Conversation

Shara: I told you not to get not to get me socks.
Mommy: no you didn't
Shara: I did in my head

Third Grade & Swamped September

After our glorious vacation we settled back to the school routine, or at least have been trying to. Shara's starting 1/2 hour earlier than last year and this week was the first ballet class and tomorrow will be the first swim class. She loves dance and is looking forward to swimming, or at least not saying no to it.

Tonight she played butler for our margarita party from church. A number of people bid at our annual auction to come over for a party and tonight was the night. It was quite fun. Some of the guests helped make soft corn tortillas and while the ladies went downstairs to drink margaritas and eat some Mexican food, Shara and Alan played in the office - Alan with his new electronics kit and Shara on the web, playing games. Then she decided it was time to come down and join the party. She boogied around the room but wouldn't perform her hard rock song for us.

Shara and I had been watching the MTV Video Music Awards and I think she got her "hard rock song" impersonation from Green Day. Yesterday she started playing air guitar around the kitchen and doing the "wa wa wwaaa" sounds and every so often, interspersed it with a "sh*t!". I was rolling! We both were, really. No, she's not allowed to say that, or any other, swear word outside the house and also shouldn't say it in front of anyone other than myself or Alan, but it was funny!

Girls' Day Out

It was all about eating, as usual. We went to the first show of Mirror Mirror. At home we popped corn on the cob in the microwave, in a paper bag. I know we're not supposed to being in food, but it's so much better than what we'd get at the theater. Shara requested butter and salt on hers. I melted the butter in a zip lock bag, then added the popped corn, tossed, added some salt, and she ate about a 1/2 gallon's worth. I loved it just plain. On the way to the movie, Shara continued to listen and read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. We were one of five cars in the lot so we didn't worry about getting tickets. The movie was really fun for both of us. My eyes were covered for me during the one kiss, but other than we laughed quite a bit.

After the movie we headed to 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. Shara had a small bacon cheeseburger with no toppings. I had a small hamburger with lettuce, tomato, pickles, grilled onions, and mustard. We split a regular fry and had plenty to bring home to daddy. Shara also wrapped up the little bit of burger she had left. At dinner, when he ate it, she said, "I wrapped it myself and smashed it." We dropped off the fries to the car and headed over to Hilliard's in the hot April heat. I asked her if she was going to really eat a whole scoop because if she didn't, I'd be finishing it and she said she would. We both knew I didn't want to eat it but would because I have no will-power. She ate about 1/4 of the scoop and yes, I finished it. Hers was much better than mine. Their frozen yogurt would be perfect if it weren't for the bit of tang (yogurt flavor). Not all froyo has it, but this does. The coffee flavor was strong and the toffee mix-in was their candy, so of course it was great. I shared my marshmallow topping, but she didn't want any of the hot fudge. Shara got the Cookies and Cookie Dough - "We make our cookie dough from scratch, we couldn't bring ourselves to use commercial frozen dough pellets found in other ice cream." Topped with chocolate jimmies too - and these are real chocolate - crunchy flakes, of very chocolaty chocolate. The woman put a very large spoonful in the bottom of the cup and topped it with at least 2 more spoonfuls. I really enjoyed this and need to remember next time. But I probably won't. I'll ask Shara to remind me.

Then we went to the market and needed to pick up a challah because this is the closest market where they get really good, traditional challah - from a bakery in Brookline. Then we got into the hot car and headed home. Shara then spent the next 2 1/2 hours! reading/listening to more Harry Potter. She's now up to chapter 12. After we left her room for her to go to sleep, I hear her calling me. I went in and she tells me she's scared because of Harry Potter. I told her she shouldn't read it anymore if it's too scary. She assured me it's only when reading at night. She asked if she could sleep with me and when I said I wasn't going to bed yet, she asked if I could come get her when I did go to bed. I'm guessing she's been asleep for a while now.

Gravy?

Last night, after dinner, Alan was cleaning up and from the kitchen asked, "what's that on top of the chocolate mousse?" I answered, "the gravy". Shara asked, "Gravy? Gravy on the mousse?" I said, "yes, you know, the chocolate dessert." Shara, "Gravy ... is ON ... the mousse?" Me, "Oh! the container of gravy is on top of the container of mousse!".

"I set the bed"

Shara, "I set the bed"
Us, "You what?"
Shara, "I set the bed"
Us, "You slept in your bed?"
Shara, "No, I set the bed"
Us, "do you mean you made your bed?"
Shara, "Yes, right, I made my bed."

