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At bedtime, Sparkle read to me for twenty minutes solid by her suggestion!  Usually, it is a battle to get her to read the little send home packet books, and she wants to be DONE, turning inside out, after about five minutes.

We read "Gordon's Whistle" and "Henry's Sneeze." She attempted hard words, and tried to make the people talk with inflection. Now, these are stories she has heard me read before, and has seen on Thomas the Tank Engine videos, but she was not reciting memorized lines, she was reading for herself.  It is funny how words like "engine" and "station" and "funnel" and "fitter" roll off her tongue, but words like "puff" become "peep" and "screeched" become "Shouted" instead.

Word anticipation let her get some of the words.  Right after "Fat" is the word "Controller."  She knew that one from my reading.  I could tell she was processing meaning, because after she read "Fat Controller," she said, "That's Sir Top'em Hat."  She also turned to me and winked when Henry the Green Engine "winked...like this."

I am so full of joy right now!

In addition, Sparkle was a trooper going to several stores tonight.  We went to two music stores looking at banjos (all the cheap ones from summer sold) a pet store for a kitty calming collar for Harley, and the grocery store for prescriptions.  I told her what a good, good girl she was all evening, and she beamed soooo big, and then let out a big sigh, and I swear fell asleep nearly instantly.  Amazing.


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At the birthday party, Sparkle displayed some of her new social skills.  She asked for a turn during some sharing time, colored along with every one during the craft T-shirt making, and sang during the Birthday Song.

Read more... )
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I was at Toys R Us, having Sparkle pick out a toy for a friend's birthday party.  She'd picked out Dr. Girlfriend, and I was hinting that perhaps a different toy might be better (as neither eight-year-old has ever seen Venture Brothers, and aren't likely to in the future, and I wasn't sure a "Dr.  Girlfriend" would go over well.)

We still had Dr. Girlfriend in the cart, though, dressed in her hot pink Jackie O outfit.  Sparkle stops at the Monster High dolls.  Another little girl says to her very coiffed mother, "Here they are, mom!"

The mother looks at the Monster High dolls skeptically.  "They're kindof creepy," she says disdainfully.  "Like creepy Barbies.  Who makes creepy Barbies?  Why would they even make creepy Barbies?"  She turns to me.  "Do you know why they even make these things like this?"

I say, "Each doll is different from Barbie.  I think the idea is that if you have a doll you love that is really different, and play with them along with your traditional Barbies, then you'll be more likely to think different is okay, and play with different kids."

"I don't want my kids to play with kids like that." the mother stated flatly.

I stood blinking at her, somewhat stunned.  I mean, that's the kind of statement someone might make inside their head, but out loud like that?  Wow.  I didn't know what to do with it and still be nice.  I found myself wondering if the mother was being that way because she could tell Sparkle was different, or because she couldn't.  (Either bad.)

The little girl pointed to the werewolf doll.  "Pleeeease, Mommy?"

"No!" barks the mother.

The little girl turns wistfully to Sparkle, as if seeking support.

"I'm sorry," says Sparkle.  "Your mommy doesn't want you to be friends with me."  And Sparkle took the Cleo (Mummy's daughter) doll for the party.  Stunned, I trailed in Sparkle's wake, thinking there was nothing else I could say, or wanted to, to top that.
judifilksign: (Default)
Since Sept. 19.

My darling husband was sleeping, preparing for his night work at the toy store, restocking and getting ready for Black Friday.  I have been nursing a cold and sore throat, possibly strep.  (A girl sick at school all week was diagnosed with it on Friday.  Since I've had strep 34 times in my life, I canceled most of this weekend so I wouldn't spread the ick if I have caught it.)

Sparkle came to me with the bike helmets, and asked to go on a bike ride to the towers.  I told her I didn't think I could make it to the towers, but we could go on a short ride.

Route 66 )
judifilksign: (Signing)

Tonight, I took Sparkle and Irish to our little townlet's Halloween party for elementary school kids.  It was very well-run, and both kids had a blast.

Super-long! Super fun! Semi-Spooky! )



And it was great family fun.  I have a bit of small guilt for not having helped my neighbor ladies put it on, but we all enjoyed going.  And my darling husband went down and bought baked treats for himself, too, after we came home.


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I have had an upset digestive system for the past few days.  Sparkle has been misbehaving for a good portion of today, resulting in her losing access to the Wii, computers, and all video games.

Sparkle: "If you do not give me MY Wii, I will SPIT on you!"

Me:  "If you spit on me, I will spit up on you. Try me and see. I'm sure you won't like it."

Amazingly, this bit of upmanship appears to have worked.  She backed off from her screams and threats, and is looking at me with frustration. She knows I don't make idle threats, though.

