Friends

John has a friend named Maddy. Maddy is in the first grade at his school but not in his class. They met at Time+. Yesterday I picked up the kids from school and John told me "Don't be mad, but Maddy and I wrote F's on our hands. Because we are friends!"  In the bathtub that night he said "My F washed off. Tomorrow, I'm going to write it on my arm where it won't get washed off." Tonight at dinner, John rolled up his sleeves. Daddy noticed something on John's arm and asked "What's that?"  John said "A B and an F." Daddy said "I can see that. Why?" John said "Well Mom knows already." Again he didn't answer Dadddy's question. Daddy said "Well, tell me." John said "I have a friend named Maddy. She goes to Time+ with me. I have a B and an F on my arm because we are best friends. That's why!" 

For the record, I am not happy that he is writing on his arm and hands, but I am very happy he has a best friend. 

The picture

I found Gillian at school tonight sitting at a table coloring. She looked up at me and said "I coloring a picture!" I said "That's great but we have to go get John."  She said "Ok. I gotta finish it."  She colored a little more and then handed me a crayon and said "Write my name."  As we were leaving her classroom, she described her picture to me "It's Beauty and the Beast!"

In the car she continued to tell me about her picture.  "It's got all the princesses. Cinderella. Ariel. Who's Ariel?" I told her that Ariel was the little mermaid. She said "Oh. And her boy! Her boy has a dog." I said "Her prince is Prince Eric." Gillian pointed at her picture and then said "He's over here with his dog." I asked her who else was in the picture. She said "Jasmine. Sofia and her mommy. And her daddy and James and Amber." I said "Is Sleeping Beauty in your picture?" Silly Gilly asked "Who's that?" I reminded her that Sleeping Beauty was the princess that the fairies kept trying to change the color of her dress. She remembered and said "Yes. Her is over there in her pink dress!" I love that she saw all of these princesses in her little drawing. 

She carried her picture into John's school. All the Time+ teachers complimented her on her beautiful art work. Gillian was super excited to show John. John took one look at it and said "Nice job Gill." Then he turned to me and whispered "Does she know it's just scribbles?" I told him that Gillian drew a picture of all the princesses. He just shrugged his shoulders and put on his coat. Sometimes he has no imagination.  

Below is Gillian's beautiful picture:

The juice box

On Sunday, John and Gillian came upstairs to get some juice boxes. Gillian asked John "Can you bring mine downstairs?" John said "No." Gillian said "I can't carry it! It's too heavy." John said "Fine, if I carry it, I get to drink it!" Gillian screamed "No! It's mine!" John said "Well then you gotta carry it." Gillian said "I can't!" John didn't take that excuse, he said "You just gotta be strong!" That worked and she carried the juice box downstairs. 

the snowman

I ran out this afternoon to do a few errands and I was surprised to see the kids and Daddy in the front yard.  As I pulled in the driveway, I rolled the window down and asked "What are you guys doing?"  Gillian smiled and said "We's making a snowman!"  We attempted to make a snowman on Friday when we were out in the snow.  But the snow was too dry.  It wasn't good packing snow.  It had warmed up today and the snow melted a little and made it easier to make a snowman.  Daddy and John worked on making the body of the snowman, while Gillian just walked around.  I helped her find a couple of sticks for arms and she told me "We need a carrot for him's nose!"  I asked Daddy "What else do we need?"  Daddy rattled off a list of items and I ran into the house.  I remembered that a few years ago Grandma gave us a snowman kit.  I found the kit in Gillian's closet and I went back outside to my family.  John immediately questioned me "What's in the box?"  I told him to bring it to Daddy and then he could open it up.  Inside were all the pieces to make a perfect snowman, a hat, a scarf, eyes, carrot nose, a pipe, buttons and a mouth.  Finally our snowman was complete.  John was so proud.

 

snow day

Friday was a snow day for the entire family.  I woke up early and John was the first one to join me.  He was super excited about no school.  Gillian, on the other hand, didn't wake up until 9:30.  The kids were good all day.  They didn't fight and they didn't really ask to watch television.  They played Legos and babies and dress-up and ninja turtles. 

