Big Ideas

Last week sometime Julia and I were talking about something (I cannot remember what it was about) and I said to her, "Wow, you have big ideas." I believe she was probably telling me her plans for her upcoming birthday party. She responded with, "Mom, I was born with big ideas!" Go figure.

Kitty Rewards

As most of you know Julia has been working toward earning a pet cat by earning tokens for her good behavior (she has been working on this for an entire year now!). Well, in recent days or weeks we have decided to include Karley in this too. In part because it is taking Julia FOREVER to earn her tokens and also because Karley was beginning to think that she would some day earn tokens towards her own cat and I decided that I would rather they share one cat than each have their own. So, for the last week or so both girls are earning tokens toward the same goal. We have a jar in a conspicuous area and as I give each girl a token they happily deposit it in the communal jar. They are excited watching the jar begin to fill. Julia has not counted her tokens she earned prior to the jar (she has them in her coin purse), but I know that she has earned enough for the next item on the list, and at the pace these two are going, they will probably have the following item on the list too before long. My secret hope is that they can earn this cat during the summer sometime so that the novelty of it will wear off a bit as we begin the next school year. Perhaps I'm just dreaming and the new token jar novelty will wear off soon and it will take another whole year.....

"Sponsibility"

I asked Karley to pick up a pile of discarded clothes that were lying on the floor and to put them in the hamper. I did recognize that they belonged to both girls, but this is what I heard from Karley,

"that's Julia's sponsibility"

as she was picking through the pile and sorting out her own clothes. Who knew 3-year olds knew anything about "sponsibility?"

Smart Cookie

Tuesday mornings are crazy times in our house, and the past Tuesday was no exception. I had Karley sitting on the bathroom counter and I was trying to work through her tangled hair, keep Julia on task and keep an eye on the clock. Julia was near and I asked her what time it was she said, "I don't know" and ran off. Karley looked at me and said, "Mama, just look at your watch."

Oops! Out-smarted by a 3-year old.........





again

Julia's International Penpal!

About three weeks ago I had Julia write a letter to my good friend's (Midori) six year old daughter, Miori. Midori was an exchange student from Japan that came to live with us one summer when she was about 15 and I was 12 or 13. We were the best of friends, and have managed to keep in touch off and on despite the distance. It was a wonderful treat to have her at our wedding.

Anyway, I didn't know if Miori was learning English or not, but I kind of figured that it was something her mom would like (I have never met her father) and that regardless if Miori was capable of reading or even writing her own letter in English her mother could do the translation for her. So Julia sent off her shortish, but cute kid letter to Miori asking her about things like her favorite color. If she had any pets, etc. Julia has been waiting and hoping ever since for a response and today when we got the mail there was a cute, bunny-papered letter address to Julia all the way from Japan! She was beyond excited! We carefully opened it with a letter opener and found not only Miori's letter, but 3 origami shapes, flattened of course (a small box with a couple of tiny trinkets in it, a rose, and a crane) Julia loved them and I could tell how hard Miori worked on them. The small pink crane had been folded and folded many times like she had really worked hard at it. I was AMAZED at Miori's writing!!! Julia read the letter herself with very little help from me. On the back Midori wrote a quick note to me telling me that it was the very first English writing Miori had ever done and that she had worked so hard at it and that it was hard for her to do (hard for any of us to do that!). So after the first four lines Midori wrote Miori's dictation and then Miori went back over each letter with the pencil (and I probably would not have figured that this was the case if she had not told me.....her writing was so, so good!)

After Julia finished reading it she said with great big eyes and much excitement, "Let's go write her another letter right now!" I said, "Maybe we should fine some cute paper to use this time and maybe we can think of some cute little trinkets to include." Julia said, "Great idea! Karley, you go look for trinkets. Mommy, you go look for cute paper. I'm going to go write Miori a new letter....."

Weekly Piano "Recital"

The night before Julia's piano class she likes to "perform" the pieces she has been working on during the week for her family. This night she was keen on trying to teach the piece to her sister.

Pledge of Alligance

Karley's preschool teacher informed me couple of weeks ago that she knows the Pledge, among some other things that shocked me. Here is her "performance" for her family.

Opa!

Today was my grandmother's 85th birthday (and my neice's 6th birthday) and our family celebrated the occassion with an afternoon at one of her favorite Greek restaurants in Petaluma. The first two hours consisted of Greek dancing lessons by this older, semi-grouchy Greek man. He was not impressed with our attempts in learning these dances, but the funny thing is that although he appeared to have normal vision, whenever he spoke to us as a group he did so with his eyes closed. Like perhaps what he was seeing was too much for his eyes to take. It was pretty funny. He also would listen to our feet pound the wooden floor. He was unhappy that we were not in unison and made us repeat it over and over again until finally I shooed the kids away so that we could get out of this drill. It was them that were out of step, I swear. After the lessons the band arrived along with the restuarant regulars. We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening dancing and eating. Happy Birthday Grandma!