Dorothy took a picture of her "reindeer trap," a school assignment

Dorothy designed and (with a little help) made this Zoom ornament for her teacher

Jump rope at the lunch bus stop

The Sunday Funnies

Dorothy was hoping that a particular Lego design would be unveiled in her Lego calendar that day.  "You have a 1 in 16 chance," I told her.  "A 1 out of 16 chance," she corrected me.

I walked by Dorothy's room.  She looked up and said, "Mama, I'm actually cleaning-up!"

Dorothy was learning to jump rope.  She's much better now.  But on the first day, after rhyming "Cinderella dressed in yellow..." many times, she complained, "I always mess up at Cinde-!"

Dorothy is obsessed with Legos right now.  She likes to build the set according to the directions one time, but mostly she is interested in designing her own creations.  For this reason, she gets excited about useful unique pieces.  When she opened the 10th day of her Lego Advent calendar, I saw an adorable moveable elf station for decorating tiny cookies; Dorothy exclaimed, "Yay!  A hinge!"

Dorothy was excited when I picked her up from school because she had received coupons for free food at Wendy's.  We read the coupons, which included a frosty and French fries, and Dorothy asked, "Is the French fry coupon just for French fries, or for ketchup, too?"

Chelsea on Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures must have made a big stack of pancakes, because Dorothy wanted to make chocolate chip pancakes after watching the movie.  I served her pancakes, and she requested that I stack them up, and then that I add syrup, and then that I make the syrup dribble over the sides.  The next day, she requested again to make chocolate chip pancakes, and this time requested all the same presentation, plus a big pat of butter that she had apparently forgotten the day before.

I asked if Dorothy would like a quesadilla for dinner, and she said, "Yes, but only if Daddy makes it."  "You liked the one I made yesterday," I said.  "You gave it two thumbs up."  "Yes," Dorothy explained, "but that was with ketchup on it.  Daddy's is two thumbs up just by itself."

Dorothy's handprint on our new cement

Evening yoga

Pretzel views

Come see the amazing Pretzel Girl!

Stomp rockets this weekend

Watching the concrete pour

 

The Sunday Funnies

I told Dorothy, "I notice that you walked yourself into the school yesterday without a teacher.  Do you know your way to your classroom?"  Dorothy answered, "Not really.  The door keeps changing."  "The door keeps changing?" I repeated.  "Does your classroom change?"  "No," she said, "the door keeps changing into different holidays."

Dorothy asked what literate meant.  I told her, and she said, "Oh, I'm a literate."  "No, you're not -- you can read," I said.  "That's what I said," she responded.  "I'm a literate."

Cozy

Lego Advent calendar (aka Dorothy's reason to get up in the morning)

The Willa Funnies

Willa turned 6 yesterday, and she has been a part of our lives for over 2 years now.  I've been writing down the hilarious things she says and in her honor I present The Willa Funnies:

Willa asked me if she could get the ticky tacky.  I said, yes, and she went to the kitchen to get the taffy.

Our Disney+ trial had expired, and later Willa asked, "Why your Disney + exploded?"

Willa slipped on the playground equipment.  I checked on her and she told me, "My shoes weren't sticky enough."

Willa was listening to the podcast that Dorothy loves, Wow in the World.  The hosts are Guy and Mindy.  "Who do you like better, Guy or Mindy?" Brian asked Willa.  "Mindy, I think," Willa said.  "But I haven't seen her body."

With two kindergarteners playing together, you can imagine that I talk a lot about "fairness."  Last week Dorothy read the words on the t.v. screen out loud, and Willa offered, "It's sort of fair that Dorothy is reading, because I am getting my ears pierced."

Willa is very excited about getting her ears pierced.  She asked if dogs get their ears pierced, then followed-up with, "That was probably in the 90s."

"My eyes are burning," Willa said.  "Oh," I said, maybe because of allergies?"  "Maybe because I've not been blinking," she said.

Willa was playing pretend, and she told me she has a boyfriend.  "Does your boyfriend drive a fast car?" I asked.  "Yes, it has 27 wheels!" she answered.

Our extra bedroom is the guest room; so Willa referred to our extra table in the dining room as "the guest table."

Dorothy hosted Willa for a slumber party, and when we were all having fun, I said, "This is the best sleepover I've ever gone to."  "Don't you mean "The best sleepover I've ever stayed to?" Willa asked.

At the sleepover, Willa was having trouble sleeping, and I sat on the end of their bed.  "Can you stay here until I fall asleep?" Willa asked.  "I'll tell you when I'm asleep," she added.

