Broccoli at school

We've had a sort of deal with Chloe for a while now.  She knows that we would really like her to eat her vegetables at school.  Sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't.  On the days that she doesn't eat them, she has them for dinner- or her after school snack.  This makes a lot of sense to her, and helps us prevent waste. 
We do try and put things in her lunch that she enjoys, not expecting her to really go out of her comfort zone at school.  So, we frequently ask her about her preferences, and she tells us if she thinks of something. 
Recently, she had some broccoli and carrots in her lunch.  She hadn't eaten them at school, so she was having them for dinner.  She asked if broccoli could not be one of the vegetables she got at school. No problem, she eats a fair amount of broccoli at home. 
The next day she was sitting in the counter and said to me- "Mom, I have an idea- How about you put broccoli in my lunch and each time I eat it, I can get two marbles.  That way you can teach me to eat my vegetables at school." 
I was so tickled at her saying this, the idea of her helping with ways to teach her how to be healthy.  I laughed out loud.  I didn't mean to, but I'd embarrased her.  When this sort of thing happens, she feels like I'm laughing at her.  I always feel so terrible.  I try to tell her I just love the way she thinks, and the things she says make me so happy I laugh sometimes.  Still, it doesn't feel good to her.  I try not to have "big" reactions to her precocious moments... but sometimes I just can't help myself. 
I think its a great idea, actually.  But I'm not sure if it is really teaching the "lesson" if she already knows the purpose.... but at any rate, it was her figuring out ways to make good choices and get more marbles.  And that's pretty good to me. 

I gave her carrots and broccoli in her lunch the next day.  She ate the broccoli and not the carrots.  And asked for her marbles.  I'm not sure why I think it's a little silly.... I guess there's no harm done. 

Neighborhood

Lately I'm loving our little neighborhood.  Chloe has a handful of friends right on our block and we are so close to her school.  We have some neighbors who are very friendly and we can ask to borrow things and help them out, too.  I feel good about Chloe "going out to play".  Life is good.

Friday night

Last night Abby made the "Best, most magical" home made Mac n Cheese! Then we had our matching ring-pop desserts while we watched a family movie- Matilda. Chloe loved the clever, smart, magical little girl. Magic abounds.

Chapter books

In the last few weeks Chloe has started reading chapter books. It's been wonderful to see a whole new world open up to her. She started with Bad Kitty books, and on to Judy Moody- which she is really into. And she's just started to read a Clementine book, so we'll see if she likes those, too. Of course I'm so excited I want to get her more and more... But I'll do my best to curb my consumerism and let her take the lead. I'll sit by beaming with pride as our second grader reads third grade books.

Correction: the book she is reading is is "Interest level: Grade 3-5, Reading level: Grade 4.5"
Mommy-pride feels good.

Vegetables

I told Chloe it's not me who wants her to eat her vegetables; it's her body.

Experts

Abby and Chloe have been doing a fair amount of baking/cooking together.  So, they are having a lesson on the kitchen aid mixer. 

After the mixing was done, Abby had to call in the experts for licking the tools.  We did a very thorough job. 

Keeping the picture

We agreed that this picture with sticks and stones will be hard to keep, so we talked about how we could remember it. Chloe had the idea to take some pictures of it and then recycle the rest.  We couldn't put the leaves back outside because they had paint on them, but the rest went back into nature.