Sweet Things Kids Say.

Just a random assortment of things I'd like to remember:

The other day we were outside and Adam picked me a couple of flowers from the side yard, and then very excitedly told me "you can go and put dese in your fwower vase inside!" He was so, so happy with his contribution.

Yesterday, on our stroll to the first day of school, I asked Ellie what the most important thing was about being at school (last year, her immediate answer was "no jewelry.") Yesterday, she said she didn't know, then hemmed and hawed for a moment and said "be helpful and nice to everyone?" Good answer, but not the correct quotation of the Thiel School-going Rules and Regulations - the correct answer is "always do your best and we will always be proud of you." Luckily, she always does her best, and only two days in, we're already very proud of her.

This afternoon before nap, we finished reading Little House on the Prairie. It ends with the family packing up their wagon to move away from their new plot of land in Kansas, because it turns out that they were three miles into "Indian Territory" and the government was going to force them to move out (and then later, force the Indians to go some place else, of course.) The book has a lot of statements about "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" and rather than skipping over those parts, we've been trying to use it as a teachable moment for Ellie. Sometimes society acts like children are colorblind, but they're not. They have to be taught prejudice, but small children notice how people look, and how people are the same or different (last week when our friends Mila and Rahim were here, Ellie talked about how I'm tanner than her, but how Mila and Rahim are darker than Parissa.) As she was getting into bed, Ellie said "in the book, Mr. Scott says the only good Indian is a dead Indian," and I asked her "do you think that's a nice thing to say?" and she said "no. Because we should be nice to everyone. We should treat people how we want to be treated."

And in less serious news, today she told me "Mommy! Adam called me pee-pee-poo-poo-pie!" and instead of scolding, I burst out laughing. So, in short, I'm the best mom.