Not entirely sure how this came about, but Zander seemed to think that he would get a note from the tooth fairy along with some money. (Prior to when the tooth fell out I asked him how much money he thought the tooth fairy would leave and he said "maybe $100 or something." I quickly adjusted his expectations.)
Anyway, this is the note we left (with $1):
Regardless, below is the note I wanted to leave. (Double click on it if it's too small to read.)
Today, Senate Democrats unveiled sweeping health care reform legislation that would expand insurance coverage to millions of Americans and potentially cost $849 billion over ten years.
And also, Zander lost his first tooth...
No, you read that correctly. What we knew to be "Show and Tell" growing up has now morphed into "Tell and Show." It's a good idea really. The child is supposed to come up with three clues about his or her chosen "Tell and Show" item and then relay those clues to the class. The class then tries to guess the item.
We've always left it up to Zander to decide what he would bring, hard as this might be for an over-involved parent such as myself. My stomach dropped when -- for his first "Tell and Show" -- he brought his Taggies blanket. (Would they call him a baby?) But that seemed to go just fine. Other "Tell and Show" items have included: favorite books, a NASA postcard from an astronaut-themed birthday party goody bag, and a mini-torah.
When I ask how it went, he usually proudly says he "stumped the kindergartners." (I'm sure that phrase came from the teacher.) Problem is, I think he thinks the goal is to stump the kindergartners. How I'd love to be a fly on the wall in that class sometimes.
We are really trying hard not to pigeonhole Cassandra . I believe that children will often rise to even unspoken expectations and if we feel that she is the child who will be a "handful," then indeed, she will turn out to be so.
Yet as mentioned once before, she is so different from how Zander was at this age. It seems that she is "into everything" and needs constant supervision. She will bee-line to the one item in a room that is not baby safe. Her latest stage is crying real tears if we take something away from her, say a plug or other item equally unsafe. Her behavior is totally age-appropriate though and we know that.
So, I prefer to think of her as an intrepid and detail-oriented explorer who is hungry for new things and physical challenges. Has a more positive spin, yes?
We were not entirely surprised, however, when her daycare providers (who apparently are not trying as hard as we are not to pigeonhole her) were printing out photos and captions for decorations and gave us this extra one to take home:
Not sure if you can tell from the photo, but she has climbed up onto the table, apparently to get to another child's food.
Got an e-mail with the subject line "cute story" from Zander's religious school teacher the other day. (Still can't believe they call it that.) Anyway, here is the story:
Just wanted to share with you that Zander said the cutest thing today in class. We played a game "I am going to Shabbat dinner and I will bring...."
The other kids said things like chicken, pie, etc. and Zander said he would bring love.
In my response I did NOT say, "Did you ask if he knew what shabbat dinner was?" as I didn't think she'd appreciate that.
Brad attended the Halloween parade and party at Zander's school. Somehow after the festivities, he ended up wearing the pinata as a hat. Somehow the children started referring to him as "Mr. Pinata Head." Somehow after volunteering at both the library and computer lab, the children in the class have come to know me as "wife of Mr. Pinata Head." Nice.
Brad here. This new word is best defined with a brief story:
Brad: "So I have a theory about why the....blah...blah...blah.... Well, do you agree with my theory?"
Zander [slightly sarcastic]: "Daddy, you mean your hypothesis."
Brad [trying not to sound too amazed that he knew the difference between a theory and a hypothesis]: "Wow, you're right. Where did you learn that?"
Zander: "The dinosaur website I have been going to."
I was schooled by a 5 year old. I'm so proud!
