Molly just started a web development course and created her very first web page.
The web page is called “All About Me”, is written in pure HTML, and says a lot about our little coder. 🤓
I helped her with an edit. She said, “Ohh ok thanks. I may be asking a lot of questions on HTML. I hope you dont mind!” So sweet! And of course I don’t mind. 😛
Molly announced today that she looks forward to a career in software and video editing. Specifically, part-time coding and the rest of her time on freelance video editing gigs. I told her should could probably make more money doing coding full time, but she said “nah”, she really wanted to edit vids too. 😌 We already know that Molly is good at editing.
Molly would like to work from home and live in a peaceful town by a river, perhaps Seguin.
That sounds pretty damned nice, Molly. I think this could work for you. 👍
Getting excited about Molly’s recent enthusiasm for math, I asked Molly what she wants to do for a living when she grows up.
“I want to be a store stocker. I already told you that. I just like arranging things.”
Okay, so she wants to stock groceries for a living and do math for fun. It’s not the most practical choice, but I like that it’s full of clarity and passion.
I told Molly that I would put in a good word for her at Whole Foods in a few years if she still wants to be a stocker. I’ve done a couple of shifts in the store myself, and stocking case after case of kombucha is not easy work, but I think she’s up to it.
As part of our new bedtime chats, I asked Claire what she wanted to be when she grew up, and she said, “You know, I always wanted to be a fire fighter. But my new number one choice is…”, she then paused for effect and then whispered, “teacher! And my second choice is artist.” Those seem like great choices!
Claire has mentioned wanting to be a teacher in the past. She is great with Molly’s classmates when we pick up Molly at school, often pausing and taking time to help one of the toddlers with something or just play with them. Sometimes she likes to try to teach Molly stuff like writing, as in “Molly, watch. Here is how you draw an A…” Despite Molly’s lack of interest and focus, being a toddler and all, Claire persists patiently and normally without getting frustrated, but eventually has to give up as Molly wanders off to go mess with something else.
On the artist front… Claire tells me that she is the second best artist in her kindergarten class. Irene is definitely the best artist, Claire says, no contest. But Claire tells me that she has a reputation around the classroom as the second best artist after Irene. We really love Claire’s art, full of details and imagination. Being her parents and all, we may be positively biased. But I will say that Claire does seem to buckle down and really focus on drawing for extended periods better than she does any other activity, except maybe playing Angry Birds.
(Just after I wrote this post, to reiterate her point, Claire brought the following drawing home from school…)
Here is the latest update in the ongoing favorite books series…
Molly has been enjoying the classics. She went through a big Cat in the Hat phase. This one is really fun to read if you add the full dramatic flair, with silly voices and dramatic pauses. It also takes a long time to read if you do it right, so we often have to skip over the “middle bit”, i.e. the middle 1/3 of the book, since this book tends to get Molly late to bed.
Molly has also been enjoying Harry the Dirty Dog. She likes this one in particular because the book itself was Kit’s when she was a little girl. When Kit first told Molly that the book had been hers when she was small, Molly got a really surprised look on her face, sort of a “Holy s**t!” look, as Kit tells me. Molly may have been taken aback that Kit was ever a little girl. We have another, newer copy of this book too, and Molly insists that one was my book when I was little. This is actually not true, and I have told Molly that it was not my book, but Molly shrugs this news off. It was my book according to her view of the world.
Kit normally reads Molly her bedtime story, so she might have more to add. Molly also been enjoying Ladybug Girl at the Beach, which was actually a gift to Claire from her aunt Betsy. Claire read it once or twice and moved on, but Molly really loves this story about a girl playing around at the beach with her dog and family and conquering her fear of the water.
Claire has been mostly checking out non-fiction animal books from the school library. We covered lions for a while, thanks to the movie The Lion King, which made lions look cute and fun. But Claire has turned away from lions a bit lately after realizing that they are really more ferocious and dangerous than cute. “I don’t like lions any more. They’re mean and gross.”, I think she said. This realization came after she saw a picture of a lion holding a dead, limp animal in its bloody mouth. Claire has since then been focusing on dolphins, which really are cute and sweet. They save people’s lives and fight sharks, which really is cool.
We also try to get Claire to read her own lithe books that she takes home from school as reading assignments. Claire is usually too tired to read on her own, though, and just can’t seem to focus at the late hour right before bed. So we are trying to find another time for her to read to us, but it is tough to find the time on a weekday.
