Guest post from Greg.
You'll recall a blog post from a month or so ago about "Manfred", Ellie's classmate with whom she'd been squabbling. Ellie was trying to find a way to get along with him while Lisa was sure they'd work it out.
The next installment of the saga has me getting Ellie to bed last night and asking her about school. Let's listen in.
Greg: "So how's school going?"
Ellie: "Good. I made a deal with 'Manfred' so that I sit next to 'Clarence' going to school in the morning and he sits next to 'Clarence' going home."
Apparently 'Clarence' is quite the school bus companion.
Greg: "Oh, so you and 'Manfred' have made up and are getting along? That's nice."
Ellie: "No, I hate him and he hates me."
Well ok then, as long as we're clear.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Coupla heathens
Let’s listen in as Greg and I whisper to each other in church during communion.
L: Are we supposed to walk up there and get the bread?
G: I don’t know.
L: Weren’t you confirmed here?
G: Yeah, but I don’t remember.
L: Oh, I think they’re bringing it to us.
(We both take a bit of bread off the tray and eat it.)
L: I ate my bread.
G: So did I.
L: Were we supposed to eat it right away?
G: (Looks around) Nope.
L: What should we do?!
G: Pretend you’re holding it. Like this. (presses thumb and forefinger together)
L: Look, she’s walking by with the tray.
G: Maybe we should ask for another one.
L: Just grab a couple.
G: They’re not hors d’ oeuvres.
L: Oh, she’s gone.
G: They're eating it now.
L: (pretending to eat) I’m pretty sure we’re going to hell.
G: (pretending to eat) Yeah, I knew that a long time ago.
L: Well, you, sure. But me, I thought I had a chance.
G: Nah.
L: Are we supposed to walk up there and get the bread?
G: I don’t know.
L: Weren’t you confirmed here?
G: Yeah, but I don’t remember.
L: Oh, I think they’re bringing it to us.
(We both take a bit of bread off the tray and eat it.)
L: I ate my bread.
G: So did I.
L: Were we supposed to eat it right away?
G: (Looks around) Nope.
L: What should we do?!
G: Pretend you’re holding it. Like this. (presses thumb and forefinger together)
L: Look, she’s walking by with the tray.
G: Maybe we should ask for another one.
L: Just grab a couple.
G: They’re not hors d’ oeuvres.
L: Oh, she’s gone.
G: They're eating it now.
L: (pretending to eat) I’m pretty sure we’re going to hell.
G: (pretending to eat) Yeah, I knew that a long time ago.
L: Well, you, sure. But me, I thought I had a chance.
G: Nah.
Monday, January 5, 2009
I can write again!
It's been a long time since I've posted, because it's very difficult to post when the kid is around all the time, like over Christmas break.
By 10:00 each morning, I've usually uttered some combination of sentences like this:
"Stop whining. Stop pulling on the dog's ears. Do you want to play a game? Have you brushed your teeth yet? Don't lean on the dog. Where are your boots? Well, take them off if they're hurting you. You don't have to shout, I'm standing right next to you. Pull up your pants--no one wants to see your butt. I don't know where Grover is, he's wherever you put him. No, you can't eat ice cream for breakfast. Say please. Say thank you. No, I don't think poop is funny. Stop french kissing the dog."
By the end of the day, for some reason, my brain is not working very well and I just can't think of anything to write in my blog. But now there is school again and I have a little bit of time to think about what might be funny or poignant or rant-y to write. So, stay tuned!
By 10:00 each morning, I've usually uttered some combination of sentences like this:
"Stop whining. Stop pulling on the dog's ears. Do you want to play a game? Have you brushed your teeth yet? Don't lean on the dog. Where are your boots? Well, take them off if they're hurting you. You don't have to shout, I'm standing right next to you. Pull up your pants--no one wants to see your butt. I don't know where Grover is, he's wherever you put him. No, you can't eat ice cream for breakfast. Say please. Say thank you. No, I don't think poop is funny. Stop french kissing the dog."
By the end of the day, for some reason, my brain is not working very well and I just can't think of anything to write in my blog. But now there is school again and I have a little bit of time to think about what might be funny or poignant or rant-y to write. So, stay tuned!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Saw a play
As a birthday present, Nana and her friend Mary Lou took me to see a play called Grey Gardens. It is the true-life story of an elderly, depressed, cat hoarding mother and her obviously mentally ill, middle aged daughter who lived in the Hamptons in a squalid, flea-infested mansion. It's a musical.
Even though I left this romp through rock bottom feeling strangely depressed, it was a good show and a fascinating story. The two women were Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter "Little Edie" Beale. The mom was Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis' aunt and Little Edie was Jackie's cousin. The play is based on a documentary made about them in the 1970s. I really wanted to watch the documentary once I saw the play, so I checked out You Tube to see if anyone had posted anything. They did!
