A typical night in goofytown

I bought a lunchbox from ebay a few weeks ago. It was the first time I ever bought anything from ebay. It all went fine and I got the lunchbox and we liked it and all. So tonight I got an email from ebay and the subject line was "You Have Feedback That You Need to Leave." How would you read that sentence? I originally read it that I was kicked off of ebay. Really, I thought ebay had received some feedback and I was now being asked to leave. I got really nervous! Then I realized that they were telling me that I need to leave my feedback for the seller. So either that's some unfortunate word choice or I have a serious persecution complex.

Greg was teasing me about something and he said to Ellie that I was a freaky hippie pinko commie and Ellie thought he said I was a freaky hippo. She thought that was hilarious. Then later Greg said I was the disturbing one in the family and Ellie decided that Greg should call me a disturbing hippo. She thought that was so hilarious that she couldn't even say it cause she was laughing so much. So calling me a disturbing hippo became a big bunch of fun for that night.

Ellie decided she needed to be by herself for awhile for the first time in her life. She went into her room and I brought her her dinner and she ate it on her school desk and she asked me to close the door please so she could be alone. I told her that Daddy and I would be at the dining room table if she wanted to join us and she said okay. Then she got into her pajamas and (sort of) brushed her teeth while we ate dinner and finally she came out and joined us. A sudden streak of independence.

On making things up

Here's another cute little Ellie comment. We were driving to school this morning and Ellie asked if I heard a strange noise. We discussed what it might be for a minute and I said I didn't hear anything and she said, "Maybe I used my imagination by accident."

Speaking of using her imagination, recently I've noticed how much more grounded in reality Ellie is than a lot of the girls I see her playing with. Many kids her age can really work themselves into a frenzy (often fearful) about things they're imagining and they will believe completely the things they are saying even if they obviously aren't true. Ellie likes to pretend but she doesn't seem to lose her sense of what's real and what's not.

That reminds me of another conversation we sometimes have in the car. Ever since she was very little, Ellie has had a fear of driving over bridges. This is not a good fear to have for the location in which we live. She used to get really scared every time we drove on a bridge, but now she's only nervous and only when the bridge goes over water. So now when we drive onto a bridge here's how the conversation goes:

Ellie: Are we over water?
Me: Yes.
Ellie: Don't tell me that!
Me: Okay, we're not.
Ellie: Are we really over water?
Me: Yes.
Ellie: Don't tell me that!
Me: Okay, we're not.

And so on until we're over the bridge.

None of them involve Miss Mary Mack

Ellie has learned so many things in kindergarten this year. In addition to reading, writing, and 'rithmatic, she's learned a few hand clapping and jump roping chants. Here are a few, brought to you straight from the playground:

Here's a hand clapping one:

Lemonade!
Crushed ice!
Beat it once!
Beat it twice!
Turn around!
Touch the ground!
Kick your boyfriend out of town!
Freeze! (you freeze on one leg and the first one to topple over loses)

And another hand clapping one. This one is particularly nonsensical:

Chinese checkers, I can do karate.
Chinese checkers, I can call my mommy.
Chinese checkers, Oops!
I'm sorry!
You'd better be sorry cause I'm not sorry!
Inky dinky donkey the boys love you!

There's just one jump rope chant:

Ice cream soda
Cherry on top
Who's your boyfriend?
I forgot.
A B C D... (you jump until you trip and see which letter you get to)

And its alternative:

Ice cream soda
Cherry on top
How many boyfriends do you got?
1, 2, 3, 4...

Dr. Seuss is so awesome

Ellie's favorite book to be read to at night:



She's gotten to the point where she will recite a great deal of it with me, which is really fun because the book is so well written and so fun to read. It's just great to see her have fun with the poetry of it.

Here are some lines she likes to say with me:

"And with great skillful skill and with great speedy speed,
I took the soft tuft. And I knitted a Thneed!"

"I saw something pop out of the stump
of the tree I chopped down. It was sort of a man.
Describe him?...That's hard. I don't know if I can."

