Tales of Life with a Girl on the Go

Happy National Flag Day, just one day late. I hope you celebrated appropriately. I printed some colouring pages and Reid coloured one on Wednesday to get our house decorated. For the last while, Reid has been wanting others to colour for her and she asked me to colour the flag. When I encouraged her to do it instead, we discussed which parts needed to be red and she carefully coloured a few scribbles in the bars and leaf. I’ve never before noticed her trying so hard to put a particular colour in a specific place. She did pretty well. These areas weren’t fully coloured but there wasn’t much outside of the flag area either. I only wish that I had thought to talk Reid into wearing her Canada Day outfit yesterday. Ah well, she has grown so much that it probably wouldn’t have fit.

Switching topics (I tell you because Dad once told me when we were hoeing that it’s confusing when I change topics without warning.)

One of the “books” that we have been reading lately is the page-a-day Cat Calendar that features B. Kilban cartoons. We read the pictures from January 1st through the current day, discussing each as we come to it. There are cats skiing, skating, playing basketball and others playing football and still others do other stuff. I think Reid’s favourite so far is one of a big cat laying under the covers looking grumpily from the pillow while a smaller cat is sitting on top of him. We have decided that the little cat is saying, “Wake up, wake up, wake up!” And the Daddy cat is saying, “Go away!” Reid decided that the grumpy cat was the Daddy. Ken protests that he wouldn’t never say, “Go away,” and he wouldn’t.

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, I’ve been thinking how Reid might describe herself if she were on the “Dating Game”. Not that her Dad and I have any intention of letting her date until she is *at least* 30! Here’s what I have come up with:
* My name is Reid “Elizabeff”;
* I like the colour yellow, the number SIX (imagine the enthusiasm) and the letters R and X;
* I don’t own a car but I like to drive other people’s cars when they are parked;
* In my opinion, buses are fascinating. Yellow school buses are my favourite, the little baby buses are the ultimate and I like to think of them as Reidie-buses. Red city buses are pretty good and the great big articulated ones are awe-worthy;
* My daddy is the man in my life right now and with my mama’s help I have stopped tossing off a careless, “I love you” at bedtime and now look at him, smile and say, “I love you” before going back to turning on the lamp or whatever. Daddy sometimes calls me a Stepford child but I don’t know what that means. Mama has only caught a glimpse of my face during this but agrees the change might be disconcerting;
* It’s hard to choose just one book for a favourite, but “Moo, Baa, La La La!” by Sandra Boynton would probably be it but I love so many;
* My favourite songs are “Old Macdonald” – as long as I choose the order of the animals that appear – and a Kindermusik song that goes like this; “Meow, meow, meow, who’s cat art thou? (Pooka says) I am Reidie’s cat. Meow, meow, meow.” Mama changes the sound the animal makes so that we can sing about Max and Zoey and the name so that we can sing about Leo. If Mama says “Clio says” then she is Daddy’s cat.
* My favourite movie is any with Winnie Pooh in it;
* My favourite tv show is “Toopy- Binoo” (Toopy and Binoo); and
* I like taking long walks, sometimes in my stroller, sometimes walking alone but slowly, sometimes being carried and sometimes running in my wiggly sort of way. Usually I do all of these things in a single long walk.

In the morning, we read:

At Melissa’s, we read:

• Two of the stories in the Big Book of Farmyard Tales by Heather Amery, including:
• Pig Gets Stuck; and
• The Naughty Sheep.

Each of the stories in this treasuries begins with, “This is Apple Tree farm. This is Mrs Boot.” Melissa and Peter have teased that they were going to lend us the book (which we got for their kids for Christmas one year) so that we could read the repetitive beginning in our sleep, too.

We read:

• Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstrom;
• Soft Shapes – Seasons;
• Mama Loves You by Caroline Stutson;
• Snoozers: 7 Short Short Bedtime Stories for Lively Kids by Sandra Boynton; and
• Your Personal Penguin by Sandra Boynton.

We were back to our usual routine, with sickness and guests gone and so in the morning we read:

• All of the stories in the Winnie the Pooh Treasury, plus singing the song. Reid wants to know why Piglet doesn’t have his own song;and
• Benny’s Bus, twice;
• but not a House for Hermit Crab by Robert Munsch despite my attempts to convince Reid to choose it.

In the evening, we read:

• Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson;
• Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert;
• I’ll Always Come Back! by Steve Metzger;
• My Dog Never Says Please by Suzanne Williams;
• We’ll All Go Exploring by Magee Spicer and Richard Thompson;
• Moo, Baa, La, La, La! by Sandra Boynton;
• The Going to Bed Book by Sandra Boynton;
• Touch and Feel Tractor (no author); and
• The Snowman Postman (no author),