Here is Little Edie showing off her carefully planned outfit to the guy making the documentary. They showed this on a TV set in the lobby of the play. I just love her in all her stark raving madness.
Now here is a 9-minute video of Big Edie and Little Edie in their house. You get the whole picture of everything--their relationship, their house, the cats. Everything.
Not only is it amazing that they made this into a musical, but they used so much of the material from the documentary in the play. It was quite a feat. The woman who played Big Edie in the first act and Little Edie in the second act is a woman named Hollis Resnik. Mary Lou said she's seen her in other things and she's been great. And she was great, especially in the second act when she was the Little Edie. She completely captured her mannerisms and her voice.
Thanks for the show, Nana!
Even though I left this romp through rock bottom feeling strangely depressed, it was a good show and a fascinating story. The two women were Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter "Little Edie" Beale. The mom was Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis' aunt and Little Edie was Jackie's cousin. The play is based on a documentary made about them in the 1970s. I really wanted to watch the documentary once I saw the play, so I checked out You Tube to see if anyone had posted anything. They did!
Here is Little Edie showing off her carefully planned outfit to the guy making the documentary. They showed this on a TV set in the lobby of the play. I just love her in all her stark raving madness.
Now here is a 9-minute video of Big Edie and Little Edie in their house. You get the whole picture of everything--their relationship, their house, the cats. Everything.
Not only is it amazing that they made this into a musical, but they used so much of the material from the documentary in the play. It was quite a feat. The woman who played Big Edie in the first act and Little Edie in the second act is a woman named Hollis Resnik. Mary Lou said she's seen her in other things and she's been great. And she was great, especially in the second act when she was the Little Edie. She completely captured her mannerisms and her voice.
Thanks for the show, Nana!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
What a comedian
We were signing up Ellie on a website she likes to play with and I was telling her the letters to type in for her username. Her username is Alyssa (she likes that name). We huddled over the keyboard together and I dictated to her. I said, "A" and she typed in A. I said, "L" and she typed in L. I said, "Y" and she paused and said, "Why? Oh, because I want to put in my username." I looked at her and she was sitting there smiling at me. We busted up at the same moment and sat there looking at each other and laughing.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
No more tooth!
Ellie lost her first tooth! I wasn't there to see it, though. She was at school and it was very, very wiggly in class, so the teacher sent her to the nurse's office. The nurse pulled it out. I guess it didn't hurt because when she told me about it later, it was clearly not a big deal.
The nurse put the tooth in a holder--a little plastic pendant in the shape of a tooth with a string so the kid can wear it as a necklace. Then Ellie called me and left me a message from the nurse's office to tell me what happened.
When we listened to the message, Greg scribbled a new note from the Tooth Fairy to give to Ellie when she got home. It said something about how she knew Ellie had lost her tooth and she would leave her a dollar. (I had already written in previous notes that she would get 50 cents for the tooth.)
When Ellie got off the bus from school, Greg and I were waiting for her and we gathered around to see her missing tooth. It was gone, alright! Unfortunately, somewhere between the bus and the door, the tooth fell out of the holder and we never found it. We told Ellie that the Tooth Fairy would know where it fell and go pick it up.
Greg pulled Ellie over to the table and put the note in front of her. "Look!" he said. "It's from the Tooth Fairy!" It was obviously in Greg's handwriting.
Ellie looked at the note for a bit and started to read it. Then she turned and eyed Greg.
"The Tooth Fairy's handwriting is small! That's big!" Greg and I started laughing.
"You wrote that!" Ellie announced. She pushed the note aside.
So late that night, Greg put a dollar bill under Ellie's pillow. Then he told me to write a note in the Tooth Fairy's tiny handwriting. So I wrote a short note saying thanks for the tooth and here's a dollar instead of the 50 cents we had previously agreed upon.
The next morning, Ellie woke up and checked under her pillow and found the dollar and the note. I read the note to her, and she fell back on the bed with her hand to her forehead when she heard that she was getting a dollar for her tooth. She just couldn't believe it.
It was a fun first tooth, but I'm done with the notes. All the rest of Ellie's teeth are getting anonymous donations. The Tooth Fairy has become way too much work.
The nurse put the tooth in a holder--a little plastic pendant in the shape of a tooth with a string so the kid can wear it as a necklace. Then Ellie called me and left me a message from the nurse's office to tell me what happened.
When we listened to the message, Greg scribbled a new note from the Tooth Fairy to give to Ellie when she got home. It said something about how she knew Ellie had lost her tooth and she would leave her a dollar. (I had already written in previous notes that she would get 50 cents for the tooth.)
