Dismal I tell you!

Most of the kids' books are pretty good. Love the Boynton books. Skadi loves them too. She is particularly fond of the Dora books, Goodnight Moon (which has to be read every night before bed) and also Yertle the Turtle. She LOVES Yertle.

Leif is now into having chapter books read to him. I started off with Little House on the Prairie - which he loved. And then we moved and apparently I packed the rest of the set. Must find them. We got a few Cynthia Rylant books, a Patrick Carman book about a park in Walla Walla and then AB started reading Harry Potter. I wasn't terribly thrilled about this, but let him go with it. At first Leif kind of balked. Hearing about Harry and his cousin and the room under the staircase, wasn't terribly interesting.

So AB skipped that section and jumped straight to Hagrid and his world has since been changed. They are nearly finished with book one.

So these are the good books.

There are other really, really bad books out there.

Let's start with "A Party in the Jungle". This one is so bad that whoever wrote it left their name off. It has no author. It's just a "glitter book" and available for a penny from many sellers on Amazon. Not only does the story drive me insane - an elephant named Toby is shy, but he is invited to a party and asked to dance and miraculously overcomes his shyness. This is not how shyness is overcome, I can tell you firsthand.

Add to that neither of my kids are showing signs of shyness. I think the book should hit the trash. Don't waste your penny.

The main reason for this is one sentence in this book. I can get past the simple concept of the book. But the sentence "Everyone came including a mouse to eat, sing and dance." What exactly is the mouse's purpose? To be eaten? So so very bad.

And Skadi loves this book. Of course.

It's the glitter.

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Moving on...

Tonight Leif picked out a book handed down to him from our prior neighbor boy. The Little Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Anderson. I was thrilled he picked this out. It was aimed at his age group with lots of pop up action and this is a classic author! My son was reading a classic with me!

Ok, has anyone read this story? Classics should probably just go away. I tried reading Robinson Crusoe to Leif a few months ago after remembering how much *I* loved that book. I was appalled. I put it away. Far away.

Back to the Little Tin Soldier. Great concept. A tin soldier made for a boy, gets lost, eaten by a fish, mom buys a fish at the market and cuts it open to find the lost tin soldier.

If it ended there I would have been fine. I would have remained a touch grossed out by the fact that they bought fish with guts inside, but fine.

But no, the story doesn't end there. It ends with the soldier being thrust into the fire because it was defective and the little balerina that fell in love with him jumping in after him and all that remains in the fire the next day is his head and her heart.

GULP!!

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Enter Captain Underpants. Another book passed on by the boy down the street.

Need I say more?

Actually even Leif isn't terribly interested anymore. He thought the concept was hilarious to start, but Underpants is currently lying under a huge stack of books awaiting the repair of the cheap book shelf in Leif's room.

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There is one last book of Skadi's that slays me. It is another one of those grammar violation books. Stay tuned...

(Because I am tired now and need to go to bed.)

"Skadi's Song"

11 years from now…

I am pretty sure I will be putting my head in my hands and wondering where I went wrong. And if I look back, I may come across this post and it will be immediately apparent.

The other morning I had a cd on in the car when “Son of a Preacher Man” came on. I turned it up and lost myself in the song and driving for a little while. Then the song ended.

Clapping came from the backseat! “YAYYY!” squealed Skadi. “Do again!”

“The song?” I ask her.

“Do song again!” she says still clapping.

So we listened to it again and when it finished she repeated her Yays, clapping and repeats for it again.

So we listened a third time.

So far she has been relatively indifferent to the music in the car… but that has changed. The past few days when we get in the car she immediately asks for "my song". Leif has taken ownership of the subsequent song ... Soul Coughing's "Circles". He particularly likes the "doom da doom da doom, I'm goin', I'm goin..." This phrase is second only to "chicka mao mao chicka mao mao" thanks to watching Alvin and the Chipmunks at school.

The cherry on top

In between the annoying things, there are moments that top it all off.

We were getting in the car yesterday and Leif said to me, "mommy your hair is beautiful like that".

Awww.

The other exchange came today:

Leif: "Mommy what is that?"

NM: "It's my sewing machine."

Leif: "What's it do?"

NM: "I can make things. Like your favorite blanket. I made that with my sewing machine."

Leif: "Why are you putting it away mommy?"

NM: "I don't have time to sew lately anymore, so I am putting it up out of the way."

Leif: "But I love my blanket."

NM: "I know and I am so glad honey, but I am only putting the machine up."

Leif: "But I want another favorite blanket mommy, will you make me another blanket?"

NM: (I am SUCH a puchover.) "Of course sweety, we can go to the fabric store and you can pick out the fabric you want for a new blanket if you would like."

Leif: "Yay! Don't put away your machine mommy, I love my blankets."

Aww!

Skadi has a few new words. She signs a fair amount. (Must look on the board at school tomorrow and figure out the sign for "all done".) But she has three favorite words she uses all the time.

First one... "DADDY!" or "DADA!" Preferably screamed at the top of her little lungs. Last night she was in the backyard trying to hit the baseball off the tee and needed his help. He was inside and so she sat out there screaming, "DADDY! DADDY!"

