Visions of Tooth Fairy

Gwen: I saw, I saw the Tooth Fairy!

Me: What did she look like?

Gwen: She was all white, just like the teeth with a white bag. The bag was split in two sections -- one for teeth and another for money. She also had a beautiful white wand. She flew into the house and checked to see if I was sleeping... but I was pretending and she didn't understand that I was pretending and peeking, because she didn't have the special magic like Santa to see if I was asleep.

Tooth Fairy inflation adjustment

During our long drive to Toronto Gwenchik lost yet another tooth and was a bit concerned if the Tooth Fairy goes this far north.

Gwen: Will she know that I am in Canada, just like Santa? What kind of money will she give me? Does Canadian Tooth Fairy actually give dollars or maybe dolls?

.....

In the morning Gwenchik got 3 Canadian dollars (a loony and a toony)

Gwen: Mom, the Tooth Fairy gave me 3 dollars!!! Not one!!

My own, personal Daddy

We have been on vacation in Toronto, and George took Gwenchik to a few museums and then almost daily swimming in the pool. So at some point in the day, I wanted to hug them both, and Gwen objected.

Gwen: I have MY own, personal Daddy that I do not want to share!

Uncle enticement

Gwen's uncle is leaving for Russia, so she is really upset and really doesn't want him to go.

Gwen: I made this snowman from popcorn and jelly beans in my cooking class today. I will give it to my uncle Roddy!

Me: Great, I am sure he would like that.

Gwen: I know, and then I can make another one, and another one ... and he will like all of them and will have to stay to eat them all! And I will make one a week -- he'll stay for the entire year.

Future husband considerations

In one of our mother-daughter conversations we got around to talking about kissing and getting married.

Gwen: Who do you think I should marry?

Me: I think you need to wait just a bit more for that.

Gwen: I know, I know... but if I were to get married now -- who do you think would be best?

.....

After my suggestion of a younger boy Misha

......

Gwen: No, ALL husbands are older!

Me: Well, no. You know aunt Yana who is older that her husband.

Gwen: Hmm. She is? Well, I guess Misha wouldn't be that bad and he is more likely to take care of me.

Santa's list

Gwenchik and a friend decided it was about time to write a letter to Santa. So they locked themselves in a room ... 5 minutes later

Gwen: Mom, I need you to help me.

Me: What, with the spelling?

Gwen: No. I do not know want I want and if I do not come up with something --- I'll get nothing and then I will be really upset.

School report card

We got Gwenchik's first school report card this weekend and had to sit down and go over it with her. She is doing great academically and even got a few outstanding, but following the rules and routines are not her strong points.

Gwen: Well, I am doing even better than I thought. They didn't tell you half the things we do in school! :) Yes, yes, I'll follow the rules, but often they make them up as they go along!

Tooth Fairy screw up

Gwenchik finally lost her front tooth in school yesterday and brought it back in a small white tooth shaped box, which was promptly deposited under the pillow. Next morning believe it or not there was a gold dollar in the plastic bag.

So tonight while preparing for bed we found the plastic bag with the white tooth box.

Me: Strange, why there is a bag still under the pillow?

Gwen: The Tooth Fairy forgot to take it with her in exchange for the dollar so she will probably come back tonight with another, don't you think?

After School

We have a GREAT after school program and on the early release days they organize field trips. So far they went to CoCo Water country and to a farm to collect apples.

Gwen: Tomorrow we will go on another field trip! Yeee!

Me: Great that you like them.

Gwen: Oh, I like them more that school itself. We get to run around and have fun instead of sitting in class learning letters. I can read so it is soooooooo boring.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Gwenchik lazily woke up this morning to happy birthday singing and the family crowding her bed with presents (family tradition). She thought to wait on unwrapping presents until the evening when the rest of the family gang would be showing up for the unwrapping of the entire heap of presents all at once -- but changed her mind in five minutes. I couldn't have waited even that long. :)

Gwen: It is my birthday, so I do not have to go to school.

Me: Yes, you do.

Gwen: What is the point of a birthday if I have to be in school on that day?

School till death

Gwenchik got back from school...

Gwen: School is boring.

Me: I thought you had a lot of fun yesterday.

Gwen: Well, yes, but I am done with it now.

Me: You know that you will need to go to school now for the next 12 years.

Gwen: 12 years!!! Till I die!

Oh, the excitement

Fifth day in school, and that after a long weekend holiday break ---- the school is still exciting.

So much so that Gwenchik just doesn't have time for mundane things like lunch.

Me: It looks like you didn't eat lunch at school today. Why?

Gwen: I know, I am starving! You know I was so busy chatting with my new friend that there

was NO TIME to actually eat lunch. Could you pack lunch that I can eat in one minute?

