Tag Archives: kids

Ivy’s Favorites at Six Years Old

Ivy, what’s your favorite…DSCN1081-(4sm)

Color – pink

Animal – Lion, because of Henry. (The name of the lion at our local zoo.)

Food –  pizza and macaroni and cheese

Clothes – orange dance pants (Which on “orange day” at school she told me that she hated orange and would never wear those pants. Of course on “pink day” she wouldn’t wear pink so I think it’s less a problem of clothes and more of contrariness. No idea where she’d get that from….)

Dog – Poodle because they are so puffed up and fluffy. (Hilarious and terrible all at once!)

Cat – Fiona (I think I have to throw this question out, I’m not sure my girls know any other cats anymore.)

Person – You! – and Dad.

Thing to do – Sing songs.

Thing to do outside – Go to the playground.

Chore – Play with my sisters. (…was the answer after the biggest groan a six year old can muster.)

Time of day – afternoon

Place to go – Michigan

Song – Better Dig Two (Band Perry) and White Horse (Taylor Swift)

Flower – Roses and Daffodils and Tiger Lily’s

Farm Animal – horse

Thing about school – math (Possibly she’s not my child an actually a cunningly disguised alien.)

Friend – Mallori, Gabby and Natalie!

Movie – Elmo (???)

Thing to do with Clara – Play with fairies in the fairy gardens and play with barbies.

Thing to do with Jane – Feed her. (True, the kids fight over who gets to sit next to Jane and give her food during dinner.)

Thing to do with Dad – Get ready for school.

Thing to do with Me – Watch a movie together. (This was clearly wishful thinking, Clara has been sick and watching movies and Ivy is going green just thinking about all the movie watching time she’s missed.)

Book – The Belly Button Book (Sandra Boyton wins again!)

Meal -Breakfast (HA! You’d think she’d be willing to eat during her favorite meal!)

Thing to do in the car – Color in my binder. (That would be the binders I put together for the kids when we went to Kansas that we now pull out for any longer car trip. Best. Idea. Ever. It came from here: gluesticksblog.com Just be sure to add dry erase markers, they make it all extra fun. )

What do you want to do when you grown up? Be a mom.

Anything else? – “I have another favorite animal! Unicorn!”

This is the third year of Ivy’s favorites and it’s interesting to see what the few answers are that haven’t changed. Her favorite color is still pink, Natalie is still her friend and Fiona is still her favorite cat. I can hardly imagine what next year will bring!

Ivy’s favorites 2012

Ivy’s favorites 2011

Evil or Genius?

Yesterday after dinner I came up with my most brilliant mothering move ever.

As I handed over Ivy’s chocolate Easter bunny as a reward for a clean plate I said: “Just so you know you should always let your mom eat your chocolate bunny’s ears or it’s bad luck.”

Ivy: “What do you mean bad luck?”

Me: “You’ll never find your Easter basket next year if you eat your own ears, you have to let your mom do it.”

Ivy headed back to the table chocolate bunny in hand looking thoughtful and unconvinced but moments later she was back, presenting me with her bunny so I could eat the ears for her. As she took her ear-less rabbit back to the table she explained the situation to Clara and I was gifted with another set of ears.

The Easter bunny had splurged, those were some damn fine chocolate ears.

I figure if I can keep this up for the next few years I’ll have them brainwashed before they start thinking about it too much and I’ll have three sets of chocolate ears to look forward to every year.

It could be pointed out that my girls are smart and may start questioning this “bad luck” thing. But, I would in turn point out that there are few depths that I wouldn’t sink to for some good chocolate and I have a direct line to the Easter Bunny – we can make a basket very hard to find.

Full of my great scheme (and chocolate) I told John what I had done and he called me all sorts of rotten names and threatened to out me to the kids.

Later a friend who had witnessed the brilliance of my bunny ear munching told me she was very impressed.

