Silly Girl With an Imagination

Our little girl has always had quite an imagination. From a very young age, she has never ceased to make up colorful stories to entertain us. For the longest time, she considered me her "pink mama". According to her, she had 9 mothers, each a different color. Luckily, I was always her favorite, though she sometimes missed the others. This story continued for about a year when she was 3 yrs. old.

Lately, she's come out with some interesting play-acting scenarios. They crack me up. Here, she's a "Native American Indian Woman." The "feather" sticking up in the back of her head is nothing more than a play cooking spatula, stuck in her headband.


In the pictures below, can you guess who she's supposed to be? Why, she's "Bindi, the Jungle Girl". I had to laugh when she came into the school room carrying a giant green rubber snake with her brother's grabber. The snake, of course, was held at arm's length so it wouldn't bite her. She also has a very good memory! She's only seen the Bindi show once that I know of (and it wasn't a snake show!). If you look closely, the two pictures of her holding the snake without the grabber, she's holding the snake behind the head properly so he can't bite. It was so cute to see her painstakingly pick him up ever so carefully "the right and safe way" she said.

Of course, I do take the time to teach her not to ever touch a snake unless I tell her it's safe. This is a precaution we must take since we have 2 pet corn snakes that a fellow homeschool family passed on to us several months ago. She is not to be outdone by her brothers, and loves to hold them too.

4th of July Birthday Girl

Our sweet daughter is 5 yrs. old today. I don't think I can get any pictures uploaded due to poor internet coverage, but I'll try. Stay tuned for lots of pictures of our vacation trip to Georgia. It's just beautiful here, and even better, we're enjoying lovely weather.

To celebrate B's birthday today, we picked blackberries, went wading in the Toccoa River, and we are going to count lightning bugs and watch the big fireworks show in the local town. What more could a birthday girl want?

Me, Too!!!

Our 4-year old little sister wants her "quilting" sewing pictures on the blog too. She actually started sewing before her big brother, and was in fact his inspiration, but I never posted the pictures.

B is just practicing at this point, on real pieces of scrap fabric, but doing more "free-style" than anything else. She wants to start a quilt now, but I told her she needs a bit more practice first. She can, however, start a new piece of fabric while holding the strings so they don't get pulled underneath. She can be sewing, leave the needle down, and pivot the fabric to make a sharp corner. And she can finish a piece of fabric by clipping the threads with some snips. I will assure you, she is very careful and cautious with all of this. I was more willing to let her sew (as far as safety measures go) than I was the boys.

In one of the pictures below, notice how I had to raise up the foot pedal so she could reach it. I've got silicone hot pads underneath the phone book, as well as on top of it, so things don't slide around.

Daughter's Quilt: Ready to Sandwich

I've got my little girl's quilt ready to go to the next level. Pinning the layers is my least favorite part of quilting, but it must be done. Here is the front of it.

I believe the colors look much nicer in person, but here it is. She loves it, which is what counts anyway! In fact, she picked much of the fabric, and then I had to find a few to go with it all. That's why it's a little corny. I will be trying to get this finished within the next couple weeks before her 5th birthday. She knows I'm working on it, so it won't be a surprise, but it would still be nice to have it ready by then. I did something different on the back. I pieced fabrics together from the leftovers, rather than buy new fabric for it. I even had several blocks extra, so they are on the back also. I guess I didn't get a picture of the back.

Wormy Conversation

Various statements made by my 4 yr. old, quite the chatterbox tonight, as we checked on the status of our worms:

• Mom, these worms are my friends. I know worm language so I know what they're saying. They tell me that they like my hand a lot. They tell me if they're hungry or not, too.
• They only talk to me during the day. When they're tired at night, they just want to sleep.
• Mom, this worm is a mama and she's getting ready to have her babies. She told me that just now. If you ever find a long, long, worm with a pink, pink round dot, she's having a baby tonight. And that is a good thing because we need more baby worms.
• Mama and Daddy worms don't take care of their babies, because they're scared of the babies. People take care of their kids, but not worm mamas.
• This worm is a school kid. There's lots of school kid worms in here.
• This worm right here is a teenager.
• Worms like to eat lots of rotten fruit that you don't care for. Their favorite rotten fruit is fruit that's been cut up that people won't eat.

I think I learned a few things just now. Some kid philosophy.

I Was in Stiches

Tonight, for her bedtime story, B insisted on reading me a story. She read "Go Dog, Go!" She has loved this story since we saw the play version of this book last year. I have to admit, I think it was the best play we've seen yet! It's amazing to me that she remembers so much of the play still, which was right about a full year ago. Well, B insists that she can read the book. She can read anything she sets her mind to, only it consists of this: when I read her a story, she can then successfully "read" it back to me! It's funny how close to the real words she gets. Some of the pages are right on where accuracy is concerned. Other places, she plagerizes quite a bit, and the results are hilarious. I am glad that laughter is good medicine and good for the soul. I am still getting used to having a girl around the house. But it sure is fun once in a while! Not that the boys aren't fun, too. It's just different!

By the way, has anybody's kid been so sure they could already read that it became an issue at some point when they do need to learn? Or maybe as they mature, they grow out of thinking they already can read? I think it will probably be a non-issue, but I am curious.

Our Little Girl Learned a Poem!

A friend's blog reminded me that B learned a poem recently, and I couldn't blog about it because my computer wasn't working at the time. If you see her, she would probably love to recite this for you. And then I would have to translate it for you. Consider this your translation in advance:

The Caterpillar
By Christina Rosetti

Brown and furry,
Caterpillar in a hurry.
Take your walk,
to the shady leaf, or stalk.

May no toad spy you,
May little birds pass by you.
Spin and die,
to live again,
a butterfly.

I am proud to say that at 4 yrs. old, she learned this poem just because she heard it a few times, directed, of course, toward her brothers to learn. The boys were rolling their eyes at hearing me read it a few times in repetition, when she just started saying it and said it word for word!! I got a little video of her saying it. I will have to dig it out and post it to this blog later. (Camera is in the car. So if you read this before it's attached, check back later.)