This weblog tracks my kids’ early years. Each entry is a snapshot from their childhood.
Please pardon any type-o’s, misstatements, or factual irregularities. This blog is written by an often dazed dad, normally after 11 pm when he should really be in bed if he had any sense. Even the basic quick edit is not a regular practice here.
Molly says she has “fifty eighty” hairs on her head.
This is funny because it almost exactly mirrors Ramona Quimby in Ramona the Pest (I think), who said “I weigh fifty eleven pounds.” when she was about Molly’s age. Keep in mind that Molly has not heard that Ramona book. This was original Molly.
Claire suddenly got invited to sleep over at her friend Susie’s house tonight. This was a big, unexpected treat for Claire.
It was also a treat for Molly. To make the night special for her, we asked what she wanted to do. Immediately, Molly said that she wanted to do fuse beads and have chocolate ice cream. We managed both, and then some. We went to Jason’s Deli, still Molly’s favorite restaurant. She had been clambering to go to Jason’s even since our cherished Friday night swim lessons and subsequent dinners at Jason’s Deli, came to and end in January. Molly loves the cheese pizza and the free ice cream. We also did fuse beads, including the part where you actually iron them together, which we often skip.
We also managed some just-Molly time on the Wii. She took her best shot at Wii Sports Resort, uninterrupted by Claire. It turns out the Wii (at least the games we have) is not that easy for a four year old, and eventually she just wanted to watch. Eventually this morphed into watching the Winter Olympics. Molly loved the ice dancing.
Molly briefly lobbied to sleep in me and Kit’s room, like she did when Claire hosted a sleepover, but she did not push it. It was already a pretty great night.
A while back, Claire bought one of those toy plastic bows with suction cup arrows, for the movie Brave. She never really figured out how to shoot it and never had a good place to practice. She taped up a hand-drawn target on a piece of paper on the playroom cabinet, but of course the suction cup arrows never stuck to the paper.
At the end of her latest sleepover, Maddie’s dad tried it out and stuck an arrow right into the white board of the kids’ art easel. Brilliant! A few days later, Claire’s friend Claudia come over, and they drew a target on the easel. Pretty soon, after working on their technique, Claire and Claudia were firing and sticking one arrow after another to the easel.
Today before we picked up Molly, Claire got her first perfect bullseye. She shot and just nailed it. So here is a picture to commemorate her first bullseye.
Molly woke up the other night at 2:00 am with an ear infection. (Why are these always at 2:00 am?) It actually took us a while to figure out what was bothering her because she did not tell us anything except she felt bad. After a couple of hours, Molly said her ears hurt. In retrospect, yes of course, it was an ear infection! We gave her a couple of age 2-6 Tylenol chewables, which she said were yummy, and she finally got to sleep around 5:30. She really thought the Tylenol was a treat, which was scary considering this.
The next day, at the doctor, Molly was prescribed an antibiotic called Cefdinir. Molly loved the Cefdinir even more than the Tylenol. She asked for more, sort of as a treat. Hmm. I said no, we only have this medicine once a day, and we only ever have medicine when the doctor or parents say it is time for it. Molly listened politely and then asked for some more medicine, as if I just didn’t quite hear her question right the first time.
Molly asks for her Cefdinir first thing every morning. She also asks for Tylenol (“the other one”), but to no avail. On the way home from school today, still a little confused about the times of day, she asked for her medicine “Tonight, right before breakfast.”
What do they put in medicine these days? Sugar? I remember hating to take medicine, like that cough medicine syrup. It was just awful. I can still taste it now, and it makes my stomach queazy. I guess Molly will fondly remember her medicine as a yummy treat. Medicine is supposed to taste bad, right? Like that smell they add to propane so you know it’s not supposed to be there? Actually, smelling the medicine, it does smell a little bad and medicinal to me. But Molly says it tastes like cake.
Anyways, both medicines did their trick quite nicely. Molly was happy and healthy as a clam the very next day.
Claire just got her first loose tooth! It’s a bottom tooth near the front.
Claire is so excited about this. It’s the first thing she tells everyone. Claire has been watching her classmates lose their teeth for the last couple of years wondering when it would happen to her, and now she’s really in the big kid club.
Molly says that she will probably be getting her loose tooth any day now too.
