Frozen

| patmcg
Frozen cast poster
The much loved characters of Frozen

The movie Frozen is a pretty big deal, at least with little girls.  The movie was released in theaters five months ago and seems to have only picked up steam since.  It probably helps that it’s now on iTunes and DVD.  Anyways, this movie definitely ranks as a favorite — no, the favorite — movie for both Claire and Molly.

We have had endless discussions about “Who do you like better, Anna or Elsa?” or “What’s your favorite song in Frozen?” or “What character do you think I am in Frozen?”  On the drive back from Corpus Christi this weekend, Claire and Molly watched Frozen in the car.  When they weren’t watching Frozen, Molly was singing it.  “The snow glows white on the mountain tonight…” she always starts quietly.  Molly seems to know most of the words.  Claire started a series of family votes on who were our favorite characters (Anna won overall), favorite songs, etc.  At first, Molly thought Elsa was a “bad guy”, but Claire has slowly convinced her that Elsa is not bad, she has a good heart but she just has a problem to deal with.  Molly doesn’t understand that, but she believes Claire.

We had a babysitter last weekend, and she told us that every single girl under the age of 13 who she sits has been singing Frozen songs, mostly Let It Go.  She says it’s a “phenomenon”.  I found myself at an after-school dinner for Molly’s school, sitting with Claire, Molly, and another dad from Molly’s class.  He went on about Frozen, complete with trivia (the main character names came from the name  “Hans Christian Andersen”, etc.)

There is also a backlash.  At a second grade roller skating party, the skating rink played the song Let It Go, and all the girls sang along.  But all the boys apparently took of their roller-skates, slid around on their socks, and screamed in protest.  There is also Let It Go Goes With Everything, which shows just how generic (but still lovely) that song is.

Claire seems to enjoy my personal take on Anna vs. Elsa, which is that Anna is a true optimist and person of action who is always trying to make things better, while Elsa just runs to the nearest mountain to sing a song about how sad and misunderstood she is.  Boo hiss, Elsa!  😉  Claire thinks it is funny that Elsa sings on three separate occasions the words “Conceal, don’t feel…”  Okay, we shouldn’t be too hard on the cursed, orphaned ice queen.  I’m just saying we get it, already, Elsa.  It’s time to move on!

Anyways, Frozen is the only thing to really break through the My Little Pony stranglehold for Claire in the past several months, and that is really saying something.  I mean, occasionally Claire likes to watch Frozen, although MLP still forms the core of her entertainment universe.

Karate

| patmcg

This is a picture of Claire and friends doing meditation for karate.  It’s a pretty cool picture.

20140417-claire-karate-medition

But Claire is not super “into” karate.  She can do some kicks and can count to 10 in Korean.  And she gets to have a brief playdate with her friend Susie after school, before karate class, once a week.  But she isn’t showing a great interest in becoming a black belt, or even a yellow belt for that matter.  I guess she is saving her focus for swimming.

Oh yeah, and Claire looks really cute in her karate outfit.  It even served as pajamas one time when her regular PJ’s were in the laundry.  I can already picture Molly proudly wearing Claire’s karate gear in a few years.

School Portraits

| patmcg

The girls are looking pretty stylish in their recent school portraits for second grade (Claire) and pre-pre-K (Molly).

Claire school portrait   Molly school portrait

Molly’s sassy pose is a big change from the crying toddler of a couple of years ago.

New Year’s Resolutions (Claire, 2014 edition)

| patmcg

Claire had to do resolutions for 2014 for a school assignment back in January.  I have just scanned it now.  Here is what she came up with.

20140422-10

20140422-12

Adding this retrospectively in April, 2014, I can say that Claire is doing very well on her resolutions.  She has had several sleepovers, done some monkey bars, has continued to not be mean to Molly, has read way over 10 books, and is learning the back stroke at swimming.  She she 8 months left to work on jumping rope, dribbling a basketball, and origami.