We still have so much to talk about!

Circle time

In first grade the day starts of with circle time. As I have never been through an American school system it is an alien concept to me, but I guess it is a way to connect. So we are discussing how the first day went...

Me: So what did you talk about during circles time

(the only actual activity that I am aware for that day)

Gwen: You told you name and the color you like.

Me: So what was your color?

Gwen: Well, I actually do not have a preferred color and I told them so.

......

Oh my, and this is just the beginning

Tomorrow -- First day of school

Tomorrow Gwenchik goes to the 1st grade. She is so exited and a bit apprehensive.

Gwen: Mom, will you come with me tomorrow?

Me: Yes, of course.

Gwen: And you can stay in the back of the class...

Me: No, sweetie, the school doesn't allow parents to stay during classes.

Gwen: They do not. What will I do?

Dancing

While we were listening to Viennese Waltz in the car and I was describing the debutante balls --- dancing, beautiful dresses...

Gwen: This music is really pretty. Can you dance waltz alone?

Me: No, you always dance with a partner.

Gwen: And I bet it is a boy.

Me: Yes.

Gwen (disappointed): Well, I guess I will not be dancing waltz anytime soon. Boys are so difficult to manage.

Women understand...

While driving to a friend's house, Gwenchik put on a generous amount of lip gloss and before leaving the car asked if she looked sparkly enough.

Me: Yes, though it looks a bit too much

Gwen: Well, auntie Kate would appreciate that. She is a WOMAN!

Downside to growing up

At a playdate with Gwenchik’s friend Nika the girls heard us lament how quickly kids grow up.

Nika: I want to grow up as soon as I can!

Gwen: No, I do not. Because you know if you grow up than your mom dies and I want my mom around. I just do not know how not to grow up.

Birthday planning

Yesterday, before going to bed we discussed Gwenchik's upcoming birthday (2 months). She could barely fall asleep and the next day spent a frustrated morning running around trying to plan the upcoming celebration.

Me: Why don't you write it down, this way you will remember

Gwen: I forgot the letters and they can't catch up with me, because I write so slowly. But I have so many ideas that I am afraid I will completely forget even my birthday because of the concentration required to write!

How come I do not have too...

Again, I got back from work and found out that Gwenchik was not behaving her best with her grandmother. I explained that I only have one mom, and Gwenchik has to take care of her, treasure her and listen to every word she says and do her best not to upset her...

Gwen: I understand. You know, when you get really, really old, I will also take care of you.

Me: I hope so.

Gwen: But you have two fathers, so if one gets upset you always have another one. How come I do not have that? I only have one Dad...

.....

What do you say to that?

Cat relationship

Because Gwenchik was away for almost a month and a half, the cats forgot how to interact with her.

Gwen: Mom, can you believe that Burka sits under the couch and doesn't want to come out to be petted!

Me: Well, she is probably scared.

Gwen: That is silly. How can she not want to be petted?

And so they sit across from each other trying to figure out who will give in first.

Back home

Because is it raining yet again, my parents decided to bring Gwenchik back from the Cape today.

My God, she is brown-chocolate, toned and muscled from climbing trees, riding horses and jumping in the waves.

Me: Wow, you are like a nice piece of chocolate!

Gwen: Yes, and I will not melt, though you probably will not eat me anyway.

Catching up

We finally drove to the Cape, where Gwenchik has been with my parents for the last two weeks.

She refused to go to sleep and waited up for us.

The next hour was a blur of puppet shows, climbing up the poll, swinging on the homemade swings, dancing, storytelling... like a small tsunami.

Nice to be a Mom

Gwenchik and I were doing some yard work: weeding, pulling grass and then feeding our neighbor's rabbits. Most of the weeds collected we decided to carry to our compost bin.

Gwen: It is nice to be a mom.
Me: Why is that?
Gwen: Well, you get yourself a daughter and then tell her to pull and carry weeds to the compost and she has to do it...
....

Mind you she actually really enjoys this activity, but the thought of "exploitation" appearing at 5 years old?

Worldly Mommy

Gwen: You know, that you are the most fun and interesting Mom.
Me: How so?
Gwen: You have been to many countries and you can always tell interesting stories about the world. All the other mothers can't!
.....
I guess our worldly travels in out forgotten life before Gwyneth are appreciated from an unexpected angle :)

Anything for a dog

Gwyneth got home froma playdate where her friend got a dog on loan for a couple of weeks.

Gwen: Mom, I will do ANYTHING, clean my room, eat vegetables, listen to teachers, just please buy me a dog.
Me: Well, dog is not a toy, and you need to be able to take care of him
Gwen: I will. I can collect its poop and I will walk him everyday.
Me: Yes, but you can't walk alone until you are much older, like 12
Gwen: Well, I'll walk the dog and you'll walk me.

