Clare has never been quiet about her opinions. She’s never really been quiet period – she’s an outspoken sort. Now that she’s getting more articulate we’re hearing more about her opinions. Mostly we try to laugh… mostly. Here’s a selection of quotes describing life with Clare lately.
“Mom! Can I help you put laundry away?! Oh boy! I’ll put the underwear in the drawer!”
I accidentally pulled Clare’s hair to hard when I was putting it into a pony tail and she started to cry. Then I mentioned that she needed a hair cut. She replied in her angriest, most obstinate tone “No I do not! I’ve had TO MANY hair cuts and I do NOT need another one!”
Clare was sitting in the kitchen nursing a bumped elbow and still sniffling a little bit from her injury. Sammy came up and started babbling at her, also holding his elbow. Clare started crying again and wailed “Sammy is saying bad words to me!”
I walked into Clare’s room on Monday during nap time and did my usual “Clare, it’s rest time so you need to stay in bed, relax and look at books quietly. It’s time to rest and relax.” She looked up at me and, without missing a beat, said “Mom, can I get some new boots?”
We’re trying to teach her about words associated with time, both past and future. She gets confused by this a lot and anything in the past is “last year” or “when I was a baby.” This can be “Last year when I went to G’s house…” and she went to G’s house yesterday or “when I was a baby I drank from a bottle.” Anything in the future is related to her birthday – as in, “will we go to Alaska before or after my birthday?” and “I will go back to school on my birthday.”
Speaking of school, she continues to ADORE school. She’s made several little friends, including her “bestest friend in the whole world forever” whose name also starts with C. The Montessori philosophy encourages a lot of independent “work” but the girls have figured out that they can “clean the classroom” together so I think they do lots of cleaning and polishing “work” – with lots of talking and giggling I imagine.