Thursday, October 6, 2016

Mel's first day reading!

about this same age, Carolina started to read. Two and three-letter words. Mel's first day was yesterday, but I didn't know until his teacher told me today at pickup.

Here's his first book.



Thursday, May 12, 2016

C walking to school on her own. Part way.

That's my almost-7-year-old daughter in the purple backpack. She's walking to school with a friend. The last two blocks anyway. She doesn't need me anymore. Yay?
#BigGirlGrown

She's so proud to be more independent, and this time last year she wouldn't let me leave her side until she was through the school doors. 


Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Mel turns four with a cheese party

As requested, cheese in cubes with toothpicks. He's four!


Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Reading to Mel

Carolina has decided that Mel should be able to read. Now. Today. So lessons have started:




Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Reading the grown up newspaper

This morning at breakfast, Carolina noticed a lead article headline about YouTube and asked if she could read it. I passed over the section, opened it to her page, and this was her for the next five minutes. 


Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Losing more teeth: #7

So Carolina lost her seventh tooth last night. She let me know there have been seven since I had lost count. I informed the Tooth Fairy and she left a note with the Quarter. 

Hooray!

The Beastie Boys, toddler version

Long story very short:

I played The Beastie Boys song "Hey Ladies" for Mel on the way home from school. He's been walking around singing "hey! Hey! Hey! Old ladeeeeeez" to the same tune. 

#TotsForLife

Monday, March 28, 2016

Learning about South America, dinosaurs and lava

Mel's got the day off from school, here's what he taught me this morning:

"The dinosaurs got killed in Mexico, and it was sad. But they were okay because they didn't go in real lava, like in South America, they just went in water. Then they lose power in water. They were just sleeping. And they were trying to find food. Then they just do that, and they're all done."

Friday, February 26, 2016

Lost another tooth, but swallowed it

Carolina just lost a top tooth, one of her bicuspids. She was running down the hallway and I was walking out of the bathroom, and her mouth ran into one of my hands. She felt a small pain and then realized she swallowed her loose tooth! 


Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Black History Month with Carolina

"What was something new you learned today?"
"Mommy, I learned about an important lady. She was a slave and then she had an Underground Railroad. I forget her name."
"Harriet Tubman?"
"Yes! That's her."
"Do you know what a slave is?"
"A slave is someone who is owned."
"Do you know what that means?"
"No."
"It means you are someone's property. You work for that person. That person paid for you. You can not leave. You work all the time, every day. You don't get paid."
"Mommy, that's bad. That is a terrible idea."
"And you can't live with your family. If the person who bought you wants to sell your mom or brother or grandmom, they do. And then you never see that family member again."
"It's good we don't have slavery ANYWHERE anymore."
"Well, it does still exist."
"Well, not here! Mr. Lincoln took care of that."
"Yes."
This mother-daughter moment, overly simplified for a six year old, brought to you courtesy of Black History Month.

Sunday, January 31, 2016

A couple of new words that are funny

Recently, Mel has started to refer to eyeballs specifically, but instead of calling them eyeBALLS he calls them "Eyebulbs". I've tried correcting him, but he clearly likes saying eyebulbs better. 

As an accidental joke he mispronounced Diana's name as "Dilana", he got a laugh and referred to her for a whole day as "Aunt Dilana" just to be funny. 

Now, napkin can be a little tricky to get your tongue around if you're not used to it. The other day, Mel was sitting so nicely in the morning circle at preschool that they teachers pointed him out to the other kids and said he could pass out the napkins. When he recounted the story to me during the car ride home, he kept telling me about "nak-pins". It was cute, and more importantly, he was proud of himself.