I turned on The Star, an animated story of the birth of Jesus.  "The best Christmas movie ever!" I announced.  "It's not really a Christmas movie," Willa told me.

A dinosaur acting as stairs in a house (art class)

There were better pics, but this one captured the moment

The Sunday Funnies

Dorothy has been able to recognize the Notre Dame logo from an early age.  Just this week she sussed out that it's made of interlocking letters N and D.

At Easter I unearthed a bright white waffle weave dish towel, which is still in circulation.  Dorothy spilled cranberry juice and cleaned it up with the towel.  "Ahhh, you're cleaning red juice with my best towel," I said.  Dorothy looked at it.  "I'm sorry, Mama," she said, "I didn't know that it had a bunny on it."

I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for Dorothy, and I put cranberry sauce on mine in lieu of jelly.  "A peanut butter and cranberry sandwich!" Dorothy announced.  "Isn't that a good name?  Let's tell Daddy that I came up with a name for your sandwich."

Dorothy followed me outside in the morning while I was taking out the garbage.  She was in her pjs.  "It's a cold day with cold wind," she said.  "Not my kind of day."  "Well, you're not wearing any pants, socks, shoes, or a sweatshirt.  You'd probably feel better if you were wearing some of those," I said.  "And even better if I was wearing all of those," she added.

Dorothy informed me that a piece of plastic had gone down the drain during her shower, and I was questioning her about it, and I said it would be okay except that only water is supposed to go down drains.  "And dirt," she sassed. "Isn't that the whole point of showers?"

A commercial advertised the t.v. show This is Us, which is apparently on its fifth season.  "Wait," Dorothy looked at me questioningly.  "There are only four seasons."

Dorothy has been unhappy with her podcasts lately because they've been discussing topics she doesn't like, such as germs and monsters.  Last night's Wow in the World episode was about predators.  "Predators!" Dorothy complained.  "Well, I guess they're talking about predators because it's almost Thanksgiving, and people eat turkeys on Thanksgiving."

Brian was playing a Christmas song on the piano.  Dorothy observed, "There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays is like the completely wrong song for coronavirus, right?  'Cause we want to go somewhere, but we have to stay home."

Our little turkey

Happy Thanksgiving flashback

 

The Thankful List 2020

Again this year, Dorothy, Brian, & I each named something we are thankful for every evening in November.  Here, in chronological order, are Dorothy's items:

• My parents reading to me.
• All of my friends.
• All of those doctors & nurses who are helping people get better.
• For Ms. All that's working so hard for all the kids -- Cohort A, Cohort B, and Cohort C.
• Baby Sallie, and helmets for wearing when it's time to bike ride.
• Cars, my friends, Grandma & Grandpa, Gram & Big Daddy, helmets, masks, our Thankful Tree.
• That the president that Mommy & Daddy hoped for winned.
• Daddy playing the piano.
• Willa & Willa's mom letting me do my first sleepover [when coronavirus is over].
• My snail.
• Momma not making me have my entire dinner before I have my ice cream.
• Nothing right now.
• Starfall [a computer game].
• Mama thinking of doing socks on my non-footie jammies.
• For reading in your pajamas day at school.
• Camping.
• For mama for covering the statue of the creepy deer with moss.  [While camping, I disguised a hunting deer dummy.]
• Snail Willa.
• Barbie's videos where she discusses things, kind of.
• Maybe my new LOL, maybe not.
• The little kid zipline at the Fall Festival [2019].
• Ants -- I'm not actually like literally thankful, but I am sorry for them 'cause people keep stomping on them.
• The Tooth Fairy.
• Our make-up set.
• I'm out of thankfuls so I'm just gonna have to start saying things I'm not exactly thankful for.
• Mama letting me use her permanent markers.
• I don't have anything else I'm thankful for...except for this hot chocolate.
• Christmas.

Take a picture of this turkey before I eat it. Every side.

Girl on a climber

Dorothy is playing "coronavirus test" with her baby

The Sunday Funnies

During virtual school, Dorothy was disappointed when some other kids answered questions right.  "Dorothy, do you actually want the other kids to say the wrong answer?" I asked.  "Yes," she said, "because when they get it wrong, Ms. All calls on me."

We were listening to our favorite singer.  "Taylor Swift really likes to talk about liking someone and then getting mad at them," Dorothy rightly noted.

We were taking a walk and I saw that a neighbor had pulled her trash bin out next to the Trump sign in her yard.  "Look," I said, "Trump's out with the trash!"  Dorothy observed, "But the sign is still plugged into the yard."

