Friday, May 19, 2006

Leave it to a kid to surprise you with something they say!

To quote JanJanMom, kids really do say the darndest things!

Today, Gracie & I were coming home from the library. We'd had a nice time. I'd picked out some books & videos; she'd picked out some books, she played on the computer while I looked at magazines; we'd left the 2 year old who doesn't know that she's supposed to be quiet at the library at home with Daddy. It was nice.

On the way home, all of a sudden she said something that went a little like this:

Gracie: "Mommy, sometimes I really want to say 'idiot'.........but I don't."

Me: (shocked and not sure how to respond) "Um, okay...... (trying to sound casual so she'll be honest and not think she's being interrogated) Who says that word?"

Of course, I'm thinking she's going to say that one of her classmates at school has said it or even that she's heard me or daddy say it *blush*

Gracie: (after quite a long pause which gave me much time to stew over who I was going to be mad at for exposing my child to such a word) "On 101 Dalmatians. The mean lady says it."

Me: (a little shocked once again) "Cruella DeVille?"

Gracie: "Yeah, her."

I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that it was actually ME who had exposed my child to the word! Not really a sigh of relief, but I think you know what I mean. I questioned her as to whether or not anyone else said it and assured her that I wouldn't be mad if she told me. She said no, it was just Cruella. Thing is, I don't even know when the last time was that she watched that movie.

She said again that sometimes she just really wants to say it. Since I felt that I was in the midst of a teaching moment, we talked about how it was good that she realized she shouldn't say it and told me about it then we prayed about it asking God to help her not to say it. The conversation continued a little bit more. I told her I'd tell Daddy so he could help her also but that she wasn't in trouble. When we got home, she told him herself.

What a girl! Proud doesn't even begin to explain how we feel about her. I'm so happy that when something concerns her, she comes to us. I only pray that she'll continue to do that throughout her life.
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She had Field Day today. Her class won the Kindergarten Tug-o-War! Yippee! Of course, when we were yelling "Pull Gracie Pull!", she looked at me and said, "I can't!" They had lots of other activities available for them to play....basketball, bowling, bouncy houses, sack races, an obstacle course, etc. Katie even got into the fun some. Look how long the field day t-shirt was on her! The first shorts she put on~which really weren't that short~couldn't even be seen with the shirt on!

Poor thing, she inherited her athletic abilities from me, I'm afraid. She had fun, though and that's the important thing. I was able to get a picture of her with Mrs. Hooks & Miss Stack. They've been a wonderful part of Gracie's Kindergarten experience this year and they will be rememberd with fondness. I finally got a picture of Gracie with her "special friend" Hunter! Doesn't he look thrilled to be posing for this picture?!?! He really thinks alot of Gracie~as she does him~but he's not so much into being photographed with her!
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We had so much fun tonight. Gracie finished reading her first "Magic Tree House" book today. She read the last chapter of 'Lions at Lunchtime' at school today because she took the book for Show & Tell. When we were at the library, we checked out the first one, 'Dinosaurs Before Dark'. When she was looking through the book, she noticed that there was a website so we had to check it out. It has lots of interesting information and links about the series and the different subjects covered in the books.

I enjoyed reading the 'Lions' book with her because it really does give interesting facts about Africa and the different animals and how they work together. She would read some of it and Chris or I would read some of it. She could read most of quite independently but there were times she needed some help. I know I'll want to read at least some of the other books with her too since I want to make sure of what she's reading. Any time you start reading about dinosaurs, you get into the stuff about how many millions of years ago the dinosaurs lived, but those "facts" don't line up with what the Bible says so I'll want to talk to her about that.

When we were on the Magic Tree House site, we kept linking to other sites and found some really fun & educational things to do. We looked at pictures from a school in Ghana, listened to some thumb piano tunes, looked at gorilla pictures, played a photo guessing game, helped write a wild & wacky story~VERY fun!, played Cyber Tiger, and more! There were tons of neat things to do!

3 comments:

Alissa said...

Good for Gracie! Aidan has a similar thing that he will tell us. If we tell him not to do something or to wait for something, he will sometimes tell us that he would like to be somewhere else, or like something else to think of so that he won't do what we told him not to. (One time this was about some candy we told him not to eat, and he brought it to me so he wouldn't think about it!) We talked a lot about temptation and how good that was. It is wonderful to see them learning how to fight their urges and make good choices!

I was at the library a day to two ago and I found those books that I was telling you about. They are called Dear America. There are several at our library. I didn't actually pick one up to see how the reading in them was...they may be a bit too much for her yet, but I thought if nothing else they would make wonderful read-aloud books for you. They look very good...of course judging by the covers....and we all know what they say about that! Anyway...you may want to check one out and see if they are any good.

Kimberly said...

Gracie has such a sweet heart! I am taking notes from you on how to raise my little girl. I love her new haircut, BTW!

Jenna said...

She sounds like the sweetest girl who is already trying to live her life like God wants her to live her life. Looks like she had fun at field day!