Book report: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

This is a great book. If you haven't read it you should. It won the 1995 Newberry Medal. It's not long but it explores some really interesting things about family life. It is about a 12-13 yr old girl who is struggling with the absence of her mother who has been gone for over a year. She moves to a new city with her dad and meets some friends at her new school who also have interesting families. You could probably read it in just a few days but it is really funny and poignant. This time when I read it I was really intrigued by all the different marriages in the book. It made me think about my own marriage and how I think of myself in relation to my husband. Anyway, it's a kid's novel but I really loved it as an adult.

Mary and soccer

Mary has decided that what she likes most about soccer is picking the grass and playing in the dirt while she watches every one else play. Now this is OK because really she's a little slower than the big 6 year old boys that constantly hog the ball so she has a little bit of a hard time keeping up. She tries for a while and then gets down to the business of landscaping. But Saturday she took soccer to a whole new level. She was being a defender with another little boy and so she was standing by the goal waiting for the ball to come back when all of a sudden we see her lifting up her shirt and showing the boy her tummy. He lifts up his shirt and shows his stomach, and the coach (the little boy's dad) comes running over and says, "Hey, what's going on here? Watch the game!!" What was really happening was that Mary had secretly worn her swimsuit to the game and was trying to show the little boy what a cool swimsuit she had on. I told John, "Go over there and tell your daughter to keep her clothes on!" He did and she did but we all had a good laugh.

Kate's kindergarten evaluation

This past Tuesday morning was Kate's spring evaluation. John and I went and she showed us all the things she has been doing and learning in school. She reads, she writes, she does math. She is a super smart girl. She meets all the grade standards so John told her she doesn't have to go to school anymore. I overruled however, so she still has another month. She is way smart and it was fun to see some of the things she's been learning. It was especially fun for John to see all the things she knows ( I volunteer once a week so I pretty much know). She was beaming when her teacher came up and said how smart she was and how well she was doing at writing. It made her feel good. And we were glad to know that she's doing so well.

Emma's new complaint

Emma's new complaint is that "______ is not being nice."(you put in the name) The funny thing is that what it really means is that someone is not letting her do whatever she wants. For instance, she goes up to Mary after Mary has been sitting in the same chair for at least a half an hour watching a show, and she says something like, "Mary I want to sit there. I was sitting there first. Move." And Mary responds, "No!!! You weren't sitting here first I was. Leave me alone." After a small verbal battle involving lots of Yahuhs and Nuhuhs, Emma runs to my bedroom or wherever I may be and says, "Mom, Mary's not being nice."(with her lip sticking out a mile) She really does make me laugh. Once I figured out her code, I was able to more easily mediate fights. (Mostly I just say, I'm sorry, anyway. I usually try not to get involved.)

Another example was tonight at dinner. We had asked the girls not to play, just to eat because we were trying to get them to bed before John had to go to his meeting. Anyway, Emma was still trying to play with Mary, and Mary was trying to be good so she was ignoring Emma. Anyway she was making Emma mad, so Emma turns to me and says, "Mom, Mary's not being nice." I say, " Mary's just doing what we asked her to do, now turn around and eat." So Emma again tries to play with Mary and gets ignored again. She turns to me and says, "Mom, Mary hit me." Now keep in mind, I'm sitting right next to Mary and watching both of them because the whole thing is so funny. Mary hasn't even looked at Emma, let alone hit her. I started laughing and said, "Mary did not hit you, now eat your dinner." She seemed to be a little disappointed that Mary wasn't going to get in trouble and she wouldn't be able to play with her food, but she stopped bugging Mary. Emma definitely is my comic relief in life.

