It Depends on the Point of View

My daughter is a little.....bossy.  Yes, I know most 3 year old kids can be, but Zoe really, really loves telling people what to do.  For now, people think it's cute (or so they say to my face), but I do worry that someday soon it's not going to be so endearing if she keeps it up.  It's an interesting situation to be in, because I know that I don't want to discourage her propensity to take the lead...that personality trait could definitely serve her well in the future, but I also feel like if she doesn't learn to reign it in, it could work against her in social situations.  I take comfort in the fact that if someone else is leading her, she'll usually follow along happily so I think it's just that she likes to play "teacher" or "mommy"...games in which she is the authority figure are her favorite and most frequent, but in her real life she can go with the flow as much as any other kid her age..sometimes more.  I know, I know--fine line but it's comforting to me right now so just let me have that much.  Plus, she's still so young so I'm not stressing it TOO much for now.  After all, it's pretty funny to witness.

I was telling her teachers that she is really going to miss going to school this summer, and one of them told me that means I have to make sure home is like school as much as I can.  It made me laugh because that is really ALL we do at home.  "Circle Time" is a regular activity and sometimes it can take place as much as 5 times in a single morning.  She has this hilarious, impossible to duplicate "teacher voice" that she uses when she is being a teacher or a mommy.  Once in a while, I'll find myself enjoying a relatively quiet moment during Owen's naptime, when all of the sudden there will be this booming voice yelling "CIRCLE TIIIIIME!!!"  Honestly, it startles me often and one time I actually jumped and let out a little yelp, it was so abrupt.  Although it makes me groan a bit, being told what to do (especially when what I'm doing at that moment involves closing my eyes and relaxing) but really it could be worse.  I mean, I can't blame her for wanting to PLAY right?  Of all the games she likes to play, "Circle Time" is the easiest to go along with because all you have to do is sit there (wherever she instructs you to sit, of course) and listen to her "read" books (which is completely awesome) and talk about the letter of the day and stuff.  She does make you participate but it's usually just as simple as repeating something she says (usually pretty awesome too...the other day, she was holding up an eraser saying "Repeat after me: wuh-wuh-wuh-way-sooooh").

Anyway, school is officially over for Zoe AND Nathan until the end of the summer so we are enjoying some long-awaited time together before Nathan has to find a summer job.  Today though, Nathan did work a bit in the morning and then I went to the craft store by myself in the afternoon!  I went completely hog-wild there thanks to a generous birthday gift from Nathan's parents (thanks Gary and Sandi!)...when I got home we had a blast being outside enjoying the weather and then Nathan grilled and we ate our dinner on the patio.  Yay!  Tomorrow, we're getting all dressed up again to go to Nathan's graduation--WOOHOO!!!  We are so proud of him and all the hard work he's put in these past couple of years here...so happy to have the chance to cheer for him and see him in his cap and gown!

I haven't felt particularly inspired to do much crafting these last couple of weeks, what with the sleep deprivation and the trip to Boston, but we have managed to fit in some fun activites:

I got this idea for Owen from TinkerLab the other day.  I was excited when I saw it because we go through so many of these big yogurt containers, and I happened to have a big bag of fabric scraps from The Lion King kicking around our apartment.  I brought them home for Zoe when she was a baby and I was working there, but since she grew out of playing with them they've been sort of sitting around doing nothing...

Zoe and I made some granola from this great kid-friendly cookbook my sister Emily got for me for my birthday.  It's called Salad People and it's written by the woman who does the Moosewood cookbooks.  It's so great and the granola was really really easy and soooo tasty!

I got some big balloons at the craft store and decided to fill them up with a little water (not very much, so they wouldn't break easily) and just gave them to her to see what she'd come up with.  It kept her busy for at LEAST an hour and I know she'd be happy to revisit them again at any time so I highly recommend this activity....

Throwing them down the hill...

Spinning and hurling them...

Talking to them like babies...

Catching them in her butterfly net...

No idea.

I also got her that butterfly net at the craft store, and although she looked and looked, she never found any bugs to chase and catch with it.  When we got home, I gave her a little shoebox and told her to set it up so that when she DOES catch bugs on another day she'll have a comfortable place for them to be....she worked on that for a while too and was really proud of the result...

She did end up dumping it after dinner when she realized it had gotten "all messed up", and was pretty upset but she recovered quickly and I know she'll be more than happy to do it again the next time we're enjoying being outside!