Milestone

See this filthy shoe that is more than ready for the school year to end?  Beatrice tied it all by herself!

She mentioned she did it in school yesterday and I half-believed her, but this morning she couldn't wait to prove it to me.  Honestly, I've barely worked on this with her, and she says they don't practice it at school either, so I was totally impressed and thrilled that I don't have to teach this task which frustrates so many kids so much. She has really yearned to have this ability for quite a while, so it just goes to show where there's a will there's a way!

Winner

Nope, it's not Christmas morning, but the living room looks like it is.  Last night we went to a spaghetti supper fundraiser and at the last minute Beatrice asked what a "raffle" was, so I dug up two bucks, enough for four measly tickets,  explained and re-explained that there were lots and lots of tickets in each jar and they only choose one person so you usually don't win, and ........guess who was the first name chosen for a large box of random toys???  Oh the joy.....

Quoteworthy

*Last weekend, when I remarked that a book that had been so challenging for her to read the night before was now so easy for her, Beatrice remarked "I got rehydrated on my bookmanship and yesterday I was dehydrated on my bookmanship and readership."

*This morning when I told her she "didn't need to worry" about untying her skirt at all today to use the bathroom and that she could instead just go under it and deal with her pants:  "Worrying is my brain's big job, it's the job my brain does all day.  Worry, worry. Mama you don't need to tell me about my job or what to do.  I know!  How about you can just take a vacation from telling me what to do?  Good idea?"

OMG

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Before brunch yesterday, "Princess Elsa" was using her powers to freeze things up around here, while her Dad was doing his best "contemplative French artist" pose in the snow.

And on this birthday night, we went to dinner at Hard rock Cafe at Foxwoods Casino.  Fun time, but the highlight was heading to the Asian Bakery within the building.  Anthony got a mini pecan pie (so much for the Asian in him) and my daughter quickly spotted a sesame bean paste roll and never looked at anything else.  Loved it!

                                        Don't they look like newlyweds feeding each other cake?

and doing gentle "head bumps" is still a favorite thing.

Welcome to #43 Daddy!

This sums her up

At almost six, Beatrice is sassy, edgy, dramatic, funny, at-times sweet as sugar, helpful,  and at-times tough as nails. She's pretty much sick of being photographed to death, so I get crazy facial expressions through the lens.  This photo speaks volumes to me, with the perfect irony of hands-on-hip "freshie" combined with I-need-two-blankies insecurity.  She's on that scary bridge between babyhood and big-girl-hood!  She's singing pop songs one moment and doing baby talk another. Wants to watch PG movies, but still loves Curious George, Daniel Tiger, and Raffi more than anything. Wants to read independently, yet wants me to feed her dinner.  Either pretends she doesn't know me during drop off at school or insists we go through the whole ritual of kissing hands, kissing lips and "huggies."

While playing Legos, Anthony and I asked her tonight "Who is Beatrice Foronda anyway? Give us some words that describe you, Bea."  With no hesitation:  "American..... Vietnamese..... American-Vietnamese...... loud, loud dancing girl."