I just wish Fate could convince Josie that we're slowing down. She's already written two songs & has plans for creating a cardboard village that she wants to make using mini-marshmallows & toothpicks & beads. I have a feeling I'll be teaching her how to use the attachments on the vacuum cleaner before the day is over.
Josie's only had a few sleepovers and so far, she hasn't made it through the night at a friends' house since Maya & Sage moved to Massachusets. As soon as night falls, she's pretty sure she needs her mom or dad & asks to go back home. She enjoys having friends sleep at our house but even the slight change in the routine makes her a little weepy at bedtime. I'm sure she'll eventually work it all out but I kind of like the fact that Sleepover Days are still pushed to the future. A few weeks ago, however, she and a friend had been playing all afternoon at our house and asked if they could have a sleepover so the fun wouldn't have to end. Jessie's mom agreed and we made a pact that if there were any tears or fears, we'd drive Jessie home, no matter what time of the night it became necessary.
To my delight, the tears & fears never happened and I slept pretty soundly. Second Grade Sleepovers are pretty mild. There was pizza for dinner, Scooby Doo on the DVD, and Speedy Whiskers, the rat, seemed to love the attention he received. At about 9 pm the girls started yawning and when I suggested it was time to get ready for bed, they were eager to crawl under the covers. The closet light had to stay on but they were soon asleep with only minimal giggles & fake snoring.
In the car the next day, they insisted on listening to Kidz Bop Christmas Music as loud as my car stereo would allow. They shouted loudly with the music in between giggles. At one point Josie said, "Jessie, we're just like twins! I know you have brown skin & black hair and brown eyes & I have peach skin and brown hair & green eyes but we both laugh at the same stuff so we're just like twins!" Without hesitating Jessie said, "Yup, we are twins. We laugh at the same stuff and we like the same pizza and that definitely means we're twins."
If only our nation could adopt that kind of logic!
Last week Saturday I got a call from Josie late in the evening. She was whimpering and in between deep sighs she asked, "Mom, can I stay at your house tonight?" I told her that her dad had been out of town for so many nights that he was missing her and really wanted her to stay at his house. "But Mom, I don't like what he's serving me." (insert whine & sobs) What is Daddy feeding you, Josie? "Oh, he's NOT feeding me anything. He's trying to serve me mushy carrots but I'm not eating them." Josie, you need to try the carrots, they're good for you and your body needs vegetables to grow strong & healthy. "But Mom, they are so squishy and I just can't put them in my mouth. And he says I have to eat two of them." If you put them way in the back of your mouth and chase it with water, you won't even taste them. Really, you're making a big deal out of this and if you just do it quickly, it'll be all over with. "Oh, Mom..." (add drama and crying and whimpering) "I'm going to put my dad on the phone and you tell him that you're coming over to pick me up, okay?" Before I could decline, she handed the phone to her dad and he and I both laughed.
The next day I called to see how the Carrot Drama was resolved. Turns out she told him she ate the carrots and when he glanced at her plate, they were indeed gone. The next morning when he was cleaning up the dishes in the sink, he discovered the carrots hidden under the rice on her plate. So when she asked if she could have a play date with her friend, David, his response was, "Did you really eat the carrots on your plate?" She sheepishly realized she'd been caught and said, "No." And her dad responded with, "Then there's your answer to whether or not you can have a play date."
Josie understood the lesson. On Monday after school she told me all about it and said that she should have just swallowed those carrots instead of lying about it. "Two whole days were ruined when I could have just swallowed them and then thrown them back up really fast."
On Friday, Josie's teacher had Arts in the Classroom Training to attend so their class had a substitute teacher. The substitute teacher was a very sweet, white-haired lady and when the other teacher on our wing & I spotted her, we were a little concerned about how she'd manage the more challenging 2nd graders that she'd be dealing with throughout the day. I went across the hall and assured her that if she had any problems, she could call me or send me students that needed some time out or an alternative place to work. She reassured me that she has a very commanding style & she uses her tone of voice to capture their attention and while I believed her, I had my doubts about how she'd capture the attention of a few particular students. I checked in on her throughout the morning to see how things were going and was pleasantly surprised to see that for the most part, the students were trying to be attentive.
When I asked Josie about the day, she gave me her critique honestly. "Well, Mom, she was this old lady like a grandma. She called some people 'Young Man' or 'Young Lady' and my feelings hurt for those people. But I was really trying to be good so that she wouldn't have to call me a 'Young Lady'. Only 3 kids were naughty because they were kind of mean to her because she was really old. I thinky they probably don't like grandmas or they thought she wasn't smart about the rules. But she was pretty smart about rules and I think she could hear pretty good, too. I kind of liked her."
It's time to wrap up the Josie Stories and drive her to the store to get more mini-marshmallows for the vacuum to "eat" later this afternoon. Afterall, we've been waiting for a rainy day since April...don't want to waste the opportunity to be slovenly!
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