Feelings

J was in charge of Family Home Evening Monday night.  He picked "the Holy Ghost" as his topic.  He was trying to explain how the Holy Ghost "talks" to you.

J: "Cahkie - the Holy Ghost talks to you with your feelings."
C: "Yeah?  Well I'm feeling bored."

Apparently, it was time to end the lesson.

Cahkie's Conundrum

C came home with a problematic situation, a "conundrum" if you will. The kind that only 1st grade can provide:

Little Girl A lost her lip gloss. It was totally awesome lip gloss. It had a panda bear on the tube for heaven's sake! Little Girl A was extremely upset.

During 3rd recess Little Girl B magically pulls out a tube of lip gloss from her pocket -and what do you know? It has a panda on the tube.

Little girl A accuses Little Girl B of stealing her lip gloss, an accusation that Little Girl B vehemently denies. C, acting as a referee, pulls Little Girl B aside and asks if she "accidentally" took Little Girl A's lip gloss. Little Girl B freaks out, stamps her feet and yells "NO!"

C felt really bad for Little Girl A. She started brainstorming of ways to cheer her up. She decided that it would be a really nice gesture to buy Little Girl A some lip gloss to replace the tube she lost. I was proud of her solution and gave myself a pat on the back for raising such a compassionate, caring 6 year old.

When J got home from work I gave him a quick summary of the great panda lip gloss debacle. I ended with C's solution: to buy Little Girl A some new lip gloss with her own allowance money.

"Wait!!!!!!!" C yelled. "I didn't mean I wanted to buy her new lip gloss with MY money! I would never do that!"

"Um, exactly who's money do you plan on using to buy the lip gloss?"

"Your's. Duh."

I mentally wiped the pat off my back I so self-righteously (and prematurely) gave myself earlier.

First Day of 1st Grade

C started 1st grade last August. Yeah, I know I'm a bit behind with blogging.

Anyway, she is loving it. She is quite the social butterfly. I love hearing her stories when she gets home.

Pics from the first day - And, I have no idea why she is smiling so hard.

Lady Gaga in the Morning

Its never to early for a little Lady Gaga, right? This morning, at the glorious hour of approximately 7:05am, C started singing. And not your average kid song either. She was belting out Lady Gaga's "paparazzi." Notice her sweet bed head & her ankle socks, paired with her new Easter high-heeled shoes, that she isn't supposed to be wearing until Easter. But dude, you CANNOT sing Lady Gaga without high-heels on. It just doesn't work. Yeah, she doesn't know the words exactly, but its the heart & soul of the song that matters. And she gets it - spot on.

Just Because

2.5 Months Old ~ in the dress Grandma Meow made ~ May 2005

4.5 years old - first day of 2nd year preschool ~ September 2009

I am putting together her birthday spotlight, and i guess i'm feeling a bit nostalgic. she grew up too fast.

And the World Shines for Me Today!

C turned 5 years old yesterday. We had a family dinner Sunday night and opened presents after. She got a really cool dollhouse with all the furniture pieces, some rockin' rain boots, a cute summer outfit complete with sandals, a new swimming suit, a puzzle and Pete's Dragon on DVD (remember that show?). Swegin & Dub (aka Hannah Montana) came over last night and took her out on a date to get some ice cream. She loved every second of it.

Her current age:


Her model pose:

Her best friend:

The spoils of war:

Awesome cake (thank you Grandma Meow!):


Pin the lips on the frog (she totally cheated):

It was a good day and I'm still in shock that I have a 5 year old.

Training Wheels are for Sissies

She is awesome and we have the pictures & video to prove it.

Valentine Chaos

Okay. I absolutely see the wisdom in only filling out the "from" area on your valentines. C was asked to bring valentines to her 26 fellow preschoolers. Her preschool teacher, whom I really like, asked each child to fill out the "to" and the "from" on each valentine. "It will help them develop their handwriting!" I agreed with that and C filled out each one by herself.