Cuteness factor

Gwenchik and I were plotting on how to persuade Daddy to go along with our plans to go buy ice-cream.


Me: Well, it looks like he is not that easily persuaded.
Gwen: Do not worry! I am so cute, I know he will not be able to resist!

Stork 2.0

Most of our friends seem to have two or more kids, and at times Gwenchik get's envious.

Gwen: Mom, can we get a sister for me?
Me: Well, it is not that easy.
Gwen: All you have to do is search on Google! And if we can not find her easily, we can adopt.

Long-awaited second tooth

Finally, after almost three weeks of concerted effort to get a wobbly tooth out, today it happened. Gwenchik ran into the house holding a ziplock bag with a time stamp of 9:05 am and smiling from ear to ear.

Gwen: Mom, my tooth is out! It happened this morning and I had to wait ALL day to tell you!
Me: This is great!
Gwen: So tonight the Tooth Fairy will visit and probably give me another dollar. We will be so rich, as I already have a dollar and 25 cents! We can buy a farm and a pig.
Me: Well, I am not sure if two dollars and 25 cents would be enough.
Gwen: But I have a lot more teeth left and Tooth Fairy will probably give me a dollar for EACH!

And now we walk home...

Gwechik's daycare was teaching about Earth Day, so when George was picking her up she said:

Gwen: Papa, we now should walk home instead of driving the car. Cars cause pollution and than the animals eat that pollution and get sick.
George: It is a great idea, but we live too far from daycare to walk.
Gwen: That is ok, we can walk really, really fast.

Chocolate affect

We went to a party today, where Gwenchik got to play with her favorite friend Lesha and his brother Misha. At some point they were running around like crazy, and Lesha's dad was giving the last warning to behave.

Gwen: Please do not punish Lesha. Really it is not him, he just ate a lot of chocolate, and you know, how it affects the body. So it is really his body, not Lesha who is running around like crazy.

.....................

Gwenchik knows all about chocolate, because if she eats it before bedtime, she has trouble falling asleep. As our normal agreement, today she selected whatever chocolate she wanted to take with her to eat tomorrow, but all the other kids got to eat theirs, hence the craziness :)

Rule interpretation

We have a rule at our house that once we sit at the table to eat, there is no running around or jumping. However, when Gwenchik's uncle came over for a visit, she ran around the dinner table in circles.

Me: Gwenchik, why are you ignoring the basic rules of the house?
Gwen: I am not ignoring, I just not listening.

Tooth Fairy II

So with much ceremony, we put the tooth under the pillow.

Gwen: You know, Ivy at daycare said that Tooth Fairy is not real.
Me: She did?
Gwen: Yes. She also said that Santa Clause is not real. Can you believe it?
Me: And what do you think?
Gwen: I think that they are real, just they do not want you to see them, and because you can't see them doesn't mean they are not real! You will see, the Tooth Fairy will probably sneak in tonight right after I fall asleep.

Tooth Fairy didn't come

Gwenchik had a shaky tooth for the last couple of days. I was woken up really early this morning, because she finally lost her tooth in her sleep and came running, clutching her tooth in her fist.

Gwen: Mom, I lost the tooth in the middle of the night!
Me: Great!
Gwen: But the Tooth Fairy did not come! I put the tooth under the pillow, but she didn't come! And I waited and waited....
Me: Well, you really need to put it in a special bag, under the pillow with much ceremony so that the Tooth Fairy comes. And we can do it tonight.

Mom knows everything

Today was our dairy day for Gwenchik. At least once a week we try to have a daily only meal.
I suggested to top the yogurt and cottage cheese with a bit of honey.

George: Well, just do not give too much
Gwen (watching me making the swirls): Mom know best, really. Knows how much honey to pour, and always when I am lying.....

How I love thee...

Gwyneth will give almost anything for sweets :)

Gwen: Mom, I love you more than candy.
Me: Hmmm
Gwen: Mom, if I had a choice between you and a candy, I would only want you!!!

Wishing on a star

We were walking outside and looked up at the dark blue-black sky where a single bright start was visible.

Gwen: Look at that star
Me: Yes, it is a wishing start. You can make a wish and it might come true.
Gwen: I wish, I wish, I wish Mommy will always be happy and with me!

Just today...

Just today:

Up at 7 am,
left our house around 8 am
math class at 9 am
birthday party at 11 am
opera "Magic Flute" at 1:30 pm
home 4 pm
playdate at 5pm

and the day is not over!!!