MLP Pool Party

Video | | patmcg

This the very first My Little Pony video created by Claire!  She had worked on the concept for a few days and decided to jump in and do it this afternoon.  Claire’s first lesson learned is to try to find a way to keep her arms out of the camera view as much as possible.

Update (June 20, 2014)

Amazingly, this video has now has 2,071 views!  There are 8 thumbs up and 10 thumbs down.  Claire was a little bumbed about the down votes but has mostly moved on to her newer videos.

By comparison, my own videos for my little app company struggled to get over 100 views.

Update (October 8, 2014)

Wow, this video is up to 66,167 views!  We still have no idea how this video got so popular, except that it is the twelfth video listed on youtube when you search for “my little pony pool party”.  Being number 12 on youtube is pretty damn good!

Awkwardly, this video is actually on my own youtube account and is by far my own most popular video.  I have 89 subscribers now thanks to Claire’s video.  Judging by their icons, most of my fans are My Little Pony enthusiasts.  

 

Drop Off

Image | | patmcg

This is a picture of the start of a typical day for Molly.  Molly has a nice, set routine each school morning.  I won’t got into the all the details of the routine (although I have done that before), but here are a few highlights of how Molly likes her morning to go…

  • Molly always has Cheerios for breakfast but doesn’t finish them and asks for a “to go” for the car.
  • After dropping Claire off at school, and on the drive to Molly’s school, Molly usually initiates some sort of creative activity with me.  It’s anything from “What do you want me to draw?” to “Tell me everything you see that starts with letter S” or an “I’m thinking of something that…” game.  “I’m thinking of something that grows on fences.”, which is flowers, for example.  She always has something to offer.
  • On a related note, the drives home in the evening are less creative and more grumpy.  A favorite question of Molly’s is a whiney “Why do you always have to cook dinner at home?” (I actually pick up food on the way home really often).
  • Once we’re at Molly’s pre-school, we can either take the stairs or the elevator upstairs to her classroom.  Molly always gets to pick.  Lately Molly’s trick is to stand at the hallway between the stairs and the elevator and say out loud, “Hmm…which way?”  And then she’ll suddenly sprint towards the elevator, giggling loudly, trying to get away from me.  She always looks back to make sure I’m chasing her.  It is hilarious to see Molly tear down the hall in a dress and shiny shoes.
  • Once at the elevator, the next game is for Molly to press the “up” button before I can do it, and then to press the “3” button once inside before I can get to it.  It makes Molly giggle even more when I just barely lose to her every time.  By the time we get to Molly’s classroom, she is panting and laughing.
  • Then Molly suddenly gets real quiet when we actually enter her classroom.  It is hard to get a even one word out of her.  Sometimes she gets a little excited to give an extra toilet paper cardboard roll from home to Turbo the Gerbil, but that’s about it.  Normally it’s the quiet little girl you see in the picture above, at least until the afternoon grumps.

Rainbow Claire

Image | | patmcg

This is a picture of Claire in her handmade paper-and-tape Rainbow Dash costume.  The lovingly-made costume is a tribute to Claire’s enduring fascination with My Little Pony.  She is even talking about publishing to YouTube a video of her playing with the My Little Pony.  There are video like that that have over 30,000 views.

One time I said something offhand to Claire about, “When you move on to the next thing after My Little Pony…” and Claire, shocked, said “What?  I will never move on from My Little Pony!”

The only other rival for Claire’s attention is the movie Frozen.  Claire and Molly both know all the songs, etc. and talk about who is better, Anna or Elsa (the consensus is Anna, although Claire has some sympathy for Elsa).  Claire and I can perform the song “Reindeers Are Better Than People” with me on guitar and Claire on vocals.  It actually sounds okay.  Maybe we should put that on YouTube, huh?

Still, MLP is king no matter if some people Claire’s age think its “babyish”.  Claire is a loyal and proud fan, and her paper costume shows it.

