It's in my Mind!

This morning, rather early, Jess came in my room and wanted to get in bed with me. Really she just go tin and asked me to move over so she could have the warm blankets and the warm spot. Whatever. As long as you don't wake me all of the way up. I told her it was still the middle of the night and she could stay as long as she would just go back to sleep..no talking. She said she'd just watch a movie in her head. As long as it works, go for it. About 5 minutes later she startled and told be that she had "a terrible dream". It was about bad cowboys,who are usually good, but these were bad and they had roped us around the necks and were trying to pull our heads off. We talked about it until she felt better. Jess assured me it was just a dream and not real because she didn't want me to be scared either. She told me she was going to watch a different movie now and rolled over. She needs to schlep a remote with her in her dreams. Click!

Literacy Night

Jess sometimes loses her eyes when she smiles so she's trying to keep them open!

Tuesday night was Family Literacy Night. They had a variety of fun modes for the kiddies to experience letters and language. Steve was working swings so Jess and I went. It was an adventure. We had a grand time. The final events for us were a snow flake hat/ face painting station and then a follow the directions to decorate your cookie station; both messy! Jess painted her hat and I painted her face as directed (by Jess). Then came the cookie part. Her teacher was there..and so were m&m's. all directions were thrown out the window. She only wanted m&m's. Yep, her's was covered in "m's". After she ate those off, ands with a great big chocolaty smile, she announced she'd made the cookie for me. Yummmmm. All that hard work accidentally fell into the trash bin on the way out.

Once there was a snowman....

Jessica's teacher starts the kids off with the days of the week and the calendar business each morning. One of the things she does with the calendar is teach them patterns. This month there are mittens and snowmen in an AAB pattern. Temperatures were subzero yesterday, and the snowman was next in the pattern. "Teacher" asked if the snowman would melt outside today. Jessica piped up and said, "NO! It's plastic!" Not only is she a genius, she's a funny bunny too!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Yesterday I was in Jessica's classroom. They were doing centers that infused ideas about the Chinese New Year celebration. I got to help them make fun hats. "Teacher" was sharing some of the traditions at her center and taught them how to say "Happy New Year" in one of the Chinese dialects. It was fun. "Teacher" has some hookups in Chins that friend-ster her with fun things she shares with the kiddos. They learned too, about their horoscopes... ones that they have on the paper place mats at some restaurants. Jessica discovered she was a sheep, and her parents were rats! We had our own little celebration that night. We made hats like Jessica's, had "Chinese" food (complete with fortune cookies), and read our horoscopes from the paper Jessica brought home. (Jessica would like like me to add that I also made " Chinese brownies" for dessert). All evening long she called me rat so I called her sheep. She wanted me to give her a sheep-back ride. I did for a minute and then I told her that sheep were bigger than rats and she should be giving me a rat-back ride. She agreed. We were by the bed so I just tumbled her to the bed and squished her a little for fun. I heard a little voice peep," Sheep can't breathe." It was hilarious! Sheep is fine.

iN ThE WiLd....

A buddy came up to spend a few days. We took Jess to see Madagascar deuce. This started the If-you-give-a-moose-a-muffin sort of one thing leads to another chain. I let Jess use her G&G Palmer b-day $ to purchase the first one. She watched a few times. Maybe a few too many times. One the way home from church she announced -I want to live in the wild. We live 5 miles out of town. There are deer and eagles and skunks and coyotes and raccoons and all sorts of bugs and dogs and cats and potatoes and horses and cows and.... I told her we already live in the wild. She told me she needed a zebra. She really just needs a zebra. Doesn't everyone need one of those?

Dr. Jess, medicine woman

I made Jess an apron (with my mad sewing skills..hahahahaha!) and got her a couple of kiddie cook books for Christmas. Now she always wants to make things from it. "Lets make this picture!" Tonight she was desperate for pancakes. She was making them. Somehow in the process she went backward off her stool and landed on her caboose. She got up rubbing her backside. I fell on my bottom, Mom. It hurts. I'll probably get some bum disease now."
Nice diagnosis.

Humble Prayer...not!

I just helped Jess with her personal prayer. We talk about the day and the things she did and then look for all of the things to be thankful for. Sometimes it takes some prompting, and even a rhyme game. Tonight she was in rare form. She did not want to go to bed. She threw her head back and shook her fists heavenward and declared "Sleeping is soooo boring!" Yeh, she's sort of dramatic sometimes. I tried to have the daily review with her. We ended up going straight to prayers. I told her to share 3 things she was thankful for and mentioned a few of the things she did really well today. After all of that coaching, this was the resulting prayer: "Dear Heavenly Father, I'm thankful for toys, toys, and more toys." and then she closed it. Ornery and hilarious, and I hope asleep!