Teach a Girl to Spell

In the car on the way to school this morning:

A: Mom, r is a bossy letter.

C: Oh?

A: Yeah. It bosses all the vowels around.

C: You're right.

pause

A: I'm going to put an apostrophe s after my name, and then I can have anything I want.

C: How does that work?

A: Like, Adelaide's doggy, Adelaide's Santa, Adelaide's elves . . . Adelaide's world.

C: (thinking to herself) Well, that explains a lot.

Do not Eat

(in case you can't read it, it says "Inedible. Not intended for human food.")
So, what exactly is it, then? And who is in danger of being tempted to eat it?

She Blinded Me with Science

Okay, fellow Kindergarten parents, spoiler alert: my 6 year-old knows where babies come from. There have been many conversations over the years, mostly in the car, and no question asked went unanswered. Additional details were not necessarily added, but it's always been the facts, plain language, and an open dialogue kind of approach. I have on several occasions informed Adelaide that other kids do not necessarily possess these facts and she is by no means to be the one to enlighten them, but it's not exactly something over which I have any real say.

Well, now the Kindergarten class is studying "Animals Two by Two," a science kit that includes lots of live creatures, and the kids are choosing an animal to study and asking questions to learn about research. Adelaide chose dragonflies for her subject matter. After school yesterday she told me that they had had their opportunity to post their initial questions, and she revealed her question to be the following: "How do dragonflies mate?"

Watch out, everyone.

open, please . . . yawn

Okay, this one is just a little too easy . . . can you imagine an average day in the practice?
Dr. Dull: Got some plaque here . . . not too bad . . .

Patient: Vague "uh-huh" noise escapes around latex glove-filled mouth.

Dr. Dull: Daily flossing is very important.

Patient: "ggg yah," eyes widening to show agreement

Dr. Dull: How about those Mariners?

Patient: Rising intonation "uhghgh."

Dr. Dull: Have you seen our new software for tracking gum recession?

Patient: Eyelids open suddenly, look of sleepy confusion on face.

Putting her face on

Today is class picture day, and Adelaide has worked through any number of outfits to find the perfect look. We finally agreed upon short sleeves and a skirt with leggings. Then the bathroom preparations began. Fortunately it was limited to hair and lip balm, but it still took a while to get it just right.

Generations of Mothers

I discovered this morning that Blue Tooth and my 90 year-old grandmother do not make a very good combination. I think I have had better success on the phone with her without the hands-free, and I shouldn't have added the headset because she really couldn't hear me this morning. But I wanted to call her to tell her that I love her, and if all goes well she will be able to look at this post today when my mom arrives to visit her. I am so lucky to have grandparents with whom I have a close relationship and who know my daughter, and she is so lucky to have a connection to all of her grandparents and her great-grandparents. Even though I have lost my grandfathers, I am extremely grateful that they were able to meet Adelaide and that she was able to meet and spend time with them.

A look back at some of our visits, first July 2004:
August 2005:
July 2006:
March 2007:
And a look even further back, September 1973 (Paige, Christine and David):
1955 (Adelaide, Paige, Joanne and Lucy):
Not sure of the date, but around 1915 (Howard Mayhew and Analou McCracken Mayhew, Adelaide Mayhew's parents):
1922 (Adelaide Roach McCracken and her grandchildren, Joe and Adelaide Mayhew):

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day began at the crack of dawn around here, after many weeks of excited preparation on the part of the gift-giver. The honoree accepted her gifts with as much grace as she could muster (though she insisted on a pause after the first 3 gifts in order to make coffee). It was a good thing we started so early, because the gifts just kept coming and coming! Between her efforts at home, at school, at daycare with with her Dad's help, Adelaide created 12 different items for my enjoyment. They were all wonderful, especially the drawings and cards expressing much love. Here are a few faves:

This top secret item (below) was created at school and filled with other things created at school, including several cards and pictures, a cute little paper tea kettle, and Adelaide's shadow silhouette. You can see some of them in the big montage photo at the end of the post.
My hands-down favorite was this one, partly because it was a huge effort on her part (she cut the cardboard from the tandem box and it was a difficult and time-consuming project, which required total secrecy and privacy), but mainly because I told her what I loved most in the world was her, and so she gave that to me (note the label above the crown):

She gave me a lovely morning, too, with a dance party in the living room, a tandem ride, a picnic on the porch, and lots of hugs and laughter. I am so lucky. Not only did I get a great mother's day, I can give one to my mom and grandma just by posting these pictures to share. After all, they love me, but I am not cute or interesting in the slightest when compared with the granddaughter. Exactly as it should be. So, Happy Mother's Day to Paige and Big Adelaide!

A Bicycle Built for Two

I have long been a bicycle enthusiast, particularly as a means to get around town without needing to get in the car. When Adelaide was big enough to ride behind me in a seat, we would sometimes go to a friend's house or the park by bike. Then she graduated to the trail-a-bike, but it never really felt stable or particularly safe because she was so far behind me and our two bikes didn't function as a unit. So when I was looking for a different system, I thought about something that we could grow into and use for a longer time. Adelaide got some money from her great-grandmothers for her birthday and I decided to put it towards something we could enjoy together and use to have fun and get exercise. I was very excited to find an inexpensive tandem with a very low back bar. It arrived like this:
The first night I got it to this point before I needed to purchase a couple of tools:
By Saturday morning we we ready for our maiden voyage! We started out just going around the neighborhood but it was so much fun we decided to head out on some errands on the bike.


Today was sunny and warm so I decided to take a chance and bike up to school to pick Adelaide up. The tandem handled fine solo, too, and Adelaide was excited to get to bike home. She made it the whole 5 miles with no complaints, one short break for chocolate and water, and even helped us pedal up the one steep hill on the route. I think we have found ourselves a new Friday tradition. I couldn't be happier with our new wheels!

mmmmuffins

We are bored of cereal. We just are. It's good, it's easy, it's functional, but we are bored with it. So, thank goodness for an nice long unscheduled Saturday morning, sleeping in until 6:30 (I know, so late, right?) and overripe bananas just begging to be baked goods. Toss in a few blueberries from the freezer, do a quick check in with my friend Betty C. on the proportions of everything else, and 20 minutes later, we don't need no stinkin' cereal.