Harry Potter Fans Unite

Me:  "Margot, come brush your teeth - we're running late."

Margot:  [silence]

Me:  "Margot?  Are you coming?"

Margot:  [silence]

Me:  "Margot, come on!"

Margot:  "Mommy?  I was just thinking.  We are so lucky that we know the truth."

Me:  "The truth about what?"

Margot:  "The truth about Peter Pettigrew."

Me:  [silence]

Home is Where the Heart Is

A daily entry in the Writer's Notebook is part of Claire's third-grade homework routine.  I love this notebook, because it gives me a glimpse into her thinking that I wouldn't otherwise have.  Here are two of my recent favorites:

What Do I Like About Where I Live?
My climbing tree
My nice neighbors
Our house's 11 best hiding places
The way you can see the sunset from the end of the street
Our downhill-going street
My room

Is Family Important? Why?
Family is important because if you didn't have family, you would be lonely and unhappy. Family is important also because if you don't have family, you won't learn how to take care of yourself. You also won't have anybody to play with, and you won't have anybody to help you meet new friends. You also will not have anybody to kiss you goodnight.

A Candid Assessment

Don and I had friends over for dinner recently - at a time when he and I were both pretty swamped at work.  As I was apologizing for the fact that all of our dinner napkins were in the dirty laundry, Claire leaned over to her friend Suki and said in stage whisper, "Suki, I'm sorry - I must confess that our house is currently in a state of disrepair."

How to Terrify Your Little Sister's Friends

My friend recently informed me that her daughter, Avery (age 4) had asked whether she could have a play date with Jane.  This wasn't an unusual request; our families often hang out together.  Jane and Avery are excellent collaborators when it comes to (a) sweetly caring for their many baby dolls; and (b) viciously excluding Avery's little brother from everything they do.

A family get-together seemed in order - until it became clear that Jane was welcome, but the jury was still out on Claire.  The reason?  According to Avery, "Claire knows how to kill people."

Kitchen Lessons

Because Don is amazing in the kitchen and does virtually all of the chef-related work at our house, my children operate under the not-unreasonable belief that I can't cook.  They were both pleased and supportive this week when I undertook to make several omelets.  Margot perched beside me the entire time, offering helpful comments like, "Okay, good.  That's good, Mommy.  Now take that flipper thing and put it under the omelet so you can turn it over.  Great, Mom - you're doing great."

I served the omelets, and the girls marveled at how great they looked.  Margot offered to call Don and announce my accomplishment, and Claire observed that "Daddy is going to be ectastic when he hears about this!"  They began to eat, and Margot looked up.

Margot:  "Mommy?  I want to talk to you about this omelet."
Me:  "Okay."
Margot:  "Well, it's made of the same ingredients Dad uses.  That's good."
Me:  "Thanks."
Margot:  "It does also smell like Dad's omelets smell."
Me: [waiting]
Margot:  "And, it does look a lot like the omelets Daddy makes.  So . . . that's a good start, okay?"
Me:  "Okay."
Margot:  "But Mommy?  I have to tell you - it doesn't taste as good as Dad's.  It really doesn't."
[pause]
Margot:  "I just thought you should know."

Updates to the Wiest-ette Vocab List

Vocab girl on day one of pre-K

The Wiest-ette vocab list continues to expand.  I discovered a new favorite this morning, when I came into the kitchen and found Margot and Jane bitterly arguing over whether Jane had to eat the "Raisin Brain" that Margot had served her for breakfast.  Jane also insisted for all of August that she had to wear a life jacket so that she would not "shrink" to the bottom of Auntie Karyn's pool, and that her baby dolls were nursing by drinking milk from her "nibble."  Here's the recap:

• bagiant = vagina. Most effective use requires shouting this word, preferably in a grocery store or other public place -- e.g., "Mommy, you SEE my ba-GIANT??" (Jane)
• belly suit = bathing suit. Reflects the fact that one's belly is covered by a one-piece swimsuit, but also involves some confusion with "ballet suit" (a/k/a "leotarn").  (Jane)
• calicounter = calendar (Jane)
• diamond room = dining room (Jane)
• fake noodles = Fig Newtons. You can't imagine the confusion this one caused before we finally figured it out.  (Jane)
• fighterman = spiderman (Margot)
• fire executioner = fire extinguisher (Claire)
• leotarn = leotard (Claire)
• matilda = Nutella.  As in, "Can I have Matilda on my popover?"  We are pleased to see that this one has gained some traction with Jane's friend, Louisa, and her family.  (Jane)
• Magic Flag = American Flag (Jane)
• meaniac = one who is mean (all three)
• nibble = nipple.  As in, "This baby bottle needs a new nibble."  (Jane)
  
