Bathtime Funnies

As I handed E the washcloth in her bath tonight, she peered into her Tinkerbell mirror and exclaimed,

"Oh! I look naked!"

Then she swung her wet hair around her shoulder and said,

"Now I am beautiful."

I had her pose for me with her "beautiful" hair for this picture. When I showed it to her, she said,

"That's how princesses smile."

(So sorry about the crooked picture...I've tried everything!)

More Deep Thoughts

When I was in college, I had to take an English class just for Elementary Ed majors. And, no, it wasn't to make sure that we knew our alphabet! Our final research paper had to be about - duh - something related to teaching. After years of hearing about classroom management strategies and techniques, I decided to do a paper about how the TEACHER'S attitude affects classroom management. What really inspired me was the quote I'll share below, and I included it in my paper.

I had forgotten about it until a few weeks ago, when the quote resurfaced again in a Young Women's lesson at church. It's now on my fridge as a reminder to me of just how much power I have...

"I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a person humanized or de-humanized.

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming. " - Goethe


Isn't that humbling?! It's so easy to say, "The kids (or my husband, or my co-workers, or my relatives...!) are making me crazy!" and then treat them accordingly. But really, I have so much more power than that. I have been thinking about this quote a LOT ('cause it's on my fridge, and you know I spend a lot of time there) and I totally, totally believe in it. Doesn't mean I always succeed in practicing it, but it is a worthy work in progress!

OK, you want to know another reason this quote has been on my mind? We are in the process of having M transferred to a different third grade class. The first day I met her current teacher, she said, "Just so you know, I have the class from hell this year." I have volunteered many hours in that classroom, and while she does give sporadic compliments, it's pretty much a steady stream of "You Guys Are The Worst Class I've Ever Had." Does she have some challenging kids? Absolutely. I'm not disputing that. But it is a miserable place to be, and not a good placement for our daughter. The teacher called me Monday night and we had a pretty open conversation. I told her, "If you walk into your classroom every day thinking, "I have the class from hell," then I can promise you that you are going to have a class-from-hell kind of day." Look how brave I am! I was shaking and my face was flushed, but I said it! (SO glad the conversation was over the phone!) Anyway, I wish I were brave enough to email her this quote, but I'm not.

So, you get it, instead! ;)

1000 Hours

I went to a "kindergarten readiness" class this week and they gave us the following info. I am putting it on my blog b/c 1) I thought it was interesting 2) I don't want to hold onto the paper, but if I put it here, I can reference it in 5 years when I'm trying to remember what it said! Here goes...

It takes 1000 hours of "lap-time" for young children to have the readiness skill in place to learn to read. National Institute for Children's Health and Development.

"Lap time" means one-on-one interaction between a parent or caregiver and a child where meaningful language interactions take place. Types of lap-time activities include: talking, singing, rhyming, chanting, and, of course, reading.

If we begin at birth, children who receive 1/2 hour a day of lap-time will have the developmental skills they need to read when they come to kindergarten.

If we wait until they are two to three years old, it will take an hour a day of lap-time to prepare children with the readiness skills they need to read.

If we wait until they are four years old, it will take two hours a day of lap-time to prepare children wiht the readiness skills they need.

If we wait until children are five years old and entering kindergarten, it will take three hours a day of lap-time to catch these children up with their peers in order to be ready to read.

Free (Yummy and slightly healthy) Chips!

Go to www.flatearth.com to print a coupon for a bag of FREE Flat Earth Crisps! If you haven't tried them before, you're missing out. We've been fans for several months now. Our favorite are the Apricot Mango ones, and the Farmland Cheddar are good, too. The coupon expires March 9, so hurry!

Tipping the Scales

So, I had a decision to make today and I chose the harder one.

I had to decide whether to buy new clothes, especially for Sunday, or buy a scale.

I bought the scale, and I wish I were as enthusiastic about it as E is. She loves that thing, and keeps weighing herself and wants to know what my "number" is, too. Are you kidding me?! Every grocery clerk we see for the next month would hear about it, not to mention her entire pre-school.

I really don't know how I got so heavy. I mean, I have gone through periods of not making it to the gym, but I never "binge" and we don't eat a ton of fast food. I have a friend who dropped 15 lbs in 3 weeks just by omitting her daily drive thru McD's. That kinda depresses me, 'cause I don't feel like there's that much I can omit and drop weight like that. I know that's screwy thinking...right along with, "If I don't drink coffee (lattes, espressos, or mochas) how come I don't have spare cash?" ;)

I really am ready to tackle this weight gain; just having a momentary pity party. I need to do it for my health, and that's a huge motivation. That, and the fact that I have a closet full of cute dresses that are too tight!

So, thanks to my bro, Brian, and his wife for the fantastic scale! (They gave me a gift card for my b'day, and that's how I finally chose to use it.) I just realized that my other bro, Eric, and his wife sent me yummy, yummy chocolates from NY for my birthday. Hmmmm... Finally, I found my culprit! ;)

Well Trained!

When we were leaving Super WalMart today, I pointed out the new sign they had up, advertising the upcoming release of "Bee Movie" on March 11. E stopped and admired it appropriately, then said,

"We'll have to get it. From the library."

Another Reason to Love This Girl

As we were leaving Super WalMart today, where we had just grabbed a few boring old groceries, my "sidekick," E said,

"Mom, you know, we haven't been to Target in awhile lately."

I answered, "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"A bad thing, Mommy! I think we need to go."

So, we drove across the street and pulled into the Target parking lot. I think she was just hoping for an Icee, which I didn't buy her, but she was still a great little browser. (I save the Icees for the BIG shopping excursions!) I remembered that I did, in fact, need to buy a baby gift, so we came up with a real reason to be there. She was really experimenting with the, "Mom, you look at that stuff, I'm going to be right here." Of course, I let her go all of four feet from me, but she felt like hot stuff. She had a big interest in checking out the packages of "undies" today, even though we just got some new Barbie ones for her. She scored a new PINK neck pillow in the dollar section (actually, it was $2.50), so she did not walk away empty handed (she had a boring old black one in the car, which she has now deeded over to M).

Oh, that reminds me...I also found this cool "gold" box for $2 on the 75% off clearance section and bought it 'cause it looked like a great prop for all the pretend play they do (princess or pirate treasure...choose your own adventure!) I forgot about it until bedtime, and I said, "M! Look at the cool box I found for you and E today on clearance at Target!" and she said,

"Oh, Mom. You and your clearance."

(And then she admitted that, yes, it did indeed have potential as a great prop.)