Molly got ready for bed extra quickly tonight and made a little sign that said ‘I.G.R.F.B.E.”. She asked me to guess what it meant. After a few clues, I figured out it meant, “I got ready for bed early.” She wanted to get ready early so she would have extra time to read.
sweet
Top Things You Should Know About Claire, by Claire
For her book club, Claire and her friend had to compile a list of things people should know about them. Here is Claire’s list. Our Claire is a little hard on herself.
- Sometimes I’m mean to my sister.
- I love to sketch because I can get all my ideas out.
- Sometimes I watch too much TV.
- I think I’m bad at math.
- I love my family because they use their time and money to keep me alive.
- I love sleepovers because I get real time with my friends.
- The color blue makes me confused.
I asked Claire about the last one, and she said she didn’t know what she said the color blue confuses her. But we talked about it a bit, and we decided that Blue is confusing because really dark navy blue and really light baby blue are almost completely different colors.
Thanks For the Great Summer, Jackie!
Here is Claire’s note to her nanny, Jackie, who spent most of the summer with Claire. Claire loved having a nanny for the summer. She could have friends over, go summing, go shopping, cook, or just take it easy. Jackie took special care to make sure Claire had a fun summer and did not sit in front of the TV very much.
We kept Molly mostly in her pre-school routine throughout the summer, although she did get to come home early some days and had the last week of the summer off with Claire and Jackie.
Jackie would later tell us that this card was the sweetest thing she had ever received, and it made her cry.
Zoo Donation
Today, Molly donated all of her money to the Austin Zoo. The zoo was recently burglarized for an estimated $30,000 in cash and equipment. We discussed helping the zoo as a family, and Molly decided to donate all of the $14 she had saved up from her allowance. Molly asked if the zoo would need any more money after her donation. She was slightly disappointed to hear that it would still need more money, but we assured her that her generous donation was making a difference.
Claire is generous in spirit but is desperately saving up for some My Little Pony stuff. She has $7 and really needs a few more dollars for some stuff for her MLP videos. With some real shopping and budgeting experience under her belt, Claire is all too aware of the value of a dollar. To her credit, Claire had sent several dollars to Winter the dolphin a while back.
Working It
Molly may be at her most adorable age right now, four and a half years old. A year ago, she was a dopey toddler. In another year, she will be a hearty five year old kid. Right now she is in the middle, no longer a babyish mess but not yet a big kid. Here is a snapshot of what makes Molly adorable right now…
Molly sleeps in a ladybug tent at night. The tent is filled with stuffed animals and about 80 magazines.
Molly vaguely resembles Mike Wazowski. Luckily, though, Molly does have two eyes.
Molly calls peanuts “peanut butter nuts”.
Molly often wears her “M” cape with a princess costume and a tiara. She calls this “Super Molly”.
Molly sincerely believes that her “M” cape makes her go faster.
Molly will only wear dresses that twirl properly.
Molly plays along with Dora the Explorer when the show prompts you for an answer. We often hear her loudly yelling things like “Purple!” at the computer.
Molly judges things primarily by their color, with pink and purple being the best colors. Luckily, this approach does not apply to people.
Molly says “No fair!” a lot.
Molly clambers a lot. She clambers into her dining chair, onto her bed, etc. (Clamber: to climb, move, or get in or out of something in an awkward and laborious way, typically using both hands and feet.)
Molly believes that the Disney princesses are real. She was initially confused by the idea of Disney World and Disney Land. Which one do the real princesses live at? Then she figured it out: “Disney World has the real people, and Disney Land has puppets.”
You will commonly find Molly wandering the house wearing nothing but skivvies and sparkly shoes, and sometimes only the shoes.
Molly always says her sister’s name as two syllables, “Cla-aire”.
Molly loves her big sister. They spend a lot of time playing and hanging out on the weekends. Yesterday, Claire went off for a playdate for a couple of hours. Molly quickly got bored without Claire around and said, sadly, “What am I supposed to do now?” Molly later stated that she really likes being with Claire.
Molly always smells good, even when she is hot and sweaty. Well, not always; she is sometimes gassy — then look out!
Ode to Muffin
Here is Claire’s poem about Muffin. She is studying poetry in school and seems to enjoy it.
Who’s that standing there
with white fluffy hair?
Big black eyes.
Tail swishing back and forth wildly
like an angry flock of seagulls.
New Year’s Resolutions (Claire, 2014 edition)
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.
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.
Christmas Drawing and Words 2013
Claire and Molly put this together, with the help of Grammy, as a Christmas present for Kit and me. Most of the listed family attributes (laughter, kindness, loyalty, magic, generosity, and honesty) are taken from My Little Pony’s Elements of Harmony. Molly added “loving”.
Claire & Molly’s Santa List 2013
Molly decide to start a naughty & nice Christmas list for Santa Claus. Claire got into the idea. She wrote down all the items on the list and added some of her own. Molly’s list is dominated by things or people from school (naughty) and princesses (nice). Claire’s list of full of My Little Pony characters (all nice).
McG Kids 