Ninety-Nine Months of Second Grader Frances

Ninety-Nine Month Fun Fact

• Obsession:  Harry Potter, Harry Potter and Harry Potter.  Frances was formally introduced to Harry Potter by her cousins last summer.  She's fairly obsessed by now.  We've read the first three books together in an illustrated version and listened to them multiple times on CD.  We've also watched the first three movies together.  Frances is working on the fourth book by herself.  We've also got a cookbook, a diary, an encyclopedia of beasts, a spellbook and I don't know what else.  In the picture above, she's dressed as Hermione (and doing the movements to the  song "Do your ears hang low?" - unrelated.)  Oh, and she's got a wand.  So very handy that I also enjoy Harry Potter.  Otherwise I may have lost my mind by now.

Festivities

I took cake into Chandler's classroom on her birthday.  What a hoot.  I'd let Chandler pick a cake from a certain website I find reliable.   She picked a confetti cake with white icing (read: sugar with dye).  It was delicious.  The kids couldn't wait to get at it, but they all sat on their hands and didn't touch it until their teacher gave them the go-ahead.  Ms. Sach has these kids under control.  I love Ms. Sach.

Above, we have Chandler at twelve o'clock and then, going clockwise, Monroe, Caroline and Leela.

I stayed after snack and played Musical Letters, like Musical Chairs, with the kids.  They are an affectionate bunch.  My lap was worn out by the end of the day.

I think Chandler was completely pleased.  Mission accomplished.

Sixty Months of K1er Chandler

Man, oh, man was she looking forward to her birthday this year!  I think she asked me about it every ten minutes.  The day finally did arrive and I finally did her Fifth Year Interview.

• What is your name? "Chandler."
• How old are you?  "Five."
• Who do you live with?  "Live with?  My mom and my sister. [Prompt]  And my dad."
• What is your favorite color?  "Red." [Last year, she said "purple."  I think she was trying to please me, but having her choose her own color is so much better.]
• Who do you like to spend time with?  "At school or at home?  I like to stay with Leela." 
• What do you like to do with your family?  "Go to the ice cream store."
• Where do you like to go?  "To SkyZone!" [More on SkyZone presently.]
• What makes you sad?  "When people punch me." [A good parent would have asked her more about this; I will get around to it.]
• What is your favorite toy?  "Hmmm, a wobble head.  It's a person who has a huge head and you get to wobble it.  Is that all my words?!" [She was watching me type her answers as she gave them, in case that wasn't clear.]
• What is you favorite lunch?  "Clif Bar?" [Lunch, shmunch - she would eat those all days if I let her.  Too bad they're so expensive.]
• What are your favorite clothes?  "Dresses."
• What is your favorite game?  "Hmmm, my favorite game is, there is this game, I did it at school and it's, if you made a row by covering these shapes that Ms. Sach holds up you get a prize from the prize bag and I never got a prize from the prize bag because I never got three in a row.  You move fast, like Mim."  [She has watched Mim type.  Why does she pick the game she never wins as her favorite?]
• What is your favorite snack?  "Hmmm, my favorite snack is donuts." 
• What is your favorite animal?  "Hmmmm, a horse."
• What is your favorite song?  "Um, it's um, Jingle Bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way."
• What is your favorite book?  "Umm, my favorite book is...the fairy one. [Prompt.]  It's about Tinker Bell and her friends."
• Who is your best friend?   "Leela."
• What is your favorite sport?  "Umm, soccer." [She's going to play soccer with Leela this Spring.  I blame Nadine, Leela's mom.]
• What is your favorite thing to do outside?  "Play."
• What is your favorite drink?  "Juice."
• What is your favorite holiday?  "Um, Christmas and my birthday."
• What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  "Umm, my stuffties."
• What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  "Umm, what?  Breakfast?  You know, cake! [Prompt.]  Umm, it is, um, strawberry cake.  I mean, vanilla cake!" [The only cake she gets for breakfast is a pancake.]
• What is your favorite dinner?  "Chocolate." [The Mother of The Year Award Committee regularly contacts me to praise my efforts, clearly.]
• What do you want to be when you grow up?  "A mom."
• What is your daddy's name?  "Mark."
• What is your mommy's name?   " Morgan."
• What is sister's name?  "Frances."
• Where do you live?  "I live in a green house." [Last year, it was a "house."  Not overly loquacious, this kid.  Adore her.]

The Apron and The Duck

Here's the apron in action, surveying the lapsang su chong-brined duck we had for dinner.

Her face may appear incredulous, but don't be fooled.  Frances loved the end product. (Loved it so much she ate half my duck pho I ordered at a restaurant later - phooey.)  And it produced so much fat.  I had heard that duck fat was wonderful to cook with, but I hadn't understood that ducks are very fatty birds.  One duck makes a lot of useful lard.  And Frances liked it so much, I can imagine her requesting it for a birthday dinner.  Lucky, lucky Frances and lucky, lucky me!  I used the fat to make ginger molasses cookies. 

They were not bad, if I do say so.

The Apron

This lovely child made an apron.

She is wonderfully decisive about fabrics.  No hemming and hawing at all.  I'm envious of her eye.

And she even let her little give it a try.

Chandler immediately announced she needed her own apron and we bought fabric.  Is it done?  Course not!  Maybe every Tuesday in summer will be Sewing Day until all the lingering projects are done?  Can't imagine what could go wrong there.

Not Convincing

And then everyone got sick.

It started with the moms this time, and then moved from the younger grades to the older grades.  The school eventually sent home a letter defining sick, so none of us parents could play dumb.  I got off easy, but this kid was home for four days with just enough fever to disqualify her for school.  And she kept falling asleep every afternoon.  Besides that slight fever and the unusual naps, she was not a very convincing invalid.

After she shaped up, Frances was home for two days.

Then it was Mark's turn.  Two days home, a weekend home and then a third day home.

It was a bowl of cherries, but other families had high fevers and stomach ailments, otherwise known as the flu, so I count us as the lucky ones.

Ninety-Eight Months of Second Grader Frances

Ninety-Eight Months Fun Fact

• Warming Up:  Frances can be slow to warm up to ideas.  I told her she'd be taking a sewing class with her best friend.  Howling and stamping ensued.  Thirty seconds into the class - I'm not kidding, thirty seconds - she had no use for me.  She's now taken four class series.  She wasn't so sure about the snow tunnels.  What if they collapsed?  She fretted and watched her sister for about four minutes and then was off.  Never looked back.  Someday I hope she learns to skip the howling and stamping and fretting.  Not overly hopeful, given her parents' dispositions, but every generation is a new opportunity, right?