder, and we really need her to be in full-day Kinder once she's old enough. This place does have full day, PLUS they have an amazing curriculum that is WAY ahead of the curve. I think she'd thrive there.

In holiday related news, the kids do have gift "wish lists". Please do not feel obligated to get the kids a gift this holiday season. However, if you choose to - I can guarantee that they would love and play with very single item on their list. If you prefer to get clothing, Griffin is in a 3T, Penelope is in a 6.

Griffin's List
Penelope's List

Diva Penelope - Photobucket won't let me reduce the size. Annoying.

I haven't posted in almost a month...

And so much has happened!

My parents moved from Sacramento to Scotts Valley (they are now 45 minutes away instead of 3+ hours), and before the move my mom lived with for a month until my parents found housing in the Santa Cruz area. It was nice having her here, the kids got to kiss Granny goodnight each night and Griffin really enjoying going downstairs in the morning to hang out with Granny as she got ready for work.

In the month of October Griffin reached 100% day-potty-training (wait, did I already cover this?) and we haven't had an accident in quite awhile. I must say, it is GLORIOUS not to have to change diapers. It is also wonderful to keep only an emergency pair of undies and pants in the car instead of carting around the diaper bag. In the last few months we've gotten rid of the diapers, diaper bag, and strollers, and it's been bittersweet. Mostly sweet.

G won't let us eliminate all vestages of baby-hood however. He's still in night-diapers and still wakes up once a night and crawls into bed with us. He quickly falls back asleep, although he HAS taken to trying to suffoate Bryan every night by sleeping on his head. It's something we need to work on, but neither one of us has the energy to tackle it yet. Maybe over Winter Break.

They're both doing well at daycare, Penelope keeps asking to go to school - and we're hoping to be able to send her to pre-school next year, but it depends on a host of factors. The major factor is, of course, cost. But we'll keep trying to figure out how to swing it. The pre-school I want to send her to is a Spanish immersion school, and I think she'd do well.

She's still dancing and Griffin is still in gymnastics. I do have some video of her last ballet class, but I need to youtube it so I can post it here. It's on my phone.

Squish is also making some pretty amazing drawings. She's better at coloring inside the lines than my Freshmen students (seriously) and her free-hand drawing is both creative and colorful. She'll literally spend hours at the kitchen table coloring/drawing.

As for me, work is good but hectic. I've taken on a lot this year and while I love a lot of what I'm doing, it takes a significant amount of time to get it all done. This year has also been my year for students-in-crisis. I've made 2 mandated reporter calls already and have spent a fair amount of time drying the eyes of some of my students. I'm glad they feel they can come to me, even if I loathe paperwork. That's what I'm here for afterall...

Ok, time to get back to lesson planning. I hope to be able to upload the videos I have later this week and post them.

Things English Teachers Notice

Or ECE teachers... or speech therapists...

Before I became a teacher - especially a teacher who works with long-term English Language Learners - there are few things I may have never noticed about my children's language development that I now find both fascinating and wonderful.

Penelope has become ever increasingly articulate. She discusses past events with (mostly) proper past tense (i.e. adding the 'ed' ending, she has some irregular verbs down, but not all), present events with present tense (sometimes confusing verb forms - like "I has" instead of "I have"), and future events with future tense (i.e. 'ing' endings).

She also has a significant number of her books memorized, so she "reads" them to us at night, which is both fun and absolutely adorable. I'll have to try and videotape it tomorrow.

She's also become more logical. She can see cause & effect (well, not all the time), and is getting better at solving problems - both simple and complex. She can spell some simple words, so Bryan and I have to be quick when we spell-talk. She's got her name down pat, can write it and spell it verbally. She can also spell "happy" and most of "birthday" (can you tell we have a lot of family with fall birthdays?). She's amazingly creative, draws free-hand recognizable objects and is almost as good coloring within the lines as I am.

I'm really looking forward to when she starts Kinder... I wish they would let her start next year, since I think she's ready. I've even gone over the new Kinder Common Core standards and she's got many of them down already. I know she's going to love school!!

Surprisingly enough, or perhaps, unsurprisingly (if you work in Education),  there are some striking similarities in what my daughter can do with language and what my students can do with language...

And the more I notice the similarities between my preschooler and my students, the more I am filled with both sadness and resolve. Resolve because I want to do everything I can to prepare my students for life outside of high school - not just college or the workforce, but also to buy homes, cars, or start businesses. And sadness because my almost 4 year old has a better command of proper tenses than some of my 16 year old students.

There are a lot of reasons why my long term ELL students struggle so much with grammar. The English language has some pretty weird grammar rules; it is one of the hardest languages to learn (no, really - check out this link!). Many of my ELL students only speak English at school, which limits the amount of practice they get (and, if you're one of those who say their parents should just "learn English already", please refer to the above link - then go live in Poland and learn how to speak Polish without access to language classes... if you're not willing to do that, then stop the nonsensical demands on people who don't have the resources to gain a full command of the language YOU can barely speak.)

ANYWAY, another reason many of my students do not have mastery of English is because we do not have the resources in place to really address language gaps. Teachers work as hard as they can, with the resources they have, to be as effective as possible. It isn't easy. It IS getting better though - a lot of the training I've received in the last year & change has made me a much more effective teacher, especially when it comes to addressing gaps in language acquisition.

I could go on - because there are many more factors that contribute to the language gaps between my ELL students and my English only students (although, to be honest, I see significant language deficiencies in many of my EO students. This is also due to a number of complex factors).

Regardless of how you slice it, there is a large number of children in California (and in the US) who will graduate from high schools with significant language gaps that will likely be detrimental to their economic prospects. And these gaps will likely be repeated in their own children.

Best.Conversation.Ever.

Bryan and I are talking and then...

Penelope: (interrupting) Daddy, that doesn't make any sense.
Bryan: What? What doesn't make sense?
Penelope: You, you're not making any sense.
Bryan: What?

Hilarious I tell you, hilarious.

Stuff I posted on Facebook but feel the need to document on the blog

The other day I talked about the possibility of starting potty training for the Bubs.

Well, his rash necessitated a naked/undies night which necessitated a lot of jellybean bribing in order to keep the carpet dry. And that lead to an undies morning - which lead to an undies day - and the whole thing snowballed into a now-I-guess-we're-really-potty-training-someone-get-me-a-drink.

He did throw an epic tantrum this morning when deciding whether or not he was going to wear undies or a diaper. Hopefully we don't have anymore like that. But now that we've started we're not going to stop...

There were at least 3 accidents at daycare today, he still doesn't tell us when he has to go. BUT he was dry from 3pm until bedtime and went potty every time we asked him, which is good. He gets a jellybean each time he goes, and I am soooooo not above bribing.

I would LOVE it if he was PT'ed (at least day-trained) before his 2 1/2 "birthday." I'm not holding my breath, but that does give us a month - which is doable.

In other news, Penelope has a new imaginary friend. His name is Phineas, he's 3, and a robot (he can remove his head, pretty cool, huh?). Pen holds his hand around the house, talks to him all the time, they sleep in the same bed, he eats right next to her, and she likes to narrate his every move. It's cute, although slightly obnoxious because Phineas is very needy.

Oh, the Squish is also sick, poor thing. Just a runny nosy and fever (for the most part) so hopefully the OTC meds we gave her tonight will mean she wakes up feeling better. She's a much better patient than the Bubs, so hopefully he doesn't get it.

And now for work. I'd much rather be sleeping, but duty calls. I have sub plans and a Rite of Passage assessment to write. Fun fun fun!