Kid Sayings Catch-up

I haven't recorded cute kid sayings and doings in a while, so I'm feeling a need to catch up for my memory banks. Here's a few highlights from the past few months:

Thanksgiving: We hosted Thanksgiving at our house last November -- just us, my sister's family, and my mom. That resulted in my five-year-old, my sister's four-year-old and her then-seven-year-old, who had declared themselves "the superheroes" at a family lakeside vacation in August, attiring themselves in superhero costumes -- at one point, this was blankets used at capes; later, they raided the dress-up bin to become a super ballerina/fairy, a super mouse and a super flower-headdress-wearing/tutu-attired/wand carrying something. (I suspect that may have also been a fairy.) They also had "flying practice": jumping off the steps leading down to the lower level of our split-level home. They never jumped off any steps higher than the third one up and, while I was speculating on whether we adults should stop this for safety reasons, my mom happened to inform me that, "I'd tell them to stop, but I remember doing the same thing." The things you learn about your relatives.

Christmas: The eve of our departure for Iowa -- which had been the last day of school before break -- Nora had a somewhat predictable meltdown. Her response, however, when I tried to reassure her about the part of her worries that entailed that she wasn't going to see her "best friend" for a "whole week!" by telling her that, "Well, you'll do different things over break, and M will do different things, so when you do see each other again, you'll have lots of new stuff to talk about" -- was met with, "But Mo-o-m! We don't wanna *talk* about stuff at recess! We just wanna run around!" How dare I.

January: Nora is taking dance lessons, and is immensely excited about the upcoming recital -- the one at the end of the dance year. She found out the date at a lesson in January and *immediately* upon coming home, had to tear up pieces of construction paper so that she could write the date on them so that her teachers knew when her recital was. (Yes, it's six months away.)

We had one day in January (a far cry from last year, for sure!) when the good sledding hill at the nearby park had enough snow upon it be open and we had time to use it, so we seized the day by spending an afternooon sledding. Several other children/families had had the same idea, and it may have been inspiration from some of the boys that led Nora to begin a practice of perching her plastic sled on the very crest of the hill, and launching herself onto it with running jumps so that it began its descent with extra momentum. (There are some days I think I gave birth to
Evil Knievel.)

February: Ah, the vagaries of elementary-age relationships. Nora knows a boy from our neighborhood who rides the same school bus, and she sees him sometimes at school. She told me that, the other day, W was "having a hard day. So I gave him a hug in the lunchroom. I think I made his day worse." We had a little talk about how second grade boys don't always like to be hugged.