The First Tooth Comes Out

Image | | patmcg

Claire officially lost her first tooth today.  That bottom-middlish tooth had been loose for almost two months but finally let go at school today during lunch.  Apparently it comes out as Claire was eating a pear in the cafeteria with her friend Harper.  Claire stared run-walking to find a teacher and almost got in trouble with the cafeteria monitor.  Claire was very proud of her missing tooth.

The tooth stayed in Claire’s school desk the first night but came home the next day where it slept under Claire’s pillow in a special tiny pillow of its own to help the Tooth Fairy could find it.  When I woke Claire up the next morning, the very first thing she did was check her Tooth Fairy pillow.  In it, she found her tiny little tooth had been traded for a special half-collar coin.  That was a special coin from the Tooth Fairy, who will probably end up slipping a plain old dollar bill in there on later teeth.  Claire was surprised it was a silver half dollar coin, thinking half dollars were normally gold.  Still, she really likes her “only silver” coin.

Where Did My 3:00 to 6:00 Go?

| patmcg

Okay, this is one of those posts where I just gripe and moan.

I try not to complain in this blog very much.  But griping may be more interesting than all the nice, fun stuff anyways.  I adore the kids and don’t want to complain.  But really, this post is about me more than the kids.  I want to capture this moment so I can remember later just how difficult this period could be.  But it is only tough in a slow, grinding, unrelenting kind of way, not a “You’re pants are on fire!” kind of way.

This post covers the most horrifying part of the day: the late afternoon / early evening.  Below is my late afternoon schedule.  Notice how actual working time magically shrinks to nearly nothing before your eyes.

  • I leave the house to meet Claire at the bus at 2:55 pm, no matter what was going on at work.
    • This is a nice part of the day, and I always look forward to it.  But it is tough on the work schedule.  I avoid 3:00 meetings and sometimes have to take them on the cell phone at the bus stop.
  • After walking back with Claire and setting her up with a snack, I return to work around 3:30.
    • Another great part of the day — probably the best — but again tough on the work schedule.
  • I re-settle into work.  Usually it takes about 15 minutes to really get back fully engaged in work, so now it’s 3:45.  Wow, it’s been nearly an hour since I went to get Claire.
  • Claire needs some help focusing on her homework.  Some days are good, but many are not.  We have to start on homework by 4:15 to make sure we get it done in time to pick up Molly.  Usually that is tight, and sometimes we run over.
  • By 5:15 or 5:30, Claire and I head off to pick up Molly.
  • We are back by 6:00, thanks to the close proximity of Molly’s new school.
    • This is a major improvement over Molly’s old school, which often took nearly an hour round trip despite being only two miles away — freakin’ traffic!
  • Did you notice how much work time there was after 2:55 this afternoon?  Yes, 30 minutes.  How did that happen again?

This leaves me behind at work, automatically, every day.  I have to make up for it at night, every night.

Just to complete the exercise, the day rounds out like this:

  • Dinner, additional homework, and the kids’ bath and bedtime puts us at 8:30 or 9:00, always a little frazzled at this point.
  • Wake up time for school is 6:30 am for school, so there are only a couple of hours left tonight to finish what was left behind when I went to Claire’s bus stop earlier this afternoon.
  • This is also the time to go to the grocery store, handle the mail, do the laundry, plan a birthday party, and so on.  Exercise is also a good idea, and often worth trading for some sleep.
  • The 9:00 to 11:00 “golden hour” is so critical that I just can’t absorb any bedtime problems from the kids.

We tried an after-school nanny, but she did not work out.  She only showed up half the time and wasn’t very engaged when she was here.

We could leave Claire in Extend-a-Care after school.  Maybe that would be fine, but she would only have about an hour a day at home, if even that, aside from going to bed or getting up.

I could let Claire walk home from the bus stop by herself and ignore her once she got here.  But the bus driver made it clear that Claire should not be walking home alone.  In fact, he won’t drop her off if I’m not there.  Besides, I can’t just ignore Claire — sweet, funny Claire.  But she can do her homework alone as far as I am concerned.  🙂