Recently, Claire has come up with a new idea for bedtime stories. Instead of a story, she said the other night, “why don’t we just cuddle and talk for a while?” Sure, why not? The whole idea is just to help her relax and top off the day before going to bed. The first night she said, “What should we talk about? Moats?” We had been talking about moats, her idea, for a few days. We had mostly exhausted the topic, but we quickly reviewed our knowledge of moats, and then went on to Q&A. We covered each other’s favorite colors and a couple of other basics. Among other things, we covered Claire’s latest career plans.
Besides Q&A, Claire decided that we should make up stories to tell each other. Each night she would make up a story such as “Elizabeth and the magic sock” or “Lilly and the magic jellybean”. These stories are cute but tend to ramble on and go in circles for quite a while, either because she cannot figure out how to end the story or because she is trying to put off bedtime, or probably a little bit of both. (Claire is also writing and illustrating a book called “Candy Land”, or “Kandi Land” as she has written it with her growing writing skills.) After Claire’s story, Kit or I have to make up a story. Mine usually end up with pirates on a ship, or talking food, for some reason. And mine tend to ramble on too because it’s actually really hard to find a good conclusion to a story that you’re just making up on the spot. Really hard. I kind of want to go back to reading someone else’s stories!
We received a postcard in the mail today from Orvis. It was addressed to Claire, with the heading “Now hiring”. It continued, “Many of our valued associates were once our best customers!” Apparently Orvis is hiring a Fishing Manager and other positions for their new store, and they are interested in five year old girls taking on this responsibility. Also, apparently, they think Claire has heard of Orvis.
I told Claire about this exciting opportunity, her first job recruitment. She smiled and said, “What? I think they think I’m an adult!” I told Claire that, while she certainly could not spare enough hours to work full time right now, maybe she should consider the part-time Sales Associate position in Women’s Apparel. She knows something about ladies’ clothing, right? Claire just giggled and said, “No, Dad! I’m a kid!”
Okay, I guess I agree with her. It is too early to commit to a sales position, especially with only a few weeks to go before kindergarten starts. Maybe she can work hard in kindergarten and apply for a position next summer once she has some report cards to put on the application. All she has to go on now is basically that her friends and family like her, and maybe a recommendation from a pre-school teacher or two. But that alone will not get you into the retail sales game, not in this economy anyways.
Claire has been thinking about being a working mom lately.
Her daily note from school today said Claire “went to work” while Carissa (her teacher) “babysat” her babies named “Dona” and “Roshashana”.
One night during her bath, Claire rattled off a few job ideas, but after some thought settled on being a teacher.
Yesterday, said Claire said she wanted to be a doctor and go to the hospital with her mom every day. Kit was really touched by this. However, she is suggesting that Claire look into an allied health field or a technician position rather than being a straight up doctor. The hours and stress have been getting to her lately. :-
Claire is showing distinct interest in a few career fields at this point.
We were recently looking at pictures of the visit we took to the Atlanta History Center few months ago. This is where Claire manned a pretend fast food drive-through window, chirping “You want a combo?” over and over. These pictures got her going on this game again, but now she is a little more verbose. After accepting her offer of a combo, she’ll say something like, “Let me see if I can find a combo.” Then she pretends to find a combo and then says, “That’s a dollar-eight” with a big smile on her face. You can always settle up with two pennies, which is the flat cost of any transaction with Claire. This may not be a well-paying line of work, but she does seem to enjoy it.
Her other perennial favorite is being a doctor. Now she puts on a whole show. She’ll come up to you and furrow her brow to look real concerned and say, “You hurt your knee?” After establishing that your knee is hurt, she invents some way to treat it. Her methods involve pressing a random toy against the affected area, rubbing it with her hands, or kissing it. Then she proudly says, “You’re all better!” and scurries off to find another knee to heal. She seems to be a knee specialist, I guess because they work well for her height.
Claire used to have a real stethoscope, donated to her from her mom. But now, much to her dismay, it is missing. She is always looking for it and asking me and her mom if we have seen it. She likes to use it as part of her examination, listening carefully to our knees, and sometimes to our shoulders if we are sitting down on the floor. Our knees and shoulders sometimes say, “Mommy, mommy, mommy” or “Daddy, daddy, daddy” slow and steady like a heartbeat. She has also been know to treat a bad knee by pressing her stethoscope against it with just the right touch.
Other interests, practiced less often but just as passionately, include being a sailor, a pirate, a singer, a dancer, or a comedian who does a “dumb guy” schtick with a funny slow voice. She has yet to show real interest in my field, computers, unless it involves watching videos of herself on the iMac.
McG Kids 