Blue...

Blue.  I like it.  It's a nice color, right?  

Well, not according to Maya. 

While helping the girls make Moose and Zee New Year's Party Goody Bags (yes, I know it's February...whatever makes them happy, right?), there was a discussion about who got what color scissors.

"Ewww!" exclaimed Maya.  "I don't want BLUE!  Blue smells like BOY!" 

Bella proclaimed, "I like Blue, her...you have red." 

(Wow...it's NEVER that easy.)

Now, a few minutes ago at bedtime, while reading Shiny Touchy Smelly, again, out came the disgust with blue. 

"Ewww.  The blue smells like boys!"

"It doesn't smell like bubbles?" I replied, showing her that it was a picture of bubbles.

"No.  It smells like BOY!  Gross."  and scrunched up her nose like she had just smelled a skunk.  "I don't like the way blue smells.  They smell like boys.  But blueberries...blueberries smell like girls and I like that."

The black and white page also smelled like Boys, but, it was black licorice after all, so I'll give her that one. 

I must also mention, she always chooses to have a wife instead of a husband when we play LIFE.  LOL! 

Who's That Girl?

So, yes, that's me, at DisneyLand for the first time ever. 

St Patrick's Day, 1980.

I was 5 and a half.

I lost my first tooth there.

Or so I thought...see the two big teeth coming in?  I'm already missing 3 teeth.

I have to admit, I was slightly deflated when I saw this picture. 

But then, I looked at the other pictures my mommy sent me.

And everything was ok.  Wanna know why? 

Well, look for yourself...

That's my mommy in the middle.  Compare that to the picture of me above.

(Here...let me post it for you again...)

Now, I think we can all agree that I'm the spittin' image of my mother.

We've all known this for many years.

We didn't, however, realize this...

That's my mom on the left.

That's Maya.

So...if you followed that twisty turny logic...

I look like my mommy...

Maya looks like my mommy...

That means...

MAYA LOOKS LIKE ME!!!!!

I have a child that looks like me! 

I'm the luckist mommy ever! 

Now, in case you don't see it and need a close up of that Gma/Maya comparison...

This made up for the dissolution of one of my favorite childhood memories, easy. 

McDonalds and The Olympics

Does it bother anyone else that McDonalds markets itself as "What the Olympic Athletes Eat!"?  

Does anyone really believe that the some of the fittest people in the world choose McDs as the fuel for their Olympic Body?  

This bothers me.  I want to go visit the Olympic Village at breakfast and see if they are all chowing down on McMuffins.  Or stop by at lunch and share some McNuggets with Apollo Ohno.  

I get that McDs contributes a lot of money, but why not say, "We're a sponsor of the Olympic Team" instead of "McDs...it's what the athletes eat!"  So wrong.  In my humble opinion. 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

We went to the library the other day and picked up the complete version of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

We only have the shortened board book version.

I had no idea all the fun we had been missing all these years with the short version.

:(

So anyway, after reading, we decided to have some craft fun with the theme.

The girls each cut and glued a coconut tree.

(I helped Maya with the cutting part.)

Belle handled her cutting perfectly.

Until she got to the leaves.

Then she wanted help.

Which, I gave reluctantly...

...she really needs to practice these things on her own.

Maya was intent on telling Bella that she was a big girl too and could do it "all by myself".

(Yes, I cut the pieces.  She still says she did it.)

PS - you can see Belle's growing Book Worm on the wall in the background.

She's been doing such a good job and when she reads a book, she gets to add another piece.

She loves to read, just to get to add another piece.

Hopefully some day she'll love to read just cuz reading is fun.

Back on track...here's Belle gluing the leaves on her tree

And her finished tree.

After they cut and glued their coconut trees, I gave them an alphabet of stickers.

Maya stuck hers mostly up in the leaves of the tree.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom...guess there WAS enough room!  ;)

Bella chose to put hers "climbing" up the tree, with only a few in the tree.

(She looks so sad, but I swear she was all over this project...had a great time!)

She carefully placed each sticker exactly where she deemed it was SUPPOSED to be.

And as she placed each sticker, we made sure we knew what letter it was.

"It's a little e Mommy!"

"And it goes RIGHT here."

After we finished our Coconut Trees, we did a little "Math".

We picked a page, and Maya counted all the different colored letters and Bella created a bar graph.

Our goal was to figure out which color had the most letters and which color had the fewest letters.

When Maya became disinterested with waiting for Bella between counting, she colored.

But Belle continued to work diligently on the bar graph.

And she was so proud of her work when she was done! 

And I was proud too. 

And best of all, we had a lot of fun.

Bella's First Sentence

So, we have these wonderful, colorful, sight-word flash cards. 

I keep them on the kitchen island.

When Belle and I find ourselves in the kitchen, staring at each other, I whip 'em out.

She flies through them like she's cutting butter with a warm knife.

So, the other day, I just spread them out on the floor like this...

...and asked Bella to make a sentence.

She asked me for some paper...apparently she needed words not on the cards.

This is the sentence she came up with...

...her very first sentence.

I went over to see what she came up with...

...and, I have to say, at least she's creative.

Oh yes she did.

My daughter's first sentence...

"Oh no you didn't."

I'm so proud. 

The Clothing Store

 

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

The Tentmaker

I just loved all the patterns in the Tentmaker shop.  

The girls had tea in the tent, and found the differences in the patterns. 

It was beautiful.

(Sorry...I would narrate better, but mother-duty is calling and if I don't do this fast, it won't get done.  ;) )

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

The patterns really were beautiful.