• nike (rhymes with bike) = nightgown.  Perhaps from mis-hearing "nightgown" as "nike on"? (Jane)
• nufkin = nothing, i.e., the opposite of "sumpkin" (Jane)
• pokey-tot = polka dot (Jane)
• president = present.  As in "I opened my birthday presidents yesterday." (Jane)
• Raisin Brain =  Raisin Bran (Margot)
• rudiecat = a person who behaves rudely - e.g., "MOM! Margot is being a rudiecat." (Claire)
• shrink = sink - e.g., "you will shrink to the bottom of the pool if you don't wear a life jacket!" (Jane)
• sumpkin = something, i.e., the opposite of "nufkin" (Jane)
• sun roof = sun room (Claire). As in, "Mommy, can you get the beach toys out of the sun roof so we can take them with us?"
• sunbird = sunburn (Jane)
• wash closet = washcloth (Jane)
• wrascalin' = rascal + wrestling (Jane). As in, "the puppies are wrascalin' again!"

Tell it Like It Is

When Lindsay picked the girls up from school yesterday, she made her usual inquiries about how each girl's day had gone.  Claire observed that she'd had quite a bad morning - which was completely true.  She was in rare form for both obstinacy and backtalk, and I was not exactly diplomatic in my response.  She then followed up by cheerfully (and competitively) noting that Margot had had "an even worse morning."  Margot promptly explained that this was not true at all - and that "Claire had used up all of Mom's patience - so there wasn't any left when she got to me."

Our Community Activist

Claire, Ollie & Hugo at the Walk for Animals

Those of you who know Claire know that her passion for reusing and recycling is second only to her enthusiasm for all things animal-related - and, in particular, all things related to Ollie and Hugo.  I was, therefore, not really surprised when she recently told me that she wished people could marry dogs, because Ollie "would just make such a great husband, wouldn't he, Mom?!"

She's also put her money where her mouth is, and this weekend embarked on her first-ever act of charitable fundraising by participating in the MSPCA's Walk for Animals.  She wrote up the text for her own fundraising web page and began soliciting donations (including by using me as her email and FB-posting agent!)  She set - and exceeded - a goal of $200.  She learned yesterday that she can still raise money through the end of the month, so she raised her goal to $300; she met that, and has just informed me that it is now $400.  (I'm also her webmaster, so she had to instruct me to make the change on her little thermometer-measure that shows how close she is to her goal).  The Walk was fantastic - a beautiful fall day, with 2000 people and 1000 dogs circling the Boston Common - happy chaos!  The highlight for me, though, was seeing her beaming as she crossed the "finish line" and said, "Mommy, can you believe how much money I raised to help animals?!"

Lesson (Not) Learned - Part II

Fashionista in a cabbage-leaf hat

Several of you have asked if Claire ever executed a follow up prank.  She did.  I learned of it when I went to get myself a glass of orange juice - and did a double-take because the juice looked sort of weird and greenish.  I then noticed that the milk also looked wrong (it was a bright, sort of kelly green), and that the water pitcher was full of something looked like water - except for the fact that it was dark red . . . You get the drift.

My mother (unwisely, in my view) chose to support this new obsession  while we were on vacation in Michigan.  I know this because I overheard her say things like, "Jane, what color do you want in your milk?" and "Margot, does that lemonade look orange enough?"  Thanks, Mom!


p.s.  Thanks for the many notes (complaints?) about the appalling shortage of blog posts in July and August - and, yes, Legia, this includes you, even though you sent yours via a third party.  :)  I've truly been in summer mode, but will try to get back on my game.

Non-Mystery Notes

Margot's note-writing has progressed by leaps and bounds.  She's moved from the mystery notes (which tended to be both anonymous and nearly incomprehensible) to the slightly more targeted spy notes, to a new, clearly-articulated sort of warning/menacing note.

Key improvements include an identifiable target audience (i.e., anyone standing outside Margot's door), the correct spelling of 50% of the words, and the incorrect (yet completely readable) misspelling of the rest of the words.