I asked the kids if they wanted to go outside and play.  Gillian screamed "YES!"  John said "No thank you."  I asked him "Why?"  He said "Because I don't want to take off my jammies."  First of all, yes, they were still in their jammies.  It was a snow day.  And I said "Well you can keep them on.  Let's go."  I bundled the kids up in their snow pants and hats and gloves and scarves.  Poor Gillian couldn't put her arms down and John said "It's hard to walk around."  Their complaints stopped when we got outside.  John went running towards their playground and Gillian needed some help getting down the stairs of the deck.  She walked towards John and wanted to climb up on the playground too!  But we had John clear off some of the snow first so it was easier for her.  We even convinced John to go down the slide. 

We asked Gillian if she wanted to make a snow angel.  She said "Okay."  I asked her "Do you know what a snow angel is?"  She said "When you lay in the snow and move your arms and legs?"  I'm impressed.  Last year, she didn't really play in the snow too much so I was surprised to hear that she knew was it was.  She made a beautiful snow angel.  And John did too!  Even Daddy made a giant snow angel.

 

 



Gilly and Mommy got cold and we went back inside.  John decided to stay outside and play.  I watched him from the kitchen.  He took his snow shovel and would fill up the slide with snow and then he would climb up on the playground and then try to go down the slide.  He got stuck one time and didn't know what to do.  But he didn't panic and he figured out how to get out.  The next time, he brought the shovel down the slide with him so that he could dig himself out when he got stuck.

We had so much fun playing in the snow.

 

back to school

This morning it was hard to wake the kids up.  I knew it would be rough and I sent them to bed at 7:30 the night before.  But it didn't help.  I went in to wake up John.  He just grunted at me and said "Why do I have to go back to school?"  Gillian, on the other hand, actually jumped out of bed.  Daddy had climbed into her bed to snuggle with her.  They snuggled contently until I walked in, then she jumped into my arms.  They were slow to decide on what they wanted for breakfast.  They were slow to put on their shoes.  After Daddy and Gillian left, all John did was complain.  "Why do I have to go to school?  Why do we have to learn to read?  Why do we have to do so much work?"  I explained to him that we need to go to school to learn things so that we can have good jobs and nice houses and cars and etc.  He hates that answer.

We got to the bus stop.  It was freezing this morning.  We were out there for like two minutes and John was complaining.  "We have been out here for like 20 hours!  When is the bus coming?"  While we waiting, he said "I wish weekends were 7 days!  You know, like my shirt!"  He got a shirt that says "I vote for a 7 day weekend" for Christmas from his Aunt Betty.  Apparently it stuck with him, because after having twelve days off he still wanted more.

At dinner tonight, I asked John about his day.  He said "It was good.  We watched a movie.  And Mrs. G helped me write a story."  I asked him who Mrs. G was.  He said "She's the lady that comes in when Mrs. Belena isn't in."  How lucky is this kid?  His first day back he got a substitute teacher and school is closed tomorrow because of the snow storm.  He is one lucky boy what a easy way to adjust to the routine after winter break.   

The magician

John got a magic kit for Christmas.  He opened it today and learned a few tricks to show me.  The first one was a magic box.  I had to pick a color on a cube then put it in the box.  He then put the box behind his back and then "guessed" the color I picked.  Of course, he guessed my color.  I was completely amazed.  As I was praising him for learning such a great magic trick, he said to me "Want to know how I did it?"  Clearly he has a lot to learn about keeping magician's secrets. 

Later he found me in Gillian's room, "Mom!  I need quarters!  Two of them!  I'm learning a new trick!"  I told him where he could find quarters and he ran away.  He came back later with a magic wand.  I asked him, "Did you find the quarters?"  He said "Nope, I learned a new trick!"  He then showed me how he could float the wand in the air. 

Once again, he showed me the secret to how he made the wand float. 

Before dinner, John had another trick to show me.  He had a rabbit that he made disappear.  I got this trick on video.  Enjoy.