Bonding.

Tonight after dinner I went up to the bedroom to do some reading for school. About ten minutes later Ruby came upstairs, crawled onto the bed, and asked me if she could lay with me for a bit. I put down my reading and had the best conversation with my daughter. Here is some of what we covered:

• Why she likes the fish crackers at school so much (it turns out there's flavor inside that you can't see);
• The difference between an oval and a circle, a rhombus and a square;
• How annoying and frustrating it is that during dancing at school some of the kids get in her way (annoying and frustrating being her word choices);
• Her two favorite Doctor Who episodes (the one with the Oods and the one where the people turn into bats);
• What an Ood is;
• A funny story about how Dadam thought she was turning on the ceiling fan but it really was the box fan;
• How having too much dinner to eat is like being a baby and wanting to wear a dress that is too big and also you don't know how to work the zipper;
• All soup would be better if it had peanut butter in it;
• At Target there is a thing that you put your hand in and it pretends to chop it off (from Halloween time);
• Sometimes at bed Cici doesn't want a kiss good-night but Ruby always does;
• How poop and pee move differently through the pipes (which she kept calling "pumps") and this is similar to how a child slides down a slide at the park;
• And some other random tidbits thrown in for fun that I can't quite recall.

At one point Cecilia hollered up the stairs that Ruby should leave me alone because I was supposed to be doing homework, to which Ruby hollered back: "WE'RE JUST TALKING!" And even though I really, really need to get this schoolwork done, that conversation was the absolute highlight of my day. Hands down.

Let Me In!

Every day I walk Ruby to preschool, and up until two weeks ago this has been pretty uneventful -- it's only 3.5 blocks after all. But out of the blue Ruby decided that she no longer wanted me to come into the building with her and she could do it on her own, thankyouverymuch. I resisted at first because I know she gets distracted by the other kids in the hallway and, well, she's only four. I didn't know how she'd manage without me. As it turns out, just fine.

When we walk to school I'm allowed to enter the building but I have to stop right at the doors and let her get to her classroom on her own, and on the rare occasion when we get there by van I'm not allowed to even exit the vehicle. I sit there and watch as my baby runs off and goes inside without me.

I love her independent spirit and her fearlessness -- I really, really do. And I know that someday it will serve her very well as she leads her own life and is the star in her own adventures. But now, when she's only four, it breaks my heart a little bit...

You Be The Judge.

As a sort of Thanksgiving preview last night, Momlissa suggested that we each share something we're thankful for at dinner. I'll let you be the judge who had the best answer.

Momlissa is thankful "that none of us are sick or in the hospital."

Dadam is thankful "that we always have enough to eat, a house to keep us safe and warm beds to sleep in."

Cici is thankful for "playdates and tater-tot hotdish."

Ruby is thankful for "sharing our love."

I've Created a Monster

Today Ruby and I were working on reading -- I write some words and she sounds them out. Words like cars, mom, hat, dog, dad, sun, etc. She was doing a great job and she'll be a full-blown reader in no time.

But then she decided to write some words for ME to read. Her first word: C-A-T. I got it right. For the second word she made me close my eyes and I could hear her muttering as she sounded out the correct letters. Then I opened my eyes to read her next word.

It was F-A-R-T.

She was very pleased with herself.

Watch Out When She Gets To College.

[Ruby is rubbing her eyes hard - really grinding her little fists into them.]

Momlissa: Ruby, why are you rubbing your eyes like that? Do they itch?

Ruby: No, I'm just trying to see cool shapes.

Momlissa: What?

Ruby [stops rubbing; dreamily]: Yeah . . . I see a cool sun . . . cool flowers . . .

Halloweeeeeeeeen.

Just a few pictures to recap our Halloween. Cecilia was a skeleton and Ruby was a mermaid -- both those choices make perfect sense if you know the girls. This year we again spent the evening with friends and trick-or-treated in their neighborhood and had a terrific time. It's really a gift to befriend a family where we like the adults just as much as Cecilia and Ruby like the kids. We left late, totally tuckered out, and with bucketfuls of candy. Hooray!

That's My Girl

Last night the girls went to bed around 8:00 per usual, and Dadam and I settled in to watch The Office. About 10 minutes later Cecilia comes down the stairs, sniffling, because she forgot to do her math homework. Normally we do homework right when she gets home from school, but yesterday she really wanted to do some reading instead, so we sat together and she read out loud for about 30 minutes. Once she was done, I started cleaning the kitchen and she started playing with Ruby and I never really thought about her math homework (oops).

Anyway, I told her not to worry and she could work on it in the morning. She started to go back up stairs but was obviously still upset, so Dadam told her to go ahead and come down. She hustled downstairs, got out her folder, and quickly got to work. It took her about 20 minutes and then she put it away and went back to bed. I decided to drive her to school this morning so she could get some extra sleep, and the whole thing was long forgotten by the time I dropped her off.

After she was asleep Dadam and I were talking about this, and he said that when he was a kid he would have simply done the homework on the bus on the way to school. Her level of responsibility in this incident is so impressive to me, and I'm incredibly proud of the kid that she is becoming. What 7-year old cries because they want to make sure they get their math homework done on time?

Cecilia rules.

Mickey Mouse Club

Earlier this week there was an incident. With a mouse. Long story short, Cutie-head caught a mouse and I witnessed the whole, awful incident. She seemed to have a great time playing with it -- letting it go and then catching it again, over and over again until the mouse finally expired. It was at this point that both of the cats ... uh ... opened 'er up. It was decidedly unpleasant and, with steely resolve, I forced myself to get the dead mouse into a bag and out of my house. Problem solved.

Later that day I fetched Ruby from school and told her the story of Cutie-head and the mouse. She was very interested, especially in the remains of the mouse (you'll remember that this is the child who loves to watch the movie Jaws), so I showed her the dead mouse in the bag which I had put out on the porch just as any good mother would do (right?). The end.

Fast forward to about an hour later: I'm doing dishes and she's coloring at the table, or so I thought. I hear a tiny little knock on the front door and so I go to open the door knowing full well Ruby is up to something. I open the door and there is Ruby, holding the mouse bag, and she looks at me sweetly, shoves the bag toward me and shouts, "TRICK OR TREAT!"

I wish had some way to capture the maniacal laughter that followed, but you'll just have to take my word for it. Don't trust that sweet face for a second.