I expect my little tape recorder will remember this line for the future, probably in front of a principal or my boss or something.
judifilksign: (Pirate)
So, not wanting to get wet riding my bike, I got wet swimming at the Y instead.

Sparkle was at the Y's program where on Wednesday nights, they watch the kids swim at the pool.  I signed her in, and swam laps for an hour, content with the knowledge that someone was keeping track of her while I went back and forth.  I could stop as needed, but also not have to worry.  One of the watchladies is one of my former co-workers, so this works out well.

I swam 20 laps back and forth.  36 laps to a mile, so I swam 5/9ths of a mile, or a bit over a half.  I am a bit out of shape since this summer, because I've been slacking off.  Not as fun to swim without someone with whom to gossip as I paddle.

Sparkle let me wash her hair and condition it without pitching an echo wail fit in the changing rooms, too, for which I am grateful.
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two carrot six )

We only went to the first road.  Sparkle said she was chilly, which I think may have been understating, because I in my jeans and long shirt was shivering a lot.  I was also physically very tired, because it is *much* harder to haul Sparkle with me, extra pedaling power or not than it is go go it alone.

But it is much sweeter to go with my sweet girl, and hear her burble happily behind me.  And we made chocolate chip cookies. 

Dino comes home from Band contests soon, after having marched in the Arts in the Alley parade this morning.
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Read more... )
Actual start:
Today was a busy parenting day:  help homework, pick up the kiddo from band practice, go to Sparkle's Open House to meet her current and future teachers, medicine pickup at the store, and by Goodness!  A bike ride.

<cut goes *here*>

The curve under the trees was dark, but it lightened up just past it.  I miss the fireflies.  Clouds came on the west sky as I parked my bike in the garage, and then it was night time.  Made it under the wire!

I am *so* frustrated that LJ won't "cut" my cut tags right any more!  It puts the cuts at the top, and I cannot move my uncut words back up over them, and frustrated Judi is frustrated!


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LOOK! A CUT TAG! )
I wanted a bike ride.  The boys needed transportation to Boy Scouts.  My darling husband suggested that he take the boys for their ride, and I could take Sparkle on mine.



We pulled in as my dh and the boys pulled out, and they boys said they were looking forward to cookies when they returned.
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Sparkle, my echolalaic child, can be counted upon for getting the words right to any song.  Today, as she played Lego Star Wars after her bath, she began singing off-script.

To the tune of "Jingle Bells"

"Jengo Fett, Jengo Fett, Jengo all the waaaaay..."

This thrills me on several levels!
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Jump In With Me! )So, after a long bit of not swimming after J left for the West, Sparkle got me back to the Y tonight, for the ChildWatch pool time.  We arrived to find the inside pool closed and locked up, but the outside pool was open.  It was in the seventies, on a school night, so it wasn't crowded at all.
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My husband gave Sparkle Duplex sandwich cookies.  Y'know, the ones that look like Oreos, but are a chocolate cookie on one side, and a vanilla on the other?

Sparkle took one look at the cookies, and her inner sense of order was offended.  She ripped the cookies apart, and re-connected them to the appropriate colors, chocolate-chocolate, vanilla-vanilla before eating them.
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For my day, and trip, remove the Joo-Janta Peril-Sensitive Cut Tag )So, this is the birthday upon which for at least one year, I am the epitome of the Answer to the Ultimate Question to the Life, the Universe, and Everything.






All in all, a most satisfactory birthday.




judifilksign: (Default)
Today, my darling husband got the seat off, and the trailer on, and the seat back on for Sparkle and I to ride together again!



Want to "ketchup" on our ride? )

All in all, Sparkle and I had a lovely ride again, and I am so happy, and have that good, tired feeling that you get when you pleasantly exert yourself.

Ride 54

Aug. 13th, 2011 08:40 pm
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Went out past the third road today, for a six mile round trip.

Bike 54, where were you? )
The ride tuckered me out today.  An extra mile than usual really seems to make a difference.
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 Got up this morning to get the trash out to the curb, and discovered that it was still in the sixties.  I took the opportunity to hop on my bike and pedal down the path.

bright paths! )

This got me ready to do my homework from my teacher training class in reading.  I'll be sitting down with Sparkle to read with her and see how it goes now that I have my plan ready.
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 Last week was not a good one for me and exercise.  Read more... )

A fifty-wonderful ride.
judifilksign: (Default)
 Sparkle ate ten berries from a bush/tree in our yard. After a call to poison control and a trip to the garden center, we determined they were hawthorn berries. They may or may not make her sick to her stomach, will either make her wired or drowsy, and are not poisonous unless she is allergic to them. I am shaky and upset after my trip to the garden center. Sparkle is unrepentant about eating the berries.

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