When Ellie got off the bus from school, Greg and I were waiting for her and we gathered around to see her missing tooth. It was gone, alright! Unfortunately, somewhere between the bus and the door, the tooth fell out of the holder and we never found it. We told Ellie that the Tooth Fairy would know where it fell and go pick it up.
Greg pulled Ellie over to the table and put the note in front of her. "Look!" he said. "It's from the Tooth Fairy!" It was obviously in Greg's handwriting.
Ellie looked at the note for a bit and started to read it. Then she turned and eyed Greg.
"The Tooth Fairy's handwriting is small! That's big!" Greg and I started laughing.
"You wrote that!" Ellie announced. She pushed the note aside.
So late that night, Greg put a dollar bill under Ellie's pillow. Then he told me to write a note in the Tooth Fairy's tiny handwriting. So I wrote a short note saying thanks for the tooth and here's a dollar instead of the 50 cents we had previously agreed upon.
The next morning, Ellie woke up and checked under her pillow and found the dollar and the note. I read the note to her, and she fell back on the bed with her hand to her forehead when she heard that she was getting a dollar for her tooth. She just couldn't believe it.
It was a fun first tooth, but I'm done with the notes. All the rest of Ellie's teeth are getting anonymous donations. The Tooth Fairy has become way too much work.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Master Thespians
We were on the way to the mall yesterday and Ellie and I were in the back seat and Nana and Greg were in the front seat and Ellie had brought her purse with her. She showed everyone that in her purse she has a wallet and a real cell phone that doesn't work and keys that don't go to anything and a tiny notebook with a pen. So she decided to pull out her cell phone and "call" Auntie Anne. She asked for Auntie Anne's phone number and she carefully dialed it into her nonworking phone. When she hit the wrong number, she wasn't sure what to do, so I told her to push the red button to clear the number so she could start over. She had to type it in a few times, but she got it finally and waited for it to ring.
After a few seconds she said, "Hello?"
She paused and someone was clearly talking on the other end.
"Um, where are you?" Ellie asked. Then she whispered to us all, "She doesn't know where she is."
"How could she not know?" Nana asked.
I asked to talk to her, so Ellie handed me the phone and I said hello and listened to the silence that was Auntie Anne.
"Where are you?" I asked the phone. "Oh, okay." I told everyone that she was pulling into the parking lot. "Do you want to talk to Ellie again? Okay, here she is."
Ellie talked for a couple more seconds and then said goodbye and hung up the phone and wrote Auntie Anne's phone number into her notebook so she wouldn't have to ask for it anymore.
When we got to our meeting place in the mall, Anne and Heidi weren't there yet.
"Where are they?" Nana asked me.
"Not here yet, I guess," I answered.
"But didn't you just talk to them and they told you they were here?" Nana asked.
"That was just pretend. The phone didn't work," I told her. I thought it was obvious that we were pretending. We both laughed that she had been fooled.
A few minutes later, Greg joined us. "Where's Anne? I thought she told you she was here already," he said.
A HA! We fooled both of them!
We are great and powerful actresses.
I am, of course, reminded of the many hours Gen and I spent as children talking to imaginary people on telephones. How we would go into my dad's office in the basement and tape down the buttons under the receiver so we could pick up the handset without activating the phone and then have in-depth conversations with nobody. It was such a fun and engrossing game. And I can see that Ellie is already very good at this game. I am so proud of her.
After a few seconds she said, "Hello?"
She paused and someone was clearly talking on the other end.
"Um, where are you?" Ellie asked. Then she whispered to us all, "She doesn't know where she is."
"How could she not know?" Nana asked.
I asked to talk to her, so Ellie handed me the phone and I said hello and listened to the silence that was Auntie Anne.
"Where are you?" I asked the phone. "Oh, okay." I told everyone that she was pulling into the parking lot. "Do you want to talk to Ellie again? Okay, here she is."
Ellie talked for a couple more seconds and then said goodbye and hung up the phone and wrote Auntie Anne's phone number into her notebook so she wouldn't have to ask for it anymore.
When we got to our meeting place in the mall, Anne and Heidi weren't there yet.
"Where are they?" Nana asked me.
"Not here yet, I guess," I answered.
"But didn't you just talk to them and they told you they were here?" Nana asked.
"That was just pretend. The phone didn't work," I told her. I thought it was obvious that we were pretending. We both laughed that she had been fooled.
A few minutes later, Greg joined us. "Where's Anne? I thought she told you she was here already," he said.
A HA! We fooled both of them!
We are great and powerful actresses.
I am, of course, reminded of the many hours Gen and I spent as children talking to imaginary people on telephones. How we would go into my dad's office in the basement and tape down the buttons under the receiver so we could pick up the handset without activating the phone and then have in-depth conversations with nobody. It was such a fun and engrossing game. And I can see that Ellie is already very good at this game. I am so proud of her.