Maslennitza

We just survived out annual tradition of "maslennitza" - variety of crepes with different fillings brought by everyone to the table. We had about 14 adults and 6 children. Now that the kids are older, they tend to entertain themselves better. They were running around playing different game, and in general, had very few complaints.

Gwen: I loved Maslennitza. Now, we need to invent another holiday.
Me: Why?
Gwen: So that we can invite a lot of kids.
Me: Well, we can just organize a play date.
Gwen: Sure, but it has to be giant play date with lots of kids!

The God of Fragments

From George

One evening, while we're dining together.

Gwen: What do you think will happen if I take my glass, and your cup, and that mug, and another glass, and another cup, and wrap them all around my fingers?

George: I think they'll all fall to the floor, and you'll have a lot of sharp broken fragments.

Gwen: Oh no. The God of Fragments won't let that happen.

George: Who is that?

Gwen: I have this book, this very old book, all falling apart. This book tells about the God of Fragments. Only this book tells about him. And if the God of Fragments wants, he can put all the sharp fragments together again.

Transpostation discoveries

We just got back from a trip to New York, where we spent all together 2 days, finally arriving back home in Boston in a midst a mild snow storm in the dead of night yesterday. My daughter was counting all the modes of transportation that we used:

Gwen: Bus, tram, mono-rail, train, taxi....
Me: Which was you favorite one?
Gwen: Mono-rail. It was really fast and we were flying through the sky.

Real love

On the way to daycare, Gwenchik was looking over the Valentines Day cards and guessing what she will for sure get today and lamenting:

Gwen: Well, the real Valentines Day is tomorrow. And my real love, Alexei is no longer at daycare. Can we celebrate the real holiday tomorrow with him?
Me: Let me see if we can arrange to meet up tomorrow...
Gwen: I need to think of a real present now.

Future profession

Me: Who do you want to be when you grow up?
Gwen: A parent.
Me: Well, I am talking more about a profession.
Gwen: Doctor-teacher-parent.
Me: How is that?
Gwen: I will be a doctor who will teach parents!

Good question...

Driving back from our math class we were playing our usual word game: the next person has to call out a word that starts at the same letter as the previous one ended with.

We came across the word -- hymn and Gwenchik didn't know what that meant. So I tried to explain and even managed to sing a few lines of the old Soviet Union one that I remembered from childhood. And even though I know that the American one is "Star Spangled Banner" I couldn't remember it. Another word was labyrinth and again I was able to explain it, but then proceeded to tell the Greek myth about Theseus and Ariadne, but couldn't remember the finer points, just the main plot. So we agreed that once we get home we will ask Daddy about both the myth and the hymn and look it up on the internet.

Gwen: Mom if you do not know the American hymn and do not remember why Ariadne was locked with the Minotaur --- what do you know? When I grow up will I forget everything as well?

Pennies to the rescue

I had a really difficult day at work and came home really tired and discouraged. While preparing dinner with George we were discussing our options, one of which was for me to just walk away... Gwenchik was playing in her room, so we were surprised when during dinner

Gwen: Mommy, I want you to be happy! And I know you like working and need to work to make money.
Me: Yes, that is true.
Gwen: But if you do not like it anymore and can't work at Papa's fun place I have my piggy bank. I can give you all the pennies, so than you do not have to work and I will start collecting them again, and give them to you again.

Let's hope she remembers this in 15 years

From George
Apropos of nothing, over dinner:
Gwen: Papa, when I grow up, will you and Mama pick me a husband?
Me: Well, I don't know; most grown-up women want to pick their own husbands, not have their parents do it for them. We can help, I guess...
Gwen: But what if I pick a bad one? One that doesn't know how to drive, or doesn't want to clean the house, or something else? That's why I want you to pick one for me. You're parents, you know who will be a good husband, so you will be able to pick out the right one.

Skeleton

Santa brought Gwenchik a long awaited camera, so on Friday we went to MFA to catch a photography exhibit to learn what one can do with the camera. The picture that my daughter was the most an awe with was a portrait of a man from infancy to death in about 30 frames. She was just amazed!

Today, several days later:
Gwen: I will be very very old when you become a skeleton, right?
Me: Right.
Gwen: 20 years old and than I will become a skeleton as well. I need to start taking pictures now.

Presents from Santa

Gwenchik woke us up really, really early today and came rushing into our room jumping up and down.

Gwen: I got presents from Santa!!! And I got my CAMERA, real camera now so I do not need to behave well until the old new year. (we accidentally left all of the presents out not just the one)
.....

Traditionally, Santa brings one present on the first day of the year and another one on the way back to the North Pole, the old new year on the 13th, for really good behavior.

Gwen: Mom, and you got a really small box. Can this be a real present? What can possibly fit into such a small box? I thought you behaved well all year.