"Then Oh, baby Oh, how my business did grow!" (We say this one with a Southern drawl.)

"At the far end of town
where the Grickle-grass grows"

And, of course, the best stanza in the book:

"I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.
I speak for the trees, for the trees have to tongues.
And I'm asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs--
he was very upset as he shouted and puffed--
What's that THING you've made out of my Truffula tuft?"

Brilliant.

Animalia

Greg was cleaning the garage when he heard some growling from behind the fence that separates our carport from our neighbor's yard. He got a flashlight and shined it under the fence and saw a raccoon. Ellie looked too and they came and got me to look. At first I couldn't see it, so Greg got a broom and poked at it to point it out to me, making it growl. Once I heard it growl and saw its vicious, beady little eyes, I went back in the house to try to figure out how I was going to get by without ever going into the garage again. Greg went in and out of the garage cautiously for awhile. After weedwhacking the lawn, he decided to scare the raccoon away by sticking the loud, whirring weedwhacker in its face. He discovered that the raccoon was not scared of it at all, but it did reluctantly head into the neighbor's yard. Greg said it came right back after he turned off the weedwhacker. I thought that meant it was probably a mommy with babies that it's protecting (making it even scarier). Greg made some calls to animal control and when we checked again the next day, they were gone. So we'll keep an eye out and see if they come back.

In other animal news, Ellie found some snails at school the other day. They were all curled up in their shells so you could pick them up easily. The mom I was with was totally grossed out by them and told her kids to put them back but I poked them with a stick and let Ellie bring two of them home. I think I missed the mom class where they teach you to be squeamish. Ellie set up a home for them in a plastic plate with rocks and fake flowers and she said, "I guess I have snails as pets now." The poor girl is so desperate for a pet that she has to declare any living creature she finds at the side of the road as her pet. We have to get her a cat or dog. After a few hours I told Ellie to bring the snails in the backyard because I figured eventually they were going to come out of their shells and start roaming the house. So now they're in the plate in the backyard.

Mommy's Day!!!!

It's been a fun Mother's Day so far! I got up at 7:30 and Greg had already given me coffee and coffee cake and the Sunday paper. Ellie woke me up but told me that I could stay in bed and read the paper but she wanted to sit in bed with me. So we sat in bed and ate and looked at the paper together. She said she was going to let me do whatever I want the whole day and she would be extra nice to me the whole day but she wasn't sure if she could be extra nice the WHOLE day. I told her to just do her best.

Then Ellie and Greg went out to make me a present while I sat and read the paper. They came back awhile later with a crown for me to wear and then Ellie decided my day to do whatever I want was over (at about 9am) and I needed to play with her. So Ellie and I played with blocks.

We're going to go to brunch later today and then swimming at the Y. Ellie is swimming really well. She can swim on her own for a long time and she's been diving off the side of the pool and doing front and back somersaults under the water. We were at the pool the other day with a girl in Ellie's class who is taking swim lessons. I told the girl's mom that I had signed Ellie up for swim lessons but they didn't start for a few weeks. The mom said, "But Ellie already knows how to swim." I do think she wouldn't get much out of a general swim class, so I'm going to look into more private lessons if it doesn't cost too much.

Ellie is taking a yoga class at the Y. She's done Down Dog and they show her how to breathe and they stand on their heads while the teacher holds their feet and they do an airplane move and the one where they stand on one leg while putting one foot on the other leg. I don't know the names of any of these moves. They are pen pals with a class in Hong Kong and the kids in Hong Kong sent Ellie's class some seashells they had painted. Ellie is going to bring in the seashells we found in Cancun to show her teacher and class. I'm getting Ellie set up in some camps for over the summer. She's in a week-long acting camp and I'm going to sign her up for the same camp she went to last year.

Maker Faire in San Mateo

Here's a video that was posted on the Maker Faire website. It was made by someone with the handle etheroon and it's a great montage video of the kinds of things seen at the expo.