presidents

2 pieces of background information before I jump into the story.
1. Last week in honor of President's Day, A.'s school talked about presidents all week.  They had pictures of the George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Obama on the wall.  They colored pictures, and I guess they talked about them during circle time.
2. Each week, we give A. money to "give to Jesus" during the offering at church.  Usually its 2 coins because she thinks its so much better to have 2 things than 1.  In her opinion, 2 pennies are better than 1 dollar.

Today at church, I didn't have any change.  Oh, the horror... Anyway, I gave her a dollar.  She looked at it and said, "Thanks for George Wash.  Can I have Obama too?"  It is a good thing that it was during a song and not a silent prayer because I laughed out loud.  I definitely know that she's paying attention at school!!

yelley yellerton

We've been having some trouble with A. yelling.  This is not a AAAHHHH but a "No, Mommy, Stop it."  Imagine starting to say the blessing before dinner and getting an emphatic "NO, I DO IT."  I just about jump out of my chair.  She also yells at the dogs, "COOLEY GET IN YOUR CRATE."  Its so loud that instead of going, he cowers in the corner.  I am somewhat of a jumpy person but everytime this happens I react so she gets my attention; hence the reinforcement of the yelling.  We've been trying to either not respond at all or make her start her statement again but wow does that get old fast.  So, any advice on how to wrangle in a 2 year old screamer?

friendship day

A has her "Valentines Day" party tomorrow.  I have a problem with this on many levels:
1) Why is the party on the 11th when Valentines Day is on Monday the 14th.  Its not like the kids will not be there on Monday.  When asked this question, her teacher said the school decided since they were celebrating "friendship day" it couldn't be on Monday (she also said she didn't make the decision and thought it was dumb).  Now, what exactly is "friendship day".  I still have yet to figure that out.  Is it different than Valentine's Day because we don't "love" our friends? I understand that we down play Christmas/ Hanukkah etc. so that we don't exclude anyone, though Santa also comes and visits the school, but who exactly are we offending or leaving out by having Valentine's Day on Valentines Day. How far do we really take this, celebrate President's day on the next day as to not offend the Vice Presidents, Vetran's Day on the Friday before to not offend the other service people in the nation.  Seriously?  Its ridiculous. So, A will celebrate her friends tomorrow and everyone else that she loves on Monday... we must keep them separate.
2) A was lovingly taken care of by Oma and Papa from Sunday through Wednesday.  So, we haven't been to school until today.  That means I didn't know about "friendship day" until today.  No problem, just go to any store that sells valentines/ friendship cards and purchase the silly tear apart peices of paper with some crazy catchy phrase.  Well, this dumb mom took her purse to work today and left it at work.  Therefore, I have no money and we must now make our "friendship cards" tonight inbetween school, choir, dinner, picking up for daddy coming home etc.  This is how it went...

1) A is really into it.  We cut our hearts, folded some legs and arms and added stamps that say Love.

2. A stops paying attention and begins to play "empty/ full" while Mommy makes the other 8 cards to celebrate her friends.  So, instead of having a weekend project and talking about loving out friends/ family/ neighbors etc.  A filled every cup in the house with water.  Great lesson.

Final product.  This is one that A actually did with me. 

Happy friendship day to my friends.  I'll celebrate my family and others on Monday. 

PS.  A will be wearing a blue shirt that says "love" all over it rather than the requested red by the school.  This is my way of protesting.