Whose team will she be on?

Our babysitter posed an interesting question to me this week. She was wondering what team Gemma will be on and she is certain the results will be revealed soon. She is referring to Team Mom or Team Dad.

This is the friend turned childcare provider who has now cared for William, Amelia and Gemma while I work on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The kids eat lunch with her and I pick them up shortly after. The lunch conversations the kids have with her are always interesting and she frequently shares them with me when I pick up the kids. Our kids are the only children at her home, so they are her only focus AND her kids are now in upper elementary school which means she finds the preschool conversations endearing rather than repetitive and annoying.

William's conversations usually centered around how and why things worked and had factual information as their basis. His statements usually started with, "MY dad says planes fly because....." Or, "there are still dinosaur like creatures here. My dad read me a book about them."

According to William, his dad knew everything there was to know.

Amelia on the other hand, was more interested in the rules of human behavior and especially the people who don't obey them. For example "C at my school always with his mouth open. My mom says this is RUDE, so I never do this. C should learn to not do that!" Or, "my mom says you can't wear shorts when it is snowing outside because your legs will get too cold."

Almost every Amelia conversation centered around knowledge she had gained from her mom.

What side will Gemma fall on? Stay tuned.

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Amelia conversations

This one was reported to me by Amelia last week as she got off the bus:

"Mom! Guess what Ms F----- (bus driver)said to me?

She said if everyone rode the bus like I do, it would be such a peaceful ride! Then she gave me a sticker!!"


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This conversation took place today after school. I was at school volunteering in Amelia's classroom. Her teacher reported that this last week, Amelia had the following to say about being in Ms M------'s (her kindergarten teacher) class.


"Ms M, I love being in your class at school! I like you, but I love Ms W 1% more."

Ms W is William's kindergarten teacher. This has got to be exactly what every kindergarten teacher wants to hear from their students.

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Nuts

Gemma loves cashews. This bizarre to me for a little kid to like, but who am I to say what someone should like or not?

Of course, we find her pronunciation adorable. Here is a video or her requesting "nuts".

MOV_1678.MOV.mov

A video in which you catch the end f Gemma telling us she is a "big red dog" and then requesting more crackers.

Look who came to dinner!

It's Clifford!

Gemma is finally modeling the ears she made in her preschool program this week!

Cheeeseeeee!

Amelia is goalie, video #2

Afterwards, she said she loved being goalie and would like to do it again!

Amelia plays goalie #1

Amelia is back playing soccer this fall. At the first practice, the coach asked the team who would like a turn to at goalie this season. (Goalie is a new thing, previously the girls didn't play positions at all).

Anyway, Amelia raised her hand to say she would like a turn to play goalie. Here is a short video of her game Monday evening! She did a great job!

Snuggle Saturday

Almost overnight, the temperatures have dropped us right into fall. Monday, the high was 90 degrees. Friday, the high was in the low 60's.

I was frantically pulling outboxes of cool weather clothing Thursday evening to find clothes that fit the kids. This led to sorting out the outgrown ones and reorganizing drawers/closets and other storage spaces. It would be nice if Mother Nature would send out a schedule so I could plan to spend 6 hours on the process ahead of time....

Nums

For about a year now, Gemma's name for Amelia has been "Numna". In the last few weeks, I have heard her shortening it up to "Num".

Ie: MY turn Num!

After hearing this, Amelia turned to me and said, "that is SO cute mom! We have the cutest baby!"

I tend to agree.

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Gemma starts with...

Gemma and I were driving to the library for storytime and we were playing my favorite game of "what do you see?"

Mama: I see a red sign! Do you see it?

Gemma: yeah! I see! I see o!

Mama: you see an o? WOW! Good job looking Gemma!

Gemma: Gemma o.

Mama: hmmm...

Gemma: Gemma! O! I see letters!

Mama: I know! I was so excited!

Hey! Do you know letter Gemma starts with!

Gemma: yeah! I do! Gemma o!

Mama: (deflated). (With much enthusiasm) Gemma's first letter is G! Gemma starts with G!!

Gemma: nope. Nope. No g. Gemma is o.

Mama: (cheerleader style): Gemma starts with G! Gemma starts with G!

Gemma: (matter of factly): nope. Nope. Gemma is o.

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Amelia's snack

Amelia has a snack every day at kindergarten. This snack makes me crazy because it is a community snack. This means every student in the class is supposed to bring in a prepackaged snack for a month. All the snacks get thrown in a bucket and the students pick out what they want every day until the bucket is near empty. Then, the teacher requests parents send in more snacks.

I dislike this for so many reasons, but I'm sure the biggest reason is because I am a control freak. I hate not knowing what my child is consuming. Also, it is unhealthy choices usually and I work hard to try and make healthier choices for my family.

I haven't complained about this because I am trying to not be a complainer. You get a limited number of complaints before you are labeled as "difficult" or "demanding" and I am not sure I want to use up one of my complaints on this. So, here I am complaining to you all instead.

Everyday Amelia and I have a conversation about what her snack choice was and then we decode together if she made a healthy choice. On Friday, we had the following conversation about her snack:

Mom: Amelia! What did you have for snack today?
Amelia: fruit snacks! Isn't that a healthy choice?
Mom: yes! Fruit snacks are a good choice (in truth, they aren't my favorite. They also aren't the worst choice, so I'll take it). What kind of fruit snacks did you have?
Amelia: what kind? Ummmm....
Mom: yes, what kind. Were they scooby-doo? Or shapes? What kind did you have?
Amelia: they were circle shaped ones...like....ummmm....
Mom: shapes? What color was the bag (isn't it sad that I can tell you pretty accurately what brand the fruit snack is if you tell me what color the bag is?)?
Amelia: it was white with blue stripe and it had round little fruit snacks.
Mom: I don't know what kind that is Amelia. They were round with a white bag?
Amelia: yes, they were round like a cookie. I think they were cookie shaped fruit snacks.
Mom:..... Cookie shaped fruit snacks?
Amelia: (hangs head) ok. I think I had cookies for a snack. That wasn't the healthy choice, was it?

Then we had a conversation about telling the truth and continued our ongoing discussion about healthy snacks.

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