i nearly drove off the road one time when DD calmly explained that her earliest memory was of being born. she said she remembered coming out into a bright room full of black stripes and then hearing my voice. it was a very bright winter day - which she could easily infer from having a Feb. birthday, but i don't think there's any way she could guess there were black venetian blinds all along the opposite wall... it's not the kind of thing one usually mentions about a hospital room?

this was years ago and she doesn't remember saying it now, but i don't think i'll ever forget that eerie feeling of wondering if it could be true!

and today's little quirk: a fully-articulated snake spine made of clamped together hair clips and secured with a "skin" made of masking tape. it literally undulates - and when DD5 demonstrated its movement, i had absolutely no idea how she had engineered it. it's so cool!

DD8 was playing gymnastics at the house with some friends. DD tried to demonstrate the significant quality difference in her cartwheels and round-offs when doing as a left (very good) and rightie (yikes). The demonstration as a lefty went as expected, and then the rightie demo went... surprisingly well... causing her to exclaim:

"Yay! That wasn't entirely horrible!"

We had a long drive home yesterday and DD4 was non-stop yapping and cracking us all up. Here is a snippet.
"So I work in this office in Paris. I do office work there, like working on computer and stuff. And they pay me well. I get $20 an hour. But I only work 1 hour a day. So I make $20 a day. We make a lot of t-shirts in my office. You are not going to believe how cheap we sell them for. Only $5 for a t-shirt. We have so many t-shirts we cannot sell them fast enough. Our sinks and bathtubs are overflowing with t-shirts. I buy 4 t-shirts every day (mom's observation: good division). But yesterday, I only bought 3. Because I had to give $5 to the government. There was flooding near my office. The sidewalks were flooded and real slippery. So the government wanted to buy some brooms to sweep the water and they said $5 is enough. So I paid it. You guys can come anytime and open the front door and grab as many t-shirts as you want. Don't have to pay. See the problem is we have so many t-shirts, there is no room for the payer (the guy you pay to). He got bonked by the t-shirts and left. So everything is now free." And on and on and on for 6 hours. What fun!

A minor milestone for my 10yo is his starting middle school this year. We started him in private KG at age 4. I asked him how he felt about being one year advanced, and he said, "It's good. I'll have an extra year in my career or be able to retire a year early."

I agree with this logic and have written similar things on this forum in favor of acceleration, but it seems like a pretty mature answer from a 10yo.

Not bad in terms of a life plan!

I always find it kind of odd when my DD talks about "retirement."

I don't think that most kids think about it in those terms, no-- but it's still funny to me that she has more plans for her retirement than she does for-- well, for her career. She still doesn't know what she wants to do, exactly.

Day 2 of school year.

DD is forced to take a "life skills" class as part and parcel of meeting graduation requirements...

the first unit, naturally enough is about "self-esteem." DD, no slouch on current motivational research, is rolling her eyes and interjecting statements of disbelief and disgust...

As she filled out her quiz, she turned to me, made kissy noises, and said...

The older I get, the more I hate myself for sucking up like this. How is THAT good for my self-esteem??



There needs to be another choice on this question and that one, too-- "I disagree with the entire premise of this question, on the basis that it is not based in current understanding of self-image vis a vis modern research."

She got 100%. By lying the way they wanted her to.

Depressingly, that itself is a real life skill! In today's world, at least, it seems that way.

DS5 was talking about the teachers that do playground duty at lunch. One he described as the strictest teacher in school, then said " but she's ok because I just talk about her shoes (he has an eye for detail anyway) and she thinks I am a shoe fan like she is".... Oh dear...he is only 5...

Haha! Those are some awesome social skills on a 5 yr old boy Bobbie. My friends little boy was exceptional at paying compliments at that age.

HK at least there's comfort in knowing that she's both aware of the issues with the homework AND how to get the grade...

A very useful life skill. But if you have to outright lie you might as well do it well I guess.