Mice for dinner

Abby made mice for dinner. Yep.  She followed a bit of creative motivation and Chloe and I came home to her in the kitchen - not an uncommon event.
She hollered: "Wait! Don't come in here yet!  I've got a surprise for you!"
So we waited excitedly until she was ready. 

When Abby presented us our dinner, we had some delicious BBQ'd buffalo burgers with smiley face buns, baby PURPLE potatoes, and ...a plate full of mice!  Strawberries with almond ears, clove noses, and spaghetti tails.  Our mice even had triangles of cheese to snack on. 
Chloe was so excited about her fun, friendly dinner. 
But that wasnt the end of the surprise!  About half way through the dinner Abby said: "Chloe, did you know that when you eat mice, your mouth turns blue?"
She was doubtful and surprised.  So Abby and I both showed our tongues and we all started laughing.  She ran to the bathroom to see her evidence. 
Sure enough, she'd eaten a mouse!  ...giggles.
(Not long after, She discovered the blue food coloring hidden on the clove-noses.)

We are all excited for the next installment of fun family food! 

Shy observation

I picked Chloe up from her YMCA camp. As we were walking out to the car she told me that she's noticed something about her shyness.  She sais she's only shy when me or another parent or grandparent is around.  She's not shy when she's on her own.

I've noticed this before- She is there, well adjusted all day, then when we pick her up, she doesn't want to say good-bye or wave or talk to anyone. They always seem a bit confused as to why she is suddenly not talking to them as before.  I'm sure it was this transition dynamic that sparked her to notice this about herself. 

I asked her a couple questions about it and told her it was good that she noticed something about her feelings.  She didn't seem to know why this happened, or how I could help her feel better while she was around me.  But I told her I'd try.  And I do, I will.  I didn't continue to press the conversation, I just wanted to leave it where she felt good about observing herself.  An important lesson. 

There is a balance there, somewhere, betweeen pushing her too much, and "enabeling" her too much in these social situations.  Abby and I strive to empower her, and stoke the fire from within- while also teaching her about social graces.  Admittedly, this is one of the balances that has been challenging for us to find.  We hope that at the end of the day, she knows we are on her side.

That Girl's Got Jokes

Chloe has a long way to go before she becomes an award winning actress, but what she lacks in believability, she more than makes up for in her dramatic displays. ;)

So, this evening I said something that she didn't like very much, and she let out one of her signature fake cries. (If you've ever spent more than an hour with a 7-year old girl, then you know what I'm talking about.) It's like an overly dramatic death scene - you saw that guy get shot in the heart, and, maybe at first you felt a little concerned about him, but now that he's sputtering, stumbling, and spewing repent...you're over it. A child's fake cry is eerily similar.

So, anyways, while I was "looking at the ceiling", Kendra called Chloe over to her and asked, "Honey, you sound sad. Are you real sad or just pretend sad?" Chloe said that she wasn't sure and Kendra scooped her up onto her lap. Then Kendra made eye contact with Chloe and said, "Maybe I should tell you a little joke...to...ge-". As soon as the word "joke" crossed Kendra's lips, Chloe was completely buckled down in laughter. She couldn't stop and it only got more uncontrollable as Kendra implored her to "go ahead and stop laughing if you can...oh yeah, that's okay, I'll wait right here while you finish up." ;) When Chloe settled down just a bit, Kendra would say "joke!" and it would start all over again.

When you're an active parent (as we are), it can be easy to over think things. Sometimes, you just gotta stop thinking all at once and ride a different wave for a bit. I was happy to see Kendra and Chloe riding the same silly wave tonight.

Her vote counts for Pride.

