Toilet training

Some would say I've made no progress as I haven't put anything in the potty and usually refuse to even sit. I think I've made huge progress. I've upped the reward from verbal praise to M&Ms to small animal toys if I put something in the potty. And last night I stayed dry all night! When I'm ready, I'll just be 100% toilet trained. None of this practice stuff. I'll only accept perfection from myself.

E

I forgot to mention that a week ago I copied the letter E when asked to write my name. And then the next day I started writing E's on paper without copying. But I was never happy with how they looked. Either the lines were too close together, or one line was longer than the others. But after three tries, I had my perfect E.

Olympics

Mamma and Daddy are hogging the TV to watch the Olympics. Even though it's Ewan's or my turn! And they try to teach us about sports. But we already know that. And they try to teach us about countries and how far away they are from us. But sometimes countries aren't in the atlas they show us. Their atlas still has Yugoslavia, USSR and East Germany. Parents are so behind.

But synchronized diving? They can watch that. Just not the talking. Or the running and swimming. That's boring. But hurling yourself into the air and spinning before splashing in the water? And seeing people swimming underwater with their eyes open? That's awesome!

Summer

Despite all the school shopping, I'm not ready for summer to be over anytime soon.

Summer

Getting ready for Disney. Fun. Check!

Zoo

D: You're such a zoo person.
e: I really am.

(Note that Mamma and Daddy's favorite part of the zoo is not the animals but the bar. And we like the popcorn!)

I can be bought

Much like Mamma can buy my forgiveness for all her travels away from me with a giant lollipop... My teachers can bribe me into attending Spanish class with the chance to play with animals. So yes. I like learning Spanish now.

Nina MacBensen, author

Birdie has egg.

The flaming eyeball came to the birds.

The flaming eyeball bumped into one of the egg.

The flaming eyeball was just her toy.

A different person was drawing a bird who will come out of the egg.

The flaming eyeball went away.

The egg cracked and one of the birds came out.

The girl was sad.

The mom bird took the baby bird to fly.

Parade

I love my neighborhood parade. Sometimes they throw candy at you, but mostly they come and hand it to you. And Mamma and Daddy pretty much let us gorge ourselves on candy for an hour. Awesome!!!

Career goals

M: What do you want to be when you grow up?
n: A singer like Jem and the Holograms.
n: Mamma, what do you want to be when you go older than 37?
M: You mean when I grow up?
n: Yeah.

Career goals

M: What do you want to be when you grow up?
e: A teacher.
M: (sigh) What kind of teacher? A teacher like Daddy or like at your school? 
e: A LadyBug teacher with a girlfriend.

Too cold

It's only 88' today. That's cold!

Shhh

Don't tell anyone that Mamma's going to sleep at the same time as us.

It's my hair and I'll do what I want

My bangs were in my face. Mamma and Daddy said I needed a hair cut. I told them I could just brush the bangs out of my face. We compromised. We only trimmed the bangs.

e: I want long hair like Mamma.

Dinner routine

M/D: What was your favorite part of today?
n: Coming home and seeing my family and having a wonderful dinner that Daddy cooked.

Yeah

e: I showed the girls at school my cool shoes. I'm cool.

Wait. What?!

So if I complain, Mamma and Daddy tell us that we get to go on the next trip? And we're going to Disney?! Oh. My. God. I'm so excited. I wasn't excited at first. Because it took us a while to understand that we're actually going to the castle where all the princesses and Toy Story and Cars people live. But now. We. Can't. Wait.

e: Are we going after nap? After bedtime?

n: How many more days?

No one cares

 

Mamma insists on sharing photos from her trip. It's kinda cool that the fort she visited in Halifax wears my family's tartan. Daddy, once we were a rich clan.... what happened?

But it's not cool that she's not sharing her lobster. Or taking us on these trips.

Brave

Who decided it was a good idea to make a Disney princess movie really scary with big scary bears? I spent most of the movie curled up in Mamma's lap hiding my face and having her ruin the ending for me so I would know everyone would be all right.

But then at the end of the movie...
n: I loved that movie!

Power outage

What's a power outage? I thought that only happened to people in Columbus or other places after big winds. We didn't have winds or rain or ice or anything.

Mamma Mamma Mamma Mamma Mamma

e:  Mamma, I  missed you soooooo much

Again?!

Now Mamma leaves for Halifax for 5 days?! That's okay. Daddy time iiiiisss AWESOME!

Faster than the speed of a camera

What the camera doesn't capture is me grabbing Duplos from Nina's side and her screaming at me. We're too fast to be caught on film.

Technology

Soon I'll be able to use these with my fingers and toes. At the same time. And the tablet will come with a stand that moves around so I don't have to hold it with my spare hand.

Old Navy

Is this what people mean when they say I should get into modeling? It doesn't look like that much fun to just stand around all day not moving.

Red white and blue

 

 

 

M: Why is today special?
e: It's the birthday of the Dudited States.

Backyard

Before

After

Mamma and Daddy took away our backyard forest. Now we have this thing called a lawn. It's okay. I guess.

Hand-me-downs

Even if toys are 30 years old, they're still awesome. And so is a huge new tupperware of Legos! We've got more Lego than we know what to do with.

Bathtime

e: It's too hot!!!
n: It's not hot.
D: See Ewan, the water isn't hot. Nina's always right (snort, giggle).
n:  (deadpan) Why are you laughing?
D: (snort, giggle).
n: (deadpan) Why are you still laughing?

Control

Mamma and Daddy have lost another level of control as I've gained one. I can now use the PlayStation controller to stop, start, pause, fast-forward, and select movies or TV shows to watch in Netflix. I'm so proud of myself! Daddy talks about this notion of "parental controls" for the TV. Ha. I'm sure I'll find ways around that too.

More swimming

A neighbor has an in ground pool? And I can use it? No way! Let's go now and live there.