writing

This blog is now a book 🤯

| patmcg

When I started writing this blog lo those many years ago, I told myself “I’ll keep writing ’til they turn 18.” Well, now Claire is 18, so I guess I’m done, right? Not quite. Molly still has a few more years before she’s 18.

Nonetheless, to celebrate Claire’s 18th birthday, and since this blog probably won’t live online forever (I mean, at some point, credit cards do expire), I decided to get Claire’s portion of the bog printed as a book that she can take with her.

I assumed this book would come out to a like a 200-page paperback. But no, my friend. Claire’s book is 850-page tome (and I don’t use that word lightly). Actually, according to the printer, it literally needed to be a three-book series.

It goes to show, “If you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something that is massive.“

As the preface in the book says:

Clairey, you make me proud every day. It’s hard to even scratch the surface on how kind, funny, and interesting you are – but here are three volumes on the subject.;-) – Dad

So Claire’s childhood is now officially a trilogy in ranks with The Hunger Games. Okay, maybe having your childhood likened to a violent, impoverished, dystopian civilization is not what we want here.

Let’s go with the original Happy Potter trilogy. I guess she has four more books, at least, in her series.

Molly Writes

| patmcg

Molly has been dabbling with writing for a while, but she is taking it to a new level.  The other day she asked for a sticky note and how to spell “ball”.  Then she wrote “ball” on the notes and stuck it to the well above a beach ball.  She said she wanted us all to remember there was a ball there.

"Ball" note

She also wrote her name on a piece of paper, although I forget for what purpose.  I think she is gearing up for pre-K in the fall.

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Formal request for food

| patmcg

Today after school, Claire was really hungry.  This is always a struggle.  She is always starving right after school and really wants to eat, but it is also almost time for dinner.  So she has to sit around while her tummy rumbles in pain while I cook (or rather, “prepare”) dinner.  Sometimes she has a little bit of popcorn or something, but I always enjoin her not to spoil her appetite right before dinner.  The timing is tricky here, and this can be one of the more difficult aspects of the weekday routine.

Anyways, after some discussion with Claire on the topic, Claire disappeared and, a minute later, she handed me this note.

I need foodI need food

You can tell from the handwriting that her blood sugar is low, and she has the shakes. 😉  Claire usually puts more care into notes like these, such as this one I found that she wrote to Molly.

You are a helper. You are a helper. Love, Big Sissy.

Pes, Love, Citn

| patmcg
For her Mom’s birthday this year, Claire created a large picture of a princess. She spent all of her morning TV time on it. The princess is framed by glitter stickers. The picture is inscribed with some words that Claire spelled phonetically without any help, and with varying degrees of technical correctness: peace (“pec” or “pes”), love (which she had already learned to spell), and kitten with a creative but nearly dead-on phonetic spelling.


Claire also created a large sign with some spelling help that reads, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!”


Writing for Real

| patmcg
Claire has been trying to master her reading and writing skills, and is making steady, incremental progress on both fronts. I can actually show you the writing part.

For a while, Claire was happy to put any sort of letters on her pictures. These were either super-secret, encrypted words, used for national security… or just random letters. Sadly, we’ll never know for sure.

Now Claire is writing her first real, actual words, as seen here.
Sometimes she asks us for help to write out something more involved, for instance Rapunzel, let down your hair! to accompany a drawing of a very long-haried girl. I could not scan that one because she gave it as a gift to her friend Maddie, who can read.