Ruth--daddy's girl

Ever since Ruth came back from Maryland she has definitely been a daddy's girl. She'll take me if there is noone else but if John is around then she wants him. If he walks by her without picking her up she is heartbroken. For the first couple of days after he got back, when he was getting ready to leave for work, she would give him this look like, "After all we've meant to each other, you're not taking me with you." Frankly, I think it is super funny. It's kind of nice to not be the one who has to calm down a screaming baby. Ruth just learned to shake her head for "no" when she doesn't want something. So when John's holding her, if I go up and stretch my arms out to her she shakes her head vigorously, pushes me away and then looks the other way to pretend I'm not there. And if John actually hands her to me (like before he has to go to work in the morning) she screams bloody murder until he is out of the room. Again, it cracks me up. Obviously, there was some serious bonding in Maryland. And I think it is good for John's ego. At least he knows someone loves him. Someone else, I mean.

Update: Soccer, spring, and shopping

Life is good but a little busy. The girls' soccer team is coming right along. The girls are getting the hang of the game. We're going to start calling Kate, "Nothing gets by me" Payne. Her coach pretty much said she was the defensive player of the game last game. She would just stand in front of the opposing player and sacrifice the body to block the kick, no flinches or anything. If that didn't work she'd do something like a pick on the player himself. I don't know if that's legal in soccer, but it seemed to work pretty well. It gave the goalie time to pick up the ball. After the game Kate told me that she wants to play soccer forever, even when she's 12 or 13. (Apparantly that is forever to her). I guess letting the girls kick balls at each other and take out each other has some kind of purpose.(j/k)

Mary's catching on too. Although she's a little more sensitive. She just can't understand that someone can kick her or knock her down, and noone gets in trouble or even stops playing. She's having fun though. We went to get them a soccer ball and she insisted on the sparkly pink one that was a couple of dollars more and a size too big. She paid the difference out of her allowance and she's very proud of the ball so I guess it's all good. Apparantly soccer is lots better with a pink ball.

Spring is here, for a few days at least. Thursday when John left for Maryland, it snowed all day, but starting on Friday the weather really looked up. Saturday the girls had soccer practice, so Emma and I went and played on the playground. Emma really is a fearless little monkey. She would climb anything and I even helped her do the rings. She was climbing on things that Mary wouldn't touch. We had a lot of fun.

Later we went shopping with my parents. My parents bought us pizza and we went to a park and had a little picnic. We took a blanket to put on the picnic table and my mom told Emma not to eat further down, off the blanket, because the table was dirty. She then became the blanket nazi yelling at everyone that even approached that end of the table, "That's dirty down there. Don't go down there." Kate obviously ignored her but it was pretty funny. At least we know she's listening.

The girls have been really good while John has been gone. We've done some fun little things, including getting them all haircuts. All their hair is pretty short now. I'll try to get a picture out pretty soon. Kate really wanted to have bangs so she got some(she called them those things that my Daphne barbie has). Her hair is a bob a little below her chin. Emma also has a little bob. It's just at her jawline. The lady cutting her hair said that she loved to see little girls with that haircut because it gave them a little attitude. I told her Emma didn't need any more attitude than she already has, but it is true. Now her hair matches her attitude. Mary got a shorter haircut, a little longer than I usually get mine at its shortest. It curls around her ears and looks super cute. We put little clips in the front for church today and she thought she looked "Beautiful!" It's super cute.

I'm hoping to get my hair chopped soon so Mary and I can match (sort of) and plus I love having short hair in the summer. There's nothing like being able to drive with the windows down and not having to wear a hat or a headband. I love that!! Plus noone can see my gray hair when my hair is short, and I have a lot of gray hair. I seem to get more with each kid and each of John's injuries. Funny thing. At least I've earned it I guess.

John comes home tomorrow. I haven't gotten everything I wanted to get done while he was gone but that's how it is. I have watched like 8 Moonlighting episodes from netflix. You have to love that show. It is super funny. I laugh the whole time I watch it. I'm tempted to buy the set for my own dvd collection. I have to say that I had a poster of Bruce Willis hanging in my room when I was growing up, so watching these episodes really takes me back. Although I think he was probably a little old for10-12 year old. Funny huh?!!