Our Little Cinderella

Helena woke one morning and exclaimed "Mommy! I forgot to tell you! My school has this thing... it's called Halloween! Do you know what that is Mommy??"

"What's that?" I asked.

Then with one breathe she exclaimed "We-get-to-dress-up-in-costumes-and-go-on-a-parade-and-I'm-going-to-be-a-Disney-princess-and-do-you-know-which-one-I'm-going-to-be-I'm-going-to-be-Cinderella-Mommy!" (deep inhale...)

So here's our little Cinderella at home on the big day, in front of our waterfall, and with her trusty (old, ratty) pig Wilbur no less....

She Danced and Skipped For Most all of the Parade - True Princess Style

Here's One Princess That Does *NOT* Need Rescuing!

LOVE that strong, confident walk haha....

Princess at Play (love the hide & seek!)

Group Photos, (Her Class and Entire School)

Yes, that's my daughter, front and center with hands on the hips (don't think she's noticed she's the smallest one).

The Princess Socializing

Helena's Adventures with Food

My precocious daughter is having food tolerance lessons she's learned at home reinforced at preschool....

First she asks the teacher if she's sure the apple she's giving Helena is the organic one. (We send Helena with her own food as she eats very differently than other children.) Then Helena proceeds to inform the other children that they shouldn't be eating their apples because they are not organic like hers.

Her wonderful teacher Miss Lorraine explains that different people choose different ways in which to be healthy and that while Helena is right and organic is the best option, it's still ok for the kids to eat their apples - they are after all healthy fruit.

Next comes lunch at which time Helena decides she is offended that the kids are eating meat. She doesn't want to have to see their turkey sandwiches! Lorraine explains that we have to respect other people's food choices and they like turkey. However, Helena is welcome to sit at the kitchen counter instead if it bothers her to see the meat. She chooses to remain with the other kids, little social butterfly that she is.

Lorraine told me later she was wondering if perhaps she had explained away organics too well. Helena and Lorraine's daughter were whispering and Lorraine came by to see what was going on. Helena wanted to know if the peanut butter cookies were organic. She decided she'd have one so long as the other girl didn't tell anyone, espec "my mommy or daddy". Lorraine was quick to explain that we don't EVER keep secrets from our mommies or daddies as that isn't safe.

OYE! I wasn't sure if I should laugh or be terribly embarrassed, so it was a combination of the two!

When She Grows Up...

Helena wants to be 3 things when she grows up, a writer, a bonnet maker, and a jewelry maker. She insists that I will have to wear her bonnets. I compromised and promised her I'd wear it to the old fashioned farmer's museum not too far from us haha.

So a few wks ago, Helena comes to me with the utmost of seriousness... "Mommy, I have to ask you something very important."

"Ok, what's that?"

"Do you think that when I'm all grown up, you guys could watch my kids for me? Because I might want to still be working, and I'll need someone to watch them."

"Sure, I bet we could probably do that for you."

"Oh good ((big sigh of relief)) because I want to still work, and if I"m upstairs in my attic writing, then they might fall down the stairs, or get into mischief or be naughty or something - and that wouldn't be good!"

Now I just want to know where in the world she came up with the whole attic writing studio concept... we have never even lived anywhere with a walk-up attic....

Learning to Read

I'm fascinated by Helena's self initiated learning to read process. I had been thinking to start working more consistently with her on things, but I'm way too fascinated by her own natural progression to dare interfere with it.

At present she knows pretty much all of the capital and small letters and the sounds they make. Only thing I can take credit for is occasionally reading alphabet books (*very* occasionally) and providing her with an alphabet puzzle. She just learns SO fast that this has been enough. Now that she's in school, she is of course "learning" letters, but it's mostly just total review. She already knew them.

She has also begun rhyming non stop. All day long sometimes I hear things like "Leaf and beef... THOSE RHYME!"

Additionally, she is identifying the first and last sounds of words on a regular basis. "Dddd - D is for door" ... a pause... "and Rrrrr is the end sound - R". She still has a much harder time coming up with middle sounds, especially on one syllable words. I think the vowel just blends in with the consonant in her mind still. However on 2 syllable words such as butter, she can easily pick out the middle consonant sound.

She is very eager to read - actually thinks in the last few days that she *can* read because she has memorized this easy reader from school as well as mostly memorized a few longer stories we have.

Soon I think.... sometime in the next handful of months, just as rhyming and beginning/end sounds have clicked fully all of a sudden, the concept of blending those individual letter sounds into words will click as well. And then she'll be reading up a storm!!

Other skills she's learning - she is constantly doing math on her fingers, mostly addition. And she's finally interested in writing. For a long time she wanted to know the letters, but had no interest in writing them. Lately she takes construction paper, makes lines across it and then fills in the lines with letters. Various little pictures adorn the sides of the page. It's her first book, she tells me, and she's torn between giving it away for free to the little girl in Guatemala that we help support, or selling it.

Conversation About Our Doctor

Mommy isn't Dr ____ amazing because he can help people who are almost dead! How does he do that?"

"I don't know. You have to go to medical school to learn about that."

"Yeah, and he can even fix broken bones when they are sticking out of someone's skin. How does he do that?"

"I don't know. I didn't go to medical school. You can go to medical school someday if you want to learn all about that stuff." (wondering where in the world the idea of a broken bone sticking out of someone's skin came from....)

"No, I don't think that would be very fun...."

She's WAY Too Smart!

Ok, so my 4 yr old is psychoanalyzing herself and using metaphors (or actually it was a simile if we must be technical...)

She's still getting used to the transition from being with all the kids in school to being with just Mommy again. "I'm still trying to figure out which I like best - being with all the kids, or being with Mommy."

I explained that she could like both best at different times or like them both the same.

She pipes up from the back seat, face intense and hands going a mile per minute

"It's just confusing.... I feel like I'm over here, out my window and over there out your window all at the same time because it's so confusing. I'm still trying to sort it all out!"

LOVE her!!!