Smarty Pants

Many folks put their kids into preschool around age 3. We noticed this especially in NC where kindergarten starts as a full day. Well, situations for us have not been such that it has worked out to get Haylee into preschool. Recently, I heard about a local high school with a parenting class that offers an extremely discounted form of preschool taught by the students. We've just wanted her in some kind of program to get her ready in some way to enter into the world of BIG KIDS this fall.
(Hold on, this fall? As in 5 months away??? )

You know what I mean: backpacks, lunchboxes, school busses, kickball, cubbies, paste, "you're not invited to my birthday party anymore"s, standing in line, raising your hand, trading desserts at lunch time, chasing boys at recess...

According to Haylee though? She's already there.

When I picked her up that first day I told her how much I missed her and casually asked her whether she missed me too. I was full on expecting a big hug and a "Yes MOM!" but do you know what she said?

She said: "Uh...actually Mom, I didn't even think about you. Nope, not once. Can I have a cookie when we get home?"

Stab to the heart. :)

It was a balmy 55 or so when we left. Hence Cambree's backwards winter hat and loner mitten.

"Bye Haya!"

So we're eating breakfast the morning of the first day and Haylee asks me what she's going to do at school. Among other things, I mention that she might talk about letters and I decide that a good mother wouldn't waste this perfect opportunity to review, right?

So I begin: Haylee, what sound does 'p' make?

(long pause, right when it's starting to get a bit uncomfortable I decide to prompt)

Mom: C'mon, you know this one! Pizza, Party, Purple, Panda...

Smarty Pants: Oh, you mean the letter 'p'...it sounds like puh. (DUH)

Ha ha ha. The fact that she wasn't even trying to be funny just makes it funnier. Also the fact that during the "long pause" she was possibly trying to decide how to mimic the sound of pee is funny too. Yes, we have potty (in all its forms) on the brain in our house...24/7. Want another example?

While reading about Eric Carle's extra hungry caterpillar, Cambree refused to let anyone call the cocoon anything other than POOP. Haylee and I were pretty emphatic but she was too. So she threw the book. End of story.

FAT FREE, CALORIE FREE CHOCOLATE!!!

I found a wonderful recipe for chocolate play dough here and made it for the girls the other day.

(Just a tip: if you try making this, make sure your water is really boiling before you add it so the salt dissolves. Ours was a bit grainy.)

We made cupcakes and cookies and they actually smelled authentic! The dough smelled delicious! So much so that even though I knew there was tons of salt and no sugar in it, I had to try it anyway as did both girls. YUCK!

Sometimes, I'll just crack open the bag and take a sniff.

Just for fun.

When no one's looking.

Sick Days...

...are blessings in disguise, for me anyway. Today (this was Monday actually) forced me to put my blessings a little bit higher on the priorities list (conveniently knocking "sweep the floor" and "clean the bathrooms" to the very bottom of the list, thank goodness.)

Our little Bree was so sick! Haylee caught her in-between episodes of "spitting up" to read to her. She was such a huge help in other ways too. Cambree didn't have much luck making it to the bathroom so we just held a bowl for her when she needed it and Haylee took over the job if I happened to be away when it was needed.