What do you think? Was this the most genius chocolate ear stealing scheme ever, or am I an evil chocaholic who knows no boundaries?

Easter Morning

It’s good to have big sisters on Easter morning.

That way they can help you out when you aren’t quite awake and not sure what this whole Easter Bunny business is about:girls easter morning

Then, by the time they manage to find their own baskets, you’ll have your eyes open, a bucket of treats to yourself and life will be great!DSCN1149-(2sm)

Happy Easter!

The Answer is…

The answer is “NO.”

Always.

In the last few months Jane had been shaking her head “no” when she was really excited and meant “yes.”

Cute but confusing.

Now this quirky little trait has grown up along with her and transformed into verbal communication. Which is a great developmental milestone – not so charming.

But, she is learning and with a bit of prompting, we can now get a giant emphatic head nod along with the “no” when she really means “yes.” Of course this means that you have to either be able to know when she actually means “yes” or do a convincing enough song and dance about the whole thing that you change her mind.

It’s all very confusing to the uninitiated and not much better for the rest of us.

Good thing she’s got enough natural charm to make up for it! Jane peek a boo

Have I mentioned how she takes after her dad?

Guess the Bird

Clara imposed a game of guess-the-bird-I-saw on me as we were driving.Clara in chicken coop

Clara: “I saw a bird, guess what kind!”

Me: “A crow?”

Clara “No.”

Me: “A red-winged blackbird?”

Clara “No.”

Me: “A red tailed hawk?”

Clara: “Yeah!- No. Do you need a hint?”

Me: “Yes, please.”

Clara: “It had a beak.”

Me: “So… it was definitely a bird then?”

Clara: “And it was red!”

Me: “A cardinal?”

Clara: “YEAH!!!!”

Me: “Wow, that must have been pretty!”

Clara: “I don’t know, it was too far away I couldn’t see it.”

Me: “Oh.”

Books?

I’ve got great news!

No, really, it is great – my kind of great.

Ivy is reading books!Ivy reading

While Ivy has been reading all sorts for the last months, it wasn’t until very recently that she realized that if it was the right kind of book she could read the whole thing,  by herself, the first time, with only a little help on the extra tricky words.

It’s awesome! Ivy’s reading confidence has grown exponentially in the last two weeks as she picks up book after book and reads them out loud to us.

All of course providing that the reading happens in a proper setting. A proper setting according to Ivy is one where nothing is too hot, or cold, or soft, or hard, or there are too many sisters, or dogs, or box elder bugs, or she is too tired, or too awake, or too bored, or too interested in something else… If any of that is the case, all bets are off and she will forget how to read the word “the” and everything else she has learned. At that point it’s better to smile and put away the books until another day before you end up contemplating selling her to the gypsies.

But that’s not my problem.

My problem is that my girl is too smart.

(It’s a pretty good problem, I admit.)

Ivy reads a book once.

All further “readings” are just memorized recitations using the pictures and occasionally, checking out a word for a beginning sound.

While this is impressive it’s causing us to go through a lot of early reader books.  A LOT of early reader books.

We need more books.

This is where you come in.

For almost three years now I’ve been letting you know what my book recommendations are, now it’s your turn. I need help!

For all the talk I’ve heard about having a hard time finding books for boys there are a seriously lack of girly early reader books at our library. As you may or may not know, Ivy is girly. We need books with cute things, girls, princesses, silly stuff and fuzzy animals!

Right now Ivy has been reading the early reader Dr. Seuss books, Puppy Mudge, Biscuit, and a smattering of random things involving bugs and trains that she doesn’t enjoy near so much. So, my wonderful readers can you help?

What’s your best early reader recommendation? Ivy and Danny the Dinosaur

-Also, I’d like to note before anyone see’s fit to unnecessarily reprimand me that she rereads the books, practicing and gaining confidence many times before they head back to the library. I’m not a book reading, slave master that won’t let her succeed we just need some new material to mix in!