World record

Tonight I was watching a movie downstairs, alan went to bed early, and I'm hearing noises from shara's room. I try to ignore it because either shes dreaming or being quiet in her room. At about 10 pm, I hear her come out of her room. Nothing wrong, she just wanted to share with me what she had been up to for the past 2 hours. Well, she was busy playing school. She was going to have several kids in her class in a dance and she had written down all the names of the kids and the choreography. Quite impressive. We then cuddled a bit, trying to get relaxed, but she really wanted to sleep in our room. She said she was having megamind thoughts again.
I thought she would have been remembering some of the outlandish looks from this afternoons visit to waltham and the steampunk festival. But she said that wasn't it. We think maybe the c coffee frozen yogurt with hot fudge. Or she could have been so excited from being able to spend time with her cousin lizzy and for tomorrow visit with more family. I told her she should bring her notes to share with everyone tomorrow.

Kids' Choice

I recorded the highlights of the Nick Kids' Choice Awards and I'm drinking my coffee, listening to Shara hoot and holler in the other room. I'm guessing Jack Black is up to something!

This weekend Shara and Alan went to see A Midsummer Nights Dream at Boston Ballet. They both thought it was great but would have been happy with just the first part. The second was about 1/2 as long and not nearly as interesting. That night we went to dinner at one of our church friend's homes. It was nice. Shara warmed up after quite a while, but still had a good time. She's also been reading a borrowed copy of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. She loves it and is already about 1/3 of the way through! Apparently it's not too old for her, but I had my doubts.

Yuck

Last night Shara sneezed, ran into the bathroom and we hear, "yuck, I got pea all over". Alan goes in to see what was happening, expecting she sneezed and pee'd her pants, but no, she had sneezed and the sugar snap pea she was chewing, spit out on her arm. I'd say that was better than the alternative.

Great conference report

Tonight we met with Shara's teacher and she had nothing but great things to say. We weren't very surprised but it's certainly nice having confirmation that all is going as it should.

This evening Shara and I were walking to my room and she noticed some flowers I put up on a window sill. She said she didn't like them there because it looked like an owl porching up there. She meant perching but now I have to look it up and see if porch came from the word perch.

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I'm going to staple you

Tonight shara wanted to wrestle me and said, "when I staple you..." She meant to say"pin". T that took me a minute to figure out!

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Penis, Pelvis, what's the difference?

Tonight Shara was jumping around, getting ready to read Junie B. and she started chuckling. We asked what was funny and she said she kicked herself in the penis. We told her she doesn't have a penis, but her area is called a vagina. She went up to her skeleton and said, "but skelly says penis down there" and we told her it said, "pelvis".

Vacation Week

Shara spent a few days at Oma & Jidor's. They went to Chuckie Cheese-it's, Wendy's, the playground, Auntie Chris' work, and for bike rides. Shara did miss mommy & daddy, but had a great time too. When she came home, she was a monster, but once she got back to her regular routine, things got better. Mommy had to go away for a night to the MLA conference, but Shara & daddy had a great time together and even made this music video.

Overnight at Oma & Jidor's

Last night we dropped Shara off at Oma & Jidor's. At Shara's request, we are leaving her until after dinner tonight. Yesterday we enjoyed our last vacation day at home, doing pretty much nothing and loving it. Shara got a lot of Lego'ing done, but she also put away her clothes and we both played some Wii together. I did some research on where Alan & I could go do dinner. Decided on trying Bokx 109 American Prime in Newton. It was a really fun night at a hotel that looked, from the outside, that it was done in the 70's. So arriving I thought I picked a bad place to go, but turned out to be hopping and the food was really good. When we got there, the place wasn't too full. We got seated immediately and I thought we'd have our usual experience of drink, order, eat, leave, without much time in between for relaxing and talking. This was different.

The menus were already on the table, wrapping our napkin. The menus were done on butcher paper. It was really hard for me to decide because I didn't want steak or heavy meat, and that's what they had. I wanted mashed potatoes – horseradish, roasted garlic, bacon-blue, au gratin potatoes with Great Hill Blue and rosemary, mac and cheese w/ short ribs, or the fries done in duck fat. We had drinks while we were deciding and some focaccia and pistachios. There was no rush for us to make a decision.

What I ended up getting, with a little more info from the waiter, was the Wedge salad - Boston bibb, North Country bacon, apple, Great Hill Blue, creamy thyme dressing. The salad was great. Not the old school iceberg. Alan had a salad special of arugula, serrano ham, garlicy tomatoes, and machengo cheese. Once he found he needed to eat it all together, he really liked it. We then had a nice break to listen to the band playing in the bar area, which was a bit away from our table. It was so nice not to finish one plate and have the next brought right out. I'm sure had we asked for a faster meal, they would have gotten it to us quicker, but the waiter kept reassuring that we're in no rush and I'm sure I appeared pleased at that.