The big party was Wednesday. We were told the last 45 minutes of preschool would be reserved for the merry-making. When I got there at noon, I was greeted by a scene I can only describe as: INSANITY - PRESCHOOL STYLE.

Each child had decorated a brown paper bag with crayons. They also wrote their names in crayon on the bag. However, the bag was turned upside down while they decorated, so after the bag was opened and ready to receive the expected goodies, their names were promptly displayed upside down. Reading a name that a 3 or 4 year old has written themselves, is one thing, but reading the name, in crayon, upside down, on a paper bag, while in the company of 26 screaming-sugar-induced-hysterical preschoolers, and their mothers, is quite another.

So basically, there were 26 moms walking around, bumping into each other, trying to put the right valentine, in the right brown paper bag. All of us were tilting our head way over to one side, trying to read the names. Everyone was asking everyone else if they'd seen so-and-so's bag. Meanwhile, all 26 children were either fighting with another child, playing with another child, or just standing back, in awe at the incredible melee in front of them. Holy crap.

It took me 30 minutes to pass out the Valentines. I don't think I have ever seen F so relieved to go home. This whole thing could have been solved by leaving the "to" area blank. It was a learning experience for all of us, well maybe just for the adults. I don't think the kids cared at all. C was just happy to see that she got a tinkerbell pencil & a tattoo.

Dancing at the Dinner Table

We usually listen to Pandora Radio while we eat dinner. Tonight we listened to our "Frou Frou channel." C was loving it. She was dancing in her seat while eating her spaghetti.
Finally, she couldn't handle it anymore. She had to get up and work it out.

She's got some freaking awesome moves.

And yes, F was getting in on it too. He kept doing this coy shoulder-roll move.




Watch out world. C is going to take the universe by storm.
Of that, I have NO doubt.

What do you call a group of female dogs?

Aunt L bought C "My sticker Activity Book: Dogs & Puppies." See below:


It is filled with coloring pages, puzzles, mazes, word searches & stickers. C was sitting on the couch with her activity book, working on a word search. I was in the kitchen. She asked me what f-o-o-d spelled and I helped her sound it out. "Food!" She found "food" and moved onto the next one. She asked me what s-m-e-l-l spelled and we sounded that out too. "Smell!" She then asked me what b-i-t-c-h-e-s spelled. I asked her to read me those letters one more time. b-i-t-c-h-e-s. She started to sound it out: "biiiiiih iiiiiiiiih tuuuh . . . . Mom? When you have a C and an H together, it makes a CHuh sound, like 'cheese,' right?

I drop what I'm doing, and run over there to see what letters she's obviously mixing up, and right there, in black and white:

Seriously dogs & puppies sticker book? Seriously? You're really gonna go there, aren't you? You're really going to put the word "bitches" in a word search? You couldn't have picked like "jump" or "ball" or even "fetch?" You just had to pull out the "B" word, didn't ya.

Don't worry, I did what every other self-respecting mother would do. I distracted her with the measuring tape. She's been measuring stuff for the last 30 minutes.

Our very own Annie Leibovitz

C got a camera for Christmas. The following is a SMALL sample of her latest work. She has taken over 230 pictures since December 25th.

Christmas

Santa was good to us this year. Christmas Eve and Christmas day were busy, busy, busy - but we had a great time!

This is our attempt at a family picture at Mimi's house Christmas Eve. Since J didn't have an ugly Christmas sweater for the party, he decided the next best thing was his sweet Jerry Garcia t-shirt. I tried to talk him out of it, but he insisted. So, here you go:

Pappa Barrow came over Christmas morning and helped us unwrap our gifts:
F got a sweet tool bench.

Hooray for Christmas!!

Mickey Mouse Club

Grandma & Grandpa Meow took the whole family to Disneyland. We left on the 19th and got home on the 23rd. It was so. much. dang. fun. We had such a blast. C loved every single minute of it, and F did so great! He took a nap in the stroller everyday we were there. We had 3-day park hopper tickets. We did Disneyland the first 2 days and California Adventure the 3rd day. We also visited the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Always a good time.


