Cute brother

Gwen: We have the cutest baby! (brother Max)
Me: Of course he is.
Gwen: No, I do not like babies -- they are loud and demanding, but our Max is really cute and always smiling. And I say that not because I am his sister, really!

Boyfriend dilemma

Lately Gwenchik has been very popular in her school and quite a few boys are inviting her over for "playdates".  On the way back from one of these...
Gwen: I had such a weird playdate today.
Me: In what way?
Gwen: Can you believe it, L. asked me to be his girlfriend. I wasn't sure what to say, so I sort of ignored him.
Me: Did that work?
Gwen: No, not only that, he started to hug me. So finally I told him that I am only 9 years old and I am too young for this!!!! And I like someone else more anyways to tell you the truth.
Me: Good for you. 

Indecision

Gwyneth decided to spend her own money (from lemonade stands and presents) to get an ipod nano.
Me: So which color do you want?
Gwen: Which one do you like purple or red?
Me: Red, I think.
Gwen: I want red and I want purple....ahhhh, I can't decide.
......
5 hours later
Gwen: I want red and I want purple....ahhhh, I can't decide.
So we finally agreed that I will buy the color that I think would be best for her!!!

Familiarity breeds boredom

George was picking up Gwenchik from Tae Kwon Do and one of her teammate asked:
Teammate: Is this your uncle?
Gwen: Oh no, this is my father. My uncles are much more fun.
....
Then she saw that Dad heard that and corrected herself
Gwen: No, no. I meant that my uncles look to be more interesting, but in reality you are fun as well.

Is there Santa 2

Gwen: Where do you mail Santa's letter? If I write in Russian ( our Santa is ded Moroz and he brings presents on the 1st of the year) how will the American mail man figure out where to send it?
Me: When you send letters to Russian you write the entire address in Russian and just and "Russia" in English.
Gwen: True. and that seems to work. So do I just ad "North Pole"? Is there a number on his mailbox?
Me: I suspect that he is the ONLY one who lives there, so no mailbox number.
Gwen: What about the elves?

Is there Santa?

Gwen: I know there is no Santa. Everyone knows that all the presents come from parents!
Me: Who is everyone?
Gwen: Everyone at school.
Me: Ok, if you are so sure, than do not write a letter to Santa and you can continue to loudly proclaim that "he doesn't exist" -- it really wouldn't matter if he truly doesn't exist. On the other hand if he does exists, he might get upset and skip our house entirely.
....
Gwen: Well, I'll write him a letter, just do not tell anyone.

Halloween

This year Gwenchik decided that she will be a pirate -- lately there is this pirate theme in her life, partly thanks to the "Pirate Day" celebrated in school this fall. And a boy who was coming over for the Halloween candy collecting though our neighborhood was very surprised at that.
Gwen: Can you believe it, he was surprised that I want to be a pirate vs a princess!
Me: Well, it is reasonable to expect a girl to be a princess on Halloween...
Gwen: I am so done with princesses -- I have been one kind or the other (Russian, Vampire, Pocahontas  etc) almost all my life. Now I am ready for and adventure and that always starts with the unexpected -- a girl-pirate.

Generational likes

We were talking about Gwenchik's friends and who likes what type of music. I mentioned that Lesha likes "classics" like Beatles vs Taylor Swift, who is very popular with 9 year olds.
Gwen: How is that good taste? Why would you want to listen to some bugs buzzing....

Forceful present

It will be Gwenchik's birthday in a week and we were discussing possible presents on our way home.
Gwen: I know what I want as a birthday presents from YOU!
Me: What is that?
Gwen: You should force me to practice music!
Me: What kind of present is that? And it is very, very hard to force you to do anything, especially music.
Gwen: That is why it is a present. You know that I will whine, complain and evade practicing really soon, but I do what to be able to play, so you have to force me, ok?

Appreciation

Gwenchik just got her own violin for music classes at her school. All excited she ran home violently swinging the case around...
Gwen: I'll go practice outside, so that you do not have to listen to squealing noises as I do not know how to play yet.
Me: Ok, if you want go in the back yard.

Gwenchik went into our driveway, sat on top of our car and proceeded to play her new violin. 20 minutes later she walks back into the house.

Gwen: Mom, can you believe it, non of our neighbors appreciated me playing the violin. Only one politely acknowledge  me, the rest pretended not to see me. Can you believe that?

Beauty doesn't get in the way yet...

From Anya
Gwen: I want to climb over the fence.
Anya: I think that beautiful, well behaved girls do not climb over the fence.
Gwen: I am not beautiful now, but will be soon...

Husband problem

From Anya
Gwen: Where is your husband?
Anya: At work.
Gwen: Yes, we always have problems with husbands -- they work all the time, even on weekends.

Brother

Gwenchik was visiting Max in the hospital.
Gwen: Oh, he is so, so cute! You can love him MORE than me now that I see him.

Do not forget

Gwenchik is helping me pack for the hospital (her baby brother is due this week)

Gwen: You should take these 3 pictures of me!
Me: ?
Gwen: So you do not forget me and what I look like, otherwise after labor you might not recognize me.

Insufficient nepotism

George: Gwenchik, you have to unload the dishwasher.
Gwen: But I do not want to!
George: You have to. If you do not, someone else will have to do it.
Gwen: You would rather YOUR OWN daughter suffer than someone else?

Brave

We went to see the movie "Brave" today. As we are leaving the theater, our faces covered with tear stains...

Me: It is hard to be a parent.

Gwen: It is hard to be a teenage daughter.

Me: ?

Gwen: You can't blame ANYONE for what you've done.

Parents still cool

Gwenchik and I went to Target to pick up some supplies, and while their decided to use a motorized chair to navigate the store considering that I am already 8 months along. The chair would make loud noses when backing up and in general attracted a lot of attention.
Gwen: Mom, you are so cool! You do not seem to care that everyone is looking! Can we just ride around the store one big circle?
....
After several circles, and her riding on my lap (against the general rule, but still fun) pressing buttons
Gwen: You are so cool, not like other moms -- you actually know how to break the rules and not be caught doing it -- and when you are caught -- everyone just smiles and goes along!

Results

Just found out that in her Russian Math class Gwenchik got 100% (!) on their end of the year principle test. So all these endless explanations didn't go to waste!

PorchFest

Another lemonade stand, this one at the end of our driveway during the highly successful Somerville PorchFest. Right after coming back from Tae Kwon Do, Gwyneth and her friend set up the stand and we worked as constant couriers of lemonade -- in an hour and a half they made $8; than her other friend showed up and they made another $14 by the time the signing and dancing was over!! And that is at an old price of 25 cents per cup. About $11 for her for about 3 and a half hours (not counting the cups/lemonade)

Touching reference

In the last few days Gwenchik made me two cards -- one, a birthday card for a friend of mine and another for Mother's day. In both she made sure to include yet to be born brother Max... how sweet is that?