For our entrees, I had the crab cakes (Maryland Jumbo Lump and Maine PeekyToe, Pink Lady apple, celery root slaw), which were considered a Snakx. The waiter said I could have 4 instead of 3, but the 3 were surprisingly more than enough. Alan had the hanger steak which came with potato string/sticks. He questioned the cut because it was too tender, but it must have been cooked just right. We split a peanut butter and chocolate torte, which was disappointingly sweet. But the coffee helped and I picked at it and managed to make a pretty good dent in it. We wouldn't go back because it's too far and there are too many other places to try, but we're glad we did. It's fun seeing places on the Phantom Gourmet and then trying them out. Not sure what we're going to do today, but I'm sure food will be involved!

Shara's also been having fun play acting. She pretended to be a hunter the other day, creating an animal trap. At first she wanted to use her hoola hoop and a stick, and had a bit of a fit when I told her it wouldn't work, but then I gave her a shoe box and she got it working. I was in the office and she brought in the box and in a rather deep southern voice told me what she caught. It was one of the cat's fake mice. We discussed that it wouldn't be enough to feed the family and with lots of yucks, she got some more.

Poor Pig

The other morning I was telling Shara that we're going to get another pig next spring. She basically replied (and unfortunately I can't remember her exact words), "this time I want to watch them kill it, what the butcher does". I said that she doesn't want to watch that, and she came back telling me that the pig had a happy life, it's a happy pig. I still had to say that we don't want to watch that, it's still a little sad.

Do you want to see my pine-ness?

This morning Shara got out of the bathroom and asked me if I wanted to see her pine-ness. I asked her to repeat herself and she did, saying the same thing. I asked her what that was and she pointed to her vagina. I then asked her who told her that and she said, "daddy". I then had to explain to her that boys and men had penises and we had vaginas. She said, "oh yeah".

I believe in god

This morning Shara was asking me about god. For those of you who are offended by my beliefs, you may want to stop here.

I told Shara that many people believe that god is something that looks out for us and takes care of us. I also told her that I don't believe that and think we need to take care of ourselves and gave the example of crossing the road - we need to look out for cars and not expect god to make sure a car won't hit us if it's coming down the road. That made sense to her. A little later she said, "I am thanking god for taking care of me". I asked her if she believed in god and she said, "I believe in everything, even santa."

Happy 4th of July

Yesterday was a great day - started by gardening outside. At first Shara wanted to stay inside and keep playing with Brutus. She made a fort for them and was happy indoors, so I went out and started weeding. Soon she asked if she could come out too so she did and I got her set up with sunflower & thistle seeds to plant. We were out for quite a while and she's able to open the screen door on the deck herself now, so was able to go inside when she had to go to the bathroom all by herself. She did call "hi mommy" from the closed window near the bathroom and I hurried out of the garden because I couldn't really hear her and wasn't sure if she was calling for help or not, so she learned not to do that again. She wanted to help with the vegetable gardening but with the fence up, she really can't get in there. We did have fun looking at the tomatoes, budding corn and her huge pumpkin.

After gardening and lunch we let relax watching tv for a bit because we knew we'd be up so late. Then it was time to paint the garage door! I'd been wanting to do this for quite some time and finally got a chance since there was no rain! Shara came out with me and arranged rocks and tried to go on her scooter - found she was most comfortable going on the grass, as I did with learning how to ride a 2 wheeler when I was a kid. Alan & I were also talking about how we handled bugs as kids and both of us were in the "didn't like" category. He wasn't as scared of them as I was, but it looks like Shara is taking after me. She only likes ladybugs.

Shara did a big girl thing - when she was playing with the scooter, she said, "maybe branden's big brother would want to teach me how to ride the scooter." He has one too and I gave her permission to go next door and ask. She was too scared to go over by herself so I went with her and we rang the bell an no one was home. Maybe they'll be home today and she can go over and ask if he wants to play. Brian is a couple of years older and all over the neighborhood on his bike, but it would be nice if they could play together a bit. There are several kids in the neighborhood and it sounds like it's getting near the time when Shara will be joining in their games!