F kept pretending that he was fast asleep in his stroller. He'd keep his eyes closed for a long time and then he would start to smile and then open his eyes and say "peek-a-boo!" Here he is - faking us out:

The haunted mansion was converted to "The Nightmare Before Christmas." It was so cute inside and both C and F loved it:


Toon Town: J opening the power company doors. When you cracked the door, it would make a really loud buzzing sound and the lights would flash. He started screaming really loud and he told C that he got electrocuted. There were a couple of kids waiting for their turn, and when J started screaming, they turned right around and went back to their parents.

J and I came back to Disneyland late on the 2nd night to watch the fireworks. It was so much fun. The castle looked so cool. The fireworks were timed to Christmas music. After the fireworks were done, it started "snowing" on Main Street. It was cool.

Grandpa Meow helped the kids trade Disney pins with everyone they met. All 3 had a rockin' good time doing it. And of course, we had to get the traditional mouse ears for the kids.


The aquarium was cool. I've been there quite a few times before, but it never gets old. Grandpa was so patient with F and made sure he got to touch the nurse sharks and the rays.


This handsome devil got attacked by a bird as soon as we walked into the Lorikeet forest. It was so funny.


F was loving the birds until one of them jumped on his head. It became really uncool, really fast.

We had a great time. Lifelong memories for sure. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!! We love you.

I have been upstaged . . . . . .

Driving to the grocery store Monday afternoon:

C: "Mom? You know what I wish? I wish that Hannah Montana was MY mom."
Me: With my mouth hanging open, I slowly turn around to stare at her. I tried to look as hurt as possible. "Are you serious?"
C: "Yeah, but don't worry. You could still be my step-mom."
Me: "Wow, buddy. I'm speechless."
C: "Good. When should we start?"

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Papa Barrow brought us a fine lookin' tree this afternoon.
We had a blast decorating it. All the ornaments are the ones J had growing up.
F was so excited, he couldn't stand it.
He kept running around in circles trying to expel some of his energy.
And C just kept posing in front of the tree, whether or not I was taking pictures.


At one point, J asked F to give him a "high five."
F decided to chew on J's hand instead, cause you know, that's totally normal.

We had a good time, and our tree looks awesome.
We have a timer on our camera. I've never used it before
but decided that tonight was the night. Here is the result:

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Christopher Pop-in-Kins

C found a surprise on her bed Thanksgiving night. It was a book that none of us have ever seen before, entitled "Christopher Pop-In-Kins." We knew that someone had put the book there and that we were supposed to read it as a family. It was about one of Santa's favorite elves, Christopher. He told Santa he was sad because he never got to see the boys & girls. Santa decided to send him down to the homes of very special boys and girls. Christopher is supposed to watch their behavior to make sure they are worthy to receive their presents Christmas morning. There are only two rules: (1) the elf has to hide up high, out of reach of children. If Christopher is touched by a child, he will lose his magic and have to go straight back to the North Pole; (2) Christopher has to return to the North Pole by Christmas Eve to report back to Santa.

I have never seen C look so awe-struck as I was reading the book to her. After we finished, she told me that she thought an elf was coming because she was a "really good girl."


Friday morning, C raced downstairs and found Christopher, in all his glory, just waiting to be discovered:

Every morning we wake up and find Christopher in a different spot. He has been up top of the curtain rod (I think this is his favorite place), hanging onto the lamp, sitting on C's dresser and even hanging from the gas mask!

True to his word, Christopher is always up high. A few days ago, Mimi gave C a candycane. C told us that she wanted to give her candycane to Christopher. She put in a special place and wouldn't you know it - the very next morning Christopher had the candycane and it was almost gone!


C talks to Christopher all the time. She asks him if he likes where he is sitting, and if he wants to watch her play with her dolls. She makes sure to let him know that she's been a really good girl. Every night before bed, she says "goodnight."

Christopher has been a wonderful house guest. I hope he'll come next year too.