"This nail polish remover is really crappy," I said.  "Let me put a new one on the grocery list."  I wrote "nail polish remover" on the list.  "Now write 'that's not crappy,'" Dorothy added.

Dorothy is responsible enough now that I let her use my art supplies

School art project to collage a memory (her birthday party)

Camping facepaint flashback

Fairy rings

Fresh from bed

QWERTY party trick

 Video:  https://youtu.be/hP1r3hdPnCE

The Sunday Funnies

Dorothy held-out a handful of Halloween candy.  "Can I have two pieces, or three?" she asked.  "One is not an option."

Dorothy and Willa covered their bodies in dirt.  As I was spraying them with the water hose, they were having fun discovering their clean skin.  "My legs look whiter than usual," Willa said.  "Maybe you're usually dirty," Dorothy posed.

Dorothy was examining the zipper on her sweater.  "These look like molars," she told me.  "Do you know that they're actually called teeth?" I asked.  "What?!?!" Dorothy exclaimed.

Dorothy's favorite podcast was going to offer a special episode on YouTube.  I asked Dorothy what time.  "7 p.m. Eastern, 4 p.m. Pacific," she told me.

We went camping this weekend

Waiting in the car line for drop-off at school

Sending Grandma hugs on her 70th birthday

Dorothy's invention for art class: a bike with an umbrella so you can ride in the rain

Dorothy's first pet

She named her snail "Willa."

The Sunday Funnies

Kamala Harris was offering her first speech as Vice President-Elect and shattering a glass ceiling.  Dorothy walked through the room, and I stopped her and said, "Look.  That's the new Vice President that we elected."  I was having an emotional moment, and Dorothy took it all in, and came up with, "She's pretty."

Dorothy's bed was overflowing with stuffed animals and I started to take some out as I tucked her in.  "No!" she said.  "They voted and they want to stay in the bed."

I hope my Groundhog Day is November 7

Dorothy for President

50th Day of School Celebration

School project (timely for the last 24 hours)

Election Night 2020

Here's a hopeful distraction, The West Wing theme by Brian:

https://youtu.be/BrkS-vHcuo8

Doin' the new hair dance

The Sunday Funny

 On Halloween night a lady was dressed for Dia de los Muertos.  Dorothy generally doesn't like skeletons, so I pointed her out and said, "Look, she's dressed for the Day of the Dead."  "That's tomorrow," Dorothy replied with concern.

Sweater weather

Dorothy bought some Lego tape and made a carrot growing through the table

Soccer celebrates Halloween

Dorothy's art class assignment was an observational drawing

She drew a weed and a bonus rose.

Hermione at virtual school

The Sunday Funnies

Dorothy posed in front of a scary Halloween yard decoration; Brian took her picture and then said, "Now turn around and look scared."  "I don't have to look scared," Dorothy answered.  "I am scared."

Dorothy picked-up a pack of my cinnamon gum and asked if she could have a piece; I said yes.  "Isn't there gonna be an 'if' in there?" she sassed.  "Like, if you put on your shoes?"

The instructions on Dorothy's worksheet read:  Draw an X on the triangles.  "I didn't know that Xx is a vowel," she said.  "What do you mean?" I asked.  "It says an Xx," Dorothy explained.

Dorothy asked me why mama birds can eat food on their own, even though, like their babies, they don't have teeth.

Art imitates life

I Spy: what's the scariest thing in this yard?

Children in the witches' brew

Spraying aphids on the lemon tree

 

Working on a collage for art class

The Sunday Funny

 Dorothy was pretending to be a frog and I was teasing her and doing a funny dance to act like there was a frog in my pants.  She begged, "Let's play that game again.  Say all those same things again.  That's the funniest thing you've ever said to me, Mama."

Before school, after school

(bright-eyed and ready to go)

(chocolate on her mouth and a far-off stare)

Dorothy made a map of our house

 

The bike path has a small creek

The Sunday Funnies

 I mistakenly called Dorothy's first day of in-person school her "first day of virtual school."  She said, "Not virtual school.  In-person school.  Virtual means 'not close.'"

I gave Dorothy a pear which had a fruit sticker on it.  "Hey, this has a receipt on it!" she said.

I was watching ND football, and yelled "Shoot!" when they fumbled.  Dorothy told me that I said a bad word, and I told her that shoot is not a really bad word.  "What is the really bad word?" she asked.  "It sounds like shoot, but with the short Ii vowel sound," I joked, because she is studying vowel sounds at school.  "Dang it?" she asked.