After dinner, I finally got the "thank you" cards written and Shara started signing them. Shara also opted to have ice cream at home and not out. We got ready and hit the road to Halifax for the fireworks. I just realized that the Slaters were supposed to be there too - I completely forgot, not that we would have been able to find them - it was a zoo! Very festival like and fun. We made a stop to Peaceful Meadows before, even though it sounded like I was going to be the only one getting ice cream. Alan changed his mind and got a cup and Shara decided mine looked much better than what she had at home, so shared my super-yummy sundae. The Whitman location makes a much bigger sundae than Middleboro, though they taste the same. So after ice cream we headed to the fireworks, parked about 1/2 mile away, which was great because getting out was cake. At the fireworks location Alan found a great area for us to set up camp and we only had to wait about an hour for the show. Not hard to kill time. First Alan & Shara went to check out the place and see where they'd be shooting the fireworks from. Then Shara & I went to look around and Shara played on the playground a bit, then Shara & I played tag, then Shara & Alan went back to the playground and she went up the tire wall almost by herself and was very proud! Then the fireworks began. Shara took up her usual position of on my lap with me covering her ears. Next time we will remember ear protectors because it gets very tiring holding her ears the whole time! At first she was scared and then it was fun. We kept saying who the firework was for - the pink ones were for Shara, the blue ones were for daddy, the blue/purple sizzly kind for mommy. They were really good and I'm sure we'll go back again next year. There weren't any trees to get in the way and they were close, but not scary close. The only thing missing was music. The show lasted over 1/2 hour.

We walked back to the car and had no trouble getting out and Shara talked most of the way home and then fell asleep about 5 minutes before. Alan carried her in the house, dumped her on her bed and I started getting her undressed when she started smiling. I kept saying, "shara? are you awake?" then she started laughing and finally opened her eyes. Apparently she was sleeping but then I woke her up and then we had to have a normal nightime with reading a book, etc.

This morning she said when she goes to school tomorrow she'll have a pink firework to give to all her friends!

new catch phrase

Thanks to Miss. Lindsay, Shara's favorite saying is, "oh my-lanta". So funny. I'll have to record her saying.

Yesterday was her kindergarten screening. I didn't tell her that she had to go down to the room with just the teachers & kids, basically, without me. She cried and they had to carry her away, but when she came back, she was beaming. She was so cute and we were all very proud of her. Obviously she did fine. When we walked to the car, she couldn't stop telling me about what she did with the teachers and how much fun it was. When Alan came home, he asked her about a sticker she was wearing and she ran to get the folder with the stickers from the screening and again, recounted much of it to him.

We then had her dress rehersal last night. She did great. We had no problems getting dressed, but I didn't know if she had her dress on backwards or not (she didn't), and didn't know how to do the bow. We saw the others and got it all straight. She couldn't wait to go off with her class, without me! I mentioned that I thought the kids sat in the front with their class and the parents sat in the back. She said, "that's fine, I won't be scared." Turns out we could all sit together. They were very cute. Would like it better if they drilled them more about the steps, but she was very proud of herself and had a great time, which is all that really matters at this age. Right?

5 Year Old Check-up

Tuesday Shara had her 5 year old check up. She actually had a great time, though she knew a shot would happen and had been upset about it for the whole day. Not really the whole day but just when she thought about going to the doctors she knew she didn't want to go. She had a eye test and had perfect vision, much to her dismay because she would like glasses. I'm sure she'll get them soon enough. She refused to pee in the cup. I couldn't figure out how to force her to do it, so we took it home and will try here. I'm sure I can use the pot trick like Bubbe did with me. She impressed Dr. Wolcott as usual and the doctor suggested we think about music lessons for her. Then it came time for the shot and she screamed and wouldn't hold still so I had to somewhat hold her tight to me and Alan helped on the other side. She got 2 shots, looked at both as she was getting them and tensed up so it ended up hurting more. She cryed and then got her stickers, went to the car whimpering, and cried on and off for the trip to Charlie Horse where we were going to go out to eat. She wouldn't stop crying so we decided eating out wouldn't be good tonight and I picked up Wendy's for her and Alan drove her home. We had separate cars at that point. She was calm at that point but any mention of the bandaid or shot and she went off. As suspected, the bandaid bothered her more than the shot. At least the removal of the bandaid or touching any area of the shot, etc. She wouldn't change her shirt for bed, wouldn't lay down (started trying to sleep sitting up), and wouldn't change her shirt the next day either. So last night, rather than ripping the bandaid off, as I was going to do to just end this, Alan Google'd "bandaid removal" and found a hint to use baby oil. Shara actually liked that idea, and we needed the oil to get off her tattoo for recital/rehersal, so without too many tears, used the baby oil. 1/2 way through she was fitting again, so mommy was called in and it was a family effort to get the stupid bandaid off. I'm really glad there are no more shots until she's 11!

Quite an observation

Yesterday we were at Good Days for lunch and Alan said something about the table across from us. Shara said the table is across from everyone, it's in the middle. It was one of the tables in the middle of the whole restaurant. I hope she keeps thinking like that.