Book pile

Dash squirrels books in his bed in a hilarious way.  There is always a giant pile at the end of his bed, and several books tucked under his pillow which you would be well advised to NOT touch.  The kid loves to read in bed.  Who can blame him?  I love it, too.

Happy reader (photo from Mimi)

Magic School Bus Infatuation

Dash and Ella are both loving watching all of the episodes of the Magic School Bus series.  Since it is about science (and since I am exhausted all the time), I am totally in favor of this obsession.

Dash has also taken to playing Magic School Bus whenever he can.  This morning, I asked him to go for a walk with me after breakfast and he would only do it if he could bring his bag like the character D.A.  I haven't actually watched to see if D.A. has a princess purse, but in Dash's version, she sure does.

Dash also suggested that we name our new baby Phoebe Arnold Carlos Cohen (with Phoebe, Arnold, and Carlos all being students on the Magic School Bus).

And Dash and his pal M can "play" magic school bus for a surprisingly long period of time considering that the only actual play is deciding who is who. "You be Arnold and I will be Keisha!"  "OK, now I am Carlos!" Tragically for Dash, on our last playdate to M's house, M came to the door when we arrived and immediately said he didn't want to play Magic School Bus.

The X

Today I was in the car with Dash on the way to pick up Ella from swim lessons, and as we drove, Dash kept asking "Is that the X?  Where is the X?"  I was so confused, looking wildly around for giant Xs because I have learned (the hard way) that when I have no idea what the kids are talking about, they are very clear and I better figure it out.   Finally, I realized that I had told him we were going to the Y to pick up Ella.  X, Y, sure, those letters are pretty close in the alphabet.  I get it.  And I like it.  Going to the X sounds a lot more exciting.

Sweet (with parentheses)

Ella left me this note and these treasures she found outside today.  When did she learn how to use parantheses? 

Industrious

Today I was madly preparing the house for the movers and packers to start their work, and Ella was wandering around, not really sure what to do with herself.  Fortunately, I had the foresight not to pack up her art room yet so I sent her in there and proceeded to have an hour of total quiet to go about my work. When I finally went to see what she had done, I was tickled to find her finishing up a piece of art about the seasons.

Full name

Love that Ella writes her full name on her schoolwork every day.

Trip with my girl

Weekend trip underway with Ella.  We are on our way to Philadelphia to visit dear friends and enjoy some mom-and-girl time together before the new baby arrives.  Unfortunately, due to thunderstorms, we have been waiting at our home airport for far too long in hopes that our plane will arrive and whisk us off to our destination.  This girl is a trooper, though.  She is all too happy to sprawl out and read, do phonics workbooks, and eat Cheez-its.  My toe-tapping anxious self is ready to get moving.  I can learn something from her enjoyment of the journey.