One of the things we've wanted to do for Chloe is to be the first to talk to her about Gay and Lesbian issues, laws, etc.  We want to be sure that she has confidence and knowledge around these topics before any unsupporting people talk to her about them.  So, one afternoon, I started a conversation with her about what it means to be gay, and that she has a home with two lesbian moms.  These are things we've talked about before, but I wanted to start off on common ground.  She remembered well, and approached the entire conversation as if it were no big deal.  I was relieved, of course, and didn't try to make it any more of an issue.  Then I asked her if she knew that some people didn't think that lesbians or gay men should be couples. She said she'd heard about that before. She told me that she knew they were wrong, because she loves our family, and she said "I don't really care if Abby is a girl or a boy, I love her just the way she is- and I love our family just the way it is."  I smiled and squeezed her.  I told her I love our family, too. Then I asked her if  she knew that right now it is actually illegal for us to get married.  She whipped her head toward me with big eyes and said "huh?" in a little squeak.  She was so surprised. I told her that years ago, a lot of those people who didnt want gays and lesbians, made a law that said we couldn't get married like everyone else. I explained to her about the laws and how getting married isnt just about having a wedding.  Then we talked about how now, all the people who know it's right to allow everyone to get married are working really hard to change the law so it is right and fair. She was immediatly relieved and happy. We talked about the upcoming vote in November and how it will be wonderful for everyone to be able to marry anyone they love, no matter what. 
I explained voting and how we need to make sure everyone who wants the law to change absolutely needs to vote.  She said, "How do you vote?  Raise your hand?"  I giggled and explained it to her.  When I told her that anyone who is older than 18 can vote, she was surprised and dissapointed that she couldn't.  I assured her that Abby and I would take all of her voting energy and add it to our votes.  That way hers could count through ours.  She knew it was a bit silly, but she felt a bit better. 

It was a short conversation, but an important one.  We are making sure to talk to her about important stuff in short talks but frequently enough for her to remember the last time.  Each conversation has a little bit more detail and she is doing really well. 

A new family favorite

Abby heard about the idea to make home made pizza on the BBQ. So we decided to give it a shot! We got a simple dough recipe from a friend with minimal ingredients (yay for no chemicals and preservatives), then made a stop at the store for some toppings.

Abby and Chloe flattened pieces of the dough with some flour, and Abby BBQ'd the crust. Meanwhile, Chloe and I got the toppings ready. We all came inside and topped our dough before putting it back on the grill to finish up.

And it was SO good. It was among the best pizza we've ever had. And we had a great time making it together! We all agreed that it is now one of our favorite family dinners.

Then, with the leftover dough, we gathered some dessert ingredients and made some individual dessert pizzas! I used cookie butter and some sugared oats for mine, Abby used butter and strawberry/vanilla sugared one of her ideas, and Chloe decided to squeeze some of her liquid strawberry lollipop on hers, then added marshmallows, mint cookies, sugar, and cinnamon. It looked...thorough. We also made a family one that we all thought of together... Cookie butter, crumbled nutter butter cookies and marshmallows. Chloe got nervous about her own very creative dessert pizza, and all of its varied toppings. She did end up eating a couple small pieces of it, but she mostly enjoyed the family concoction.

Watermelon

She never gets tired of watermelon.

A good helper

I remember pushing the grocery cart for my mom. I always thought she was being nice and letting me do it. Now I know whats true! She was happy the day my brother and I were big enough to push for her and glad to pass it along. I had that day yesterday. It's so helpful to have someone so enthusiastically following you with the cart while you shop with your hands free, and at the same time have your kid occupied and entertained!! At first Chloe thought she couldn't do it, but with a little bit of encouragement, she was excited. She was playing a lot, but the store wasn't too busy and I didn't want to ruin the moment. She needs practice on turning, stopping, and going slow...okay, it was kind of a mess a couple times, but she did good for her first try and considering the fact that she can barely see over the handle. I even let her "ride" on the back a bit as she was pushing. I remember my brother and I got pretty rowdy with those things sometimes. I don't think I'd be able to handle watching her do anything super dangerous, but I was smiling watching her have fun and mess up and practice. She was getting grins and smiles and words of encouragement from other shoppers.
One of the rules we have when we are out at stores is that she can't ask for things. If she does, the answer is no. This rule has one exception: if she's asking for fresh food. We will always buy fresh food for her within reason, so to be sure it won't go bad. This time she asked for watermelon, oranges, bananas, a cucumber, and kale. We got one of the little seedless watermelons, and considering we no longer get plastic bags from the store I of course, forget my reusable bags, we carried our food in our hands. I have Chloe her watermelon she wanted. About half way to the van she wanted me to carry it and let me know how tired she was getting. But I had her stick it out. When we got home she started asking if I'd take the watermelon, then she stopped and said she was going to take the melon and the cucumber at the same time. I told her I was glad she changed her mind and decided to try hard.