All parents say it, but my daughter is a creative genius. I love that she makes up stories with just about anything she can get her hands on. I have even seen her use two leaves as props in a play. One was Jasmine's flying carpet and the other was Jasmine herself.
Her creativity makes me smile.
And… Thanks to technology and some amazing apps, Dani can tell and record her stories, turn them into ibooks, and share them.
Maybe it's the techie in me, but I think that is amazingly cool.
Dani has this little travel pillow. We got it as a freebie when we ordered our new sleep number bed. This little travel pillow has been Dani's favorite for three weeks.
So, today, I planned on making a little pillowcase for her new pillow out of an old dress she grew out of (which is shocking, I know…). All it needed was a single stitched line. I can totally handle that.
Guess who wanted to help? We drug out the sewing machine. We got out the pins and thread. We were all set. Dani was on my lap and she was all set to help me feed the fabric in a single straight line.
Until the sewing machine broke.
Now, I can almost sew a straight line with a sewing machine. And I can out in a bobbin thread if it is empty, provided that I have one full because I still do not know how to rethread a bobbin spool. But when my sewing machine starts to suck the fabric down into where the bobbin goes, I am pretty much clueless.
Mom Fail #1: I can't fix a sewing machine.
No worries. Thanks to my 7th grade Family Living (AKA Home Ec) class, I can sew a straight line pillowcase by HAND!
Except apparently, I can't. Dani informed me that I was doing it wrong.
Mom Fail #2: I can't sew by hand and I have neglected in my duties in teaching my four year old how to sew.
Thankfully, she had already learned. She explained to me how she learned to sew in the video below. Please watch. It is enlightening.
When I have something I am not sure about or want to learn how to do something, I use one of three three things: Google, Youtube, or SIRI.
Dani's method of learning new things: 1) she watches Mama Bear teach Little Bear and 2) she just knows.
Here is Dani's sewing. I gave her the needle and thread and let her go…while I stepped back about a foot to maintain my safety and still watch out for blood.
After she declared it finished, she snuck of to watch TV. Probably checking out Mickey Mouse Club so she can teach me how to fix the sewing machine.
While she was gone, I quickly fixed the pillowcase before she could catch me and presented it to her, proudly calling it the pillow case she made!
Usually, she tells Daddy the jokes because he ALWAYS pretends to crack up. I think that is giving her a false confidence in her future as a stand up comedian.
I tried something new last night from the Love and Logic playbook. A little natural consequences of telling a bad joke. I may not win Mother of the Year with this one, but it went something like this:
D: Knock knock
M: Who's there?
D: Coin
M: Coin who?
D: Chair. (said with an expectant smile)
M: (blank stare)
D: I said Chair, Mama. You are suppose to laugh.
M: (black stare)
D: Why aren't you laughing Mama. (looking hurt)
M: I don't get it.
D: It doesn't matter Mama. If I tell a joke, you have to laugh. That's the rules. If you don't laugh, that is being mean. You don't want to be mean do you?
M: (Blank stare)
D: Let's try again. Laugh this time…. Knock Knock….
Don't worry. I eventually caved and chuckled. I tried to reframe her "joke" so she would see the lack of connection. Like this: D: Knock knock
M: Who's there?
D: Tabletop
M: Tabletop who?
D: Kitchen
M: Haha… I see.. a tabletop in the kitchen… haha.
I don't think the guided practice worked either.
So I tried some "Why did the chicken cross the road?" jokes. She stole my punchline.
M: Hey Dani, why did the chicken cross the road?
D: Because he needed to build a snowman over there.
M: (blank stare).
D: Do it again Mama, you're funny.
M: I got nothing.
My daughter is one amazing little girl, but the subtly of knock knock jokes seems to be going over her head.
Imagine a teenager girl walking in on her parents kissing, rolls her eyes, and says "Awwkkwaardd." If you have spent in time with middle school students, you are hearing it in your head right now.
I think Dani picked up this wonderful word from her cousin, one of the teenage girls mentioned above.
We tried to explain what awkward means: something strange or uncomfortable.
Dani: "Awwkwarrd." (when she gets a milk mustache at dinner time.
Dani: "Awwkkwaard." (when she gets in trouble for not finishing dinner)
Dani: "Awwkkwaard." (when she threw something away on accident)
Dani: "Awwkward." (when she falls off the couch because she was trying to climb behind me)
Dani: Awkward." (when she was pretending to measure how tall the chair was and dropped her measuring tape)
Dani: "Aaawkward."(when Frank Burns and Margret Hoolihan started making out on TV when Daddy was watching MASH)
Dani was inspired by the Sound of Music special on TV tonight. During one of the commercial breaks, she broke out in her own melodramatic melody. Its hard to follow the words because she is "writing" it in head as she goes along, but one can't help appreciate her dramatic flair. The end is the best part. She wraps it up well. I think she may be the next Julie Andrews… or I guess the next Carrie Underwood. “Music touches us emotionally, where words alone can't.” ― Johnny Depp
D tells me: "Hurry mama. We are going to be late?"
Me: "late for what?"
D: "I have to conquer the world! (starts to sing) Conquer the world… CONQUER to WOOORRLLDD. I am going to Conquer the world."
Me: "At preK? Does Mrs Nixon know?"
D: "No. (pause for effect) You better tell her that I am going to CONQUER THE WORLD!!"
Of course, once we arrived, she did in fact, look pointedly at me until I told her teacher of her plans. Today could have been a snow day. It was an "optional" day, which is really unprecedented, because the schools were excusing any students who stayed home in light of impending winter weather arriving around lunch time.
D wanted to go to school. Apparently, it was because she had a big day planned.
I have complete confidence that she will, one day, make an impression on this world.
"For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, Plans for good (conquering can be good) and not for evil (no evil minions here). To give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11