She IS a daddy's girl.

Second one is "outside". Or as she says it "soutside". Skadi, like the rest of the family, loves to spend time soutside. She is getting the reputation at daycare as being an outside girl. She sees the bigger kids out and immediately will go to the window and start yelling "soutside!" Going outside will change her mood immediately from grumpy, to ecstatic. And she is so the second child, we don't follow her around the yard like we did Leif at this age. She goes out on her own, wanders around and usually brings in presents for me.

I hold out my hand when she requests and 90% of the time she deposits a bug in my hand.

Ick.

Third favorite word is "shoes". She pronounces it more like "shoos". She will fetch her shoes and sit herself down to put them on. She has her favorite shoes too. Out of all 14 or so pairs she has she will only wear one pair. Her blue Keens. The Primigi white sandals will suffice in a pinch, but forget her blue Crocs, or the birdy Robeez Treadz, or any of the other four pairs of soft soled Robeez.

So while she has her mommy's love for shoes, she doesn't covet the variety. She seems to be more like her daddy in the whole "give me one good, very comfortable pair of shoes that goes with everything and I am fine" philosophy.

Leif, otoh, likes choices and after finding no acceptable shoes at Famous Footwear. (I know, who am I kidding... it was convenient, I thought there might be something... I was wrong.) Leif came home and picked four pairs out online and they were narrowed down by daddy when mommy messed up and left the prices visible.

Skadi's favorite video

I usually post about Leif's favorite videos, but Skadi has a favorite too. A week or two ago I videotaped her dancing to this. She yelled at Daddy to watch her, then she waltzed the middle of the floor grinning, did a twirl and took a few steps and twirled again.

I had every intention of posting it here... then I saw Leif sitting in the background. Naked.

And if I was good at video editing. Or maybe if I just had any knowledge whatsoever of how to edit a digital video, it wouldn't have been a big deal. But it was.

So for now... enjoy her favorite video with me:

Raising a bag lady

Since the day after my daughter was born we have known that she is a girl that wants what she wants. She is particular on her requests and vocal about it.

Skadi has established her favorites list:

Favorite teacher at daycare. (It only took five weeks to convince her someone else could care for her.)

Favorite book - 10 Little Ladybugs (And she was none too happy to find it in Leif's room this morning. She picked it up and marched it out - despite the fact that she uses his room as much as him.)

Favorite food - Mommy milk (I am starting to wonder if she will never wean.) After daycare today she had a Gerber "Cheetoh" in her mouth, when she eyed my chest, she reached up and scooped the "Cheetoh" out of her mouth (depositing it on the floor) and came over and lifted my shirt up. She is a different beast than my Leifer.

Favorite thing to do - go outside (opening the back door and closing it before she can toddle outside will cause a meltdown). She is an outside girl. Too bad for her she has this pale porcelain skin that is going to burn to a crisp. She will be forever coated in SPF 30.

Favorite activity once outside - the slide or eat sand.

Favorite thing to put in her mouth - rocks. (Oh so good on the teeth.)

Favorite song - Pat Your Tummy

Favorite activity inside - Stand in her wading pool (the dog's water bowl). This does mean however she gets to put on a new pair of shoes. See there is a reason why she has 14 pairs.

Second favorite activity inside - Have a tea party.

Favorite person to put her to bed - Daddy (make that only person allowed to put her to bed right now).

Favorite person to see at 2:30am - Mommy (make that the only acceptable person to see at 2:30am).

Favorite word - Mine (any surprise?)

Favorite sport - swimming, specifically gathering the balls up and putting them in the basket (parent-tot lesson game).

Favorite clothes - Dresses (ok, that might be mommy's insertion)

I thought Skadi needed a baby doll. I slaved over the decision until I finally actually went to Target to the doll aisle - who would have known? Going into a store as opposed to cruising aisles online? I have become a lazy shopper. If it isn't at Costco or Albertsons then I find it online.

I found too many actually. There were a ton of acceptable dolls. Kind of made me feel silly for writing that other post on my other blog. I labored over the decision avoiding the end of the aisle with the freaky motion sensing dolls that all giggled and coo'd when I got in front of them. Any wonder why there were still 10 out of 10 dolls there? No way in hell is one coming home with me. (And the other woman in the aisle agreed with me.) Sales tactic gone bad... don't actually make it respond in the store, wait until the doll gets home before revealing the obnoxious level.

I finally decided on a little baby doll in a cloth carry basinette with two bottles. I remember Leif's friend, C, had this one because his baby doll didn't have a cloth basinette with his dolly and this was a huge point of contention between the two friends.

I took the doll home and gave it to Skadi.

She looked at it, played a little (about 20 seconds), then threw the doll down and picked up the cloth basinette - tossed it over her shoulder and walked off.

She has not shown one iota of interest in the dolly. Only the cloth basinette. (As has the cat - he has adopted it as his bed.)

Oh and the pile of purses that were on my closet floor during the closet organization this past weekend? She couldn't get enough of them. She situated them (many at a time) on her shoulder as she headed out of the closet.

I have a girl who likes bags.

Baby dolls are still up in the air, but it isn't looking good for them.