As a side note, I just had a gum grafting done on my own mouth, so I have to be a little careful about which part of my mouth I chew with. Now loose-tooth Claire gets to join in the weird-eating club.
Today I asked Claire this question: “Is Twilight Sparkle the only Alicorn of the Main Six?” The thing that surprised me was that really was curious if Twilight Sparkle was the only one of the main My Little Pony characters to have both a horn and wings. Huh? Claire’s My Little Pony fascination had rubbed off on me. I don’t really sit and watch the show, but it is on a lot, and Claire loves to talk about it. She will rant about each character as long as you will listen. The very first thing Claire brings up when she has a friend over is MLP.
The TV show in question is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and is just about the only show Claire has been watching for the last several months. The only other show she chooses to watch, besides the occasional movie, is Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse, which she can watch only once a week since it’s too, well, Barbie-ish (although it is funny and pokes fun at itself a lot). Some of Claire’s friends tease her a bit for liking a “babyish” show like My LIttle Pony, but Claire proudly stands by her ponies. I have to side with Claire on this one — the show is fairly complex and layered with morality tales, not just a bunch of generic pink ponies acting cute. The characters are unique and independent and learning lessons through trial and error. Claire hates — hates! — My Little Pony: A Very Minty Christmas since it is pretty babyish and shallow and has a whole different feel.
So is Twilight Sparkle the only Alicorn in the group? Claire tells me that yes she is, at least at the end of season 3. She is dying for Netflix to get season 4, though!
BTW, Claire’s friend say that Claire is the most like Apple Jack since she is honest, dependable, and helpful.
We’ve all been enjoying Just Dance Kids on the Wii. It’s a pretty good workout too. It was a Christmas present to the kids last month.
Finally, after many months of patiently asking and waiting, Claire got to host her first sleepover. Claire had spent the night at her friend Maddie’s house a while back, and now we got to return the favor. We ordered pizza and watched A Dolphin Tale. The girls stayed up little late, about 10:00 or 10:30, with Claire telling Maddie “scary stories that weren’t that scary.” Maddie is accustomed to sleeping in somewhat later than Claire. However, Claire convinced Maddie that they should get up at 7:00 am since sleeping in late amounted to “wasting precious play time”.
We set up the “sick bed” for Molly in our room to avoid messing up Claire and Maddie’s scene (and to avoid a madhouse with Molly in there). The sick bed is the portable, inflatable mattress we use when someone is vomiting, etc. and needs to stay in our room. Molly saw the bed and asked who was sick. Kit said that the mattress was the “fun bed” tonight. Molly liked it. She got to arrange the covers and pillows just so, taking a lot of care with it. She was very cozy and seemed to enjoy sleeping in our room. It took her over an hour to fall asleep, although that is normal for Molly.
The kids played the next morning until Maddie’s parents got her around noon. There were some challenges in the morning with not sharing the Wii, etc. and maybe some homesickness on Maddie’s part, but overall we just had a quiet morning. Claire’s friend Harper had suggested that Claire “order donuts” for breakfast. I asked Claire what that meant, and she said she didn’t know, but Harper usually “orders donuts” when she has a sleepover. Is there a donut delivery service I am not aware of? Anyways, I ran up to Howdy Donut and waited in line for 20 minutes to get some pretty great donuts and some really awesome sausage kolaches (one each per person).
So it was a nice, cozy sleepover with an old friend. Claire loved the idea of a sleepover and is already planning her next one. She is actually randomly inviting girls she is sort of friends with, and who have never ever been to our house to play before, for a sleepover just because their mom is there. That is how much she loves sleepovers.
We were all watching the movie version of Charlotte’s Web when the topic of the narrator came up. I thought the narrator was Bob Newhart. Kit said it was Sam Shepard (she as right). Molly asked what we were talking about. We said it was the voice talking off screen that you can’t see. Molly said the narrator is probably Siri’s friend.
Siri actually comes up more than you would think in our daily conversations. Claire and I like to try to stump her or faze her, but she is unflappable. Claire even gets to be mean to Siri sometimes, which is probably fun since she isn’t mean to anyone else. And we can always make fun of poor Siri for lazily falling back to “I found this on the web for you.”
McG Kids 