blurb 4- cutting

Caroline LOVES to cut. She discovered this passion at school. (She's now going to the homebased montessori program at which she started in the spring 3 days a week. And she seems quite happy to go. The drop offs, according to Kev, are getting easier and easier.) She will cut and cut and cut. She loves cutting lots of little pieces of paper. She's doing some collage making as well. Her teacher is an artist and encourages all sorts of artmaking. We bought Caroline some scissors a few months ago so now this is a favorite home activity as well. Sometime in the last month she asked to take her scissors and paper into the bathroom for potty time and Kev agreed. He then let her be as it was a long potty break and he had some things to do. When he came back in to help her wrap up this potty break he discovered that she had cut her shoelace. She has one very short shoelace... no attempted haircutting yet...

blurb 3- bodies

For the last several months Caroline has become interested in primary bodily differences and in her former home inside my belly. A few cute snippets that suggest this dawning awareness...

• On the way to church on Easter morning she declared that the Easter Bunny has a vagina.
  
  
• At church a few weeks ago I was helping her in the bathroom and she said "I don't have a penis. Akil (a friend from church) has a penis. When I grow up I'm going to have a penis."
  
  
• Quite regularly now she snuggles up to me and says "Mommy, I want to get back in your belly button. Can I get in your belly button please?"

Blurb 2- "You have a choice..."

About a month ago we were blessed to have some time at Uncle Don and Aunt Debbie's lovely Kentucky cabin. It was a nice change of scenery for my studying and allowed Kev and Caroline some fun day trips and connections with Kentucky friends. We enjoyed having dinner on their screened in porch each night that we were there. Caroline spent a fair bit of time exploring the contents of the porch and she especially enjoyed moving the pillows from their porch furniture around, and, in particular, putting them on the floor and then laying down on them. She was always eager for us to finish eating and talking and to join her in playing. One evening she put the pillows on the floor and then urged Kevin to come lie down on them. He declined her invitation. She then looked at him rather sternly and said "Daddy, you have a choice! You can lie down on the pillows OR... you can take me to the zoo. Hey..." her voice turned from stern to sweet "You want to go to the zoo?"

When the child is the disciplinarian...

first of hopefully many blurbs to come- "She's my sister."

It has been TOO long since I've made a written record of the developments of Caroline Grace As I read and take notes and prep for the biggest exams of my life I keep thinking of things I should get on this blog. SO, trying something new today. In a break between books, I'm going to write up one recent moment/story... hope I can do this a bit every day until I'm more or less caught up! I don't want to forget...

Yesterday was an election day in Nashville. We dropped Kev off at a meeting and then Caroline and I headed to our polling place, a Baptist church about a mile from home. I (shamefully) admit that I was a fairly uninformed voter this time around. I did a bit of research on the candidates for my district's council seat and had made my choice before arriving, but I didn't realize I'd have to pick 5 (!) at-large reps... first five on the list got my vote. Sigh. And I didn't know there was a proposition on the ballot. And I didn't know anything about any of the challengers to the mayor so the incumbent got my vote. Anyhow... this is not the forum for confessions of my democratic delinquence, but thanks for allowing me to get that off my chest. Anyhow... when we arrived at the polling place I said to Caroline "Would you like to help mommy vote?" She shouted "YES!" from the back seat. Not that she knows what voting is... She wanted to bring her little notebook, but leave her bag of almonds behind.

As we came to the corner we needed to turn to get to the proper entrance for voting, we encountered an older African American woman holding a sign for the candidate I had decided I wanted to vote for before arriving. It turned out she is his mother! Caroline took to her immediately and started babbling away about this and that, showing offer her bracelet, and her notebook. The woman, who had been outside in excruciating heat on behalf of her son ALL day (nearly 12 hours at that point) was absolutely tickled by Caroline. As we walked away, Caroline looked back at her and then at me and said "She's my sister!" I turned back and said "Ma'am, Caroline has declared that you are her sister." She gasped, "Well, that's wonderful!" She said, "I'm honored. I'd love for her to be my sister. What am I saying? She is my sister. We're one. You said it, child! You know! " I said "Are you a Christian, ma'am?" She said, "Why yes, I most certainly am! And so is my son!" "Well, then, we truly are sisters in Christ." "Thank you Jesus, yes we are!" (I love however, that she affirmed universal human siblinghood regardless of faith... I would never want to take that premise away from her... she knows something of Christ's intentions surely!!!!)

As we were leaving she delighted in Caroline some more... and said "Out of the mouths of babes... we are sisters indeed."