Death

Today died Betta fish that Gwenchik got for her birthday. She cried, and cried, and cried... she felt responsible as she sort of neglected it, though, I suspect that the fish was, unfortunately sick, to begin with.

Life and fun

Gwenchik was working on a math problem and George explained that she really needs to solve it first before going to a Halloween city festival, as math is more important that festivals.
Gwen: But festivals are fun. What is the point of living if you do not have fun? Don't I only live once?

What good is an uncle?

When Gwenchik was really young, we were trying to discourage her sticking out her tongue at everyone everywhere and agreed that she could only do it to her uncle Roddy, but to him as much as she wanted to. He would visit once or twice a month and she would stick out her tongue, but for the rest of the time she would have to hold it in.

Today Gwenchik was reading comments left by her uncle.

Gwen: Next summer I should go to Russia to visit my grandparents and my uncle. Lately I feel like sticking out my tongue, but I can't. I can't stick it out at you, because you will get upset; I can't at school, because this is inappropriate. So my only recourse is my uncle and he is far away in Russia.

The judgment of Paris

I was cutting George's hair this morning.
Gwen: Why are you cutting Dad's hair?
Me: I like it when he wears it short, it looks neater.
Gwen: But why does he have to cut it? Only because you like it that way? I like him with longer hair. And now that winter is coming it is better to have longer hair, isn't it?
George: I want the hair cut that your Mom likes.
Gwen: That is not fair. You should listen to the person who spends more time with you and has to look at you more. And that person is me!  You drive me to school in the morning and when you get home from work you play board games with me -- all you do with Mom is sleep and how does that count?

Why kids lie...

Gwenchik saw a chapter in the book "Nurtureshock: the new thinking about children" a chapter heading "why kids lie" and was surprised that people write books about it.
Gwen: Isn't that obvious?
Me: Do you know why?
Gwen: Of, course. Firstly, they lie not to get caught doing something bad; secondly, kids lie to not upset their parents; and thirdly, kids lie because they think that they can get away with it. Why is the book so thick?

Always 30 years

Gwen: How come in your diary you write pages and pages of stuff and I only wrote four sentences?
Me: Well, I started writing when I was your age, around eight years old, and now I am thirty eight, so I had many more years to learn how to write in my diary.
Gwen: So you will ALWAYS be thirty years older than me? That is a bit sad....

Risk taking

We went to the ocean during high tide while on the Cape. Gwenchik rushed down to the water rolling up her pants as she ran along.
Me: Gwenchik, please be careful and watch out for waves.
Gwen: I do not want to. I LIKE taking risks, because it is an adventure. I need more adventures in my life! Also you are here so nothing can happen to me, right?
........
8 years old -- needs adventure???

Beloved Munchkin

Well, Munchkin is our game of choice now. After our first tournament, there is a lot of improvement -- she doesn't get upset, actually reads the cards and starts to strategize! Played two games yesterday and two today. Each day she won one game, so she is very satisfied :)

Overflowing day

Gwenchik did her math homework in the morning, than went to Tae Kwon Do to test for a green stripe on her belt (she got it) and off to MIT to celebrate with Mexican food. Than we lucked out and managed to bike along the Charles river for 2 hours before it started to rain. Back home we organized our first kid-friendly board game  of "Munchkin".

Every Saturday seems to be overflowing with activities, so tomorrow just math and recovery time :)

Secret language

At her Tae Kwon Do class at the end of sparring partners have to bow to each other and say "kamsamida"
Gwen: Mom, I think I am the only one who knows that "kamsamida" means "thank you" in Korean (she picked up a few Korean words from our movies and travels)
Me: Isn't it great to understand another language?
Gwen: Well, actually I do not like when people understand Russian, because than I no longer have my "secret language". And it is so nice to be able to have secrets and only share with chosen few -- makes me feel spacial.
.....
Ahh, in a short time she would probably want the opposite, to blend in, so it is nice that she appreciates knowing another language right now.

Birthday party behind us

Gwenchik's 8th birthday celebrations are over now. This year she had three of her friends for a sleepover (they only settled down around 11:30 pm) and next day another 14 or so friends for a lunch party. The weather refused to cooperate (second time in 8 years, so can't really complain) so our plans for the outdoor party with "capture the flag" theme failed miserably.
Friday evening I came up with about 10 games we could play indoors and it turned out to be a blast. We didn't even manager to play all of them before kids had to leave... It is so stressful, but I love these parties as I get to feel like a kid again :)

Birthday girl!

As it is became a tradition, we woke Gwenchik this morning by bringing presents to her bedroom. The sleepy head as usual started to protest and demand another 5 minutes, but jumped right up when she realized that it is her birthday and time to unwrap the presents.
This year she really wanted a betta fish and have been asking for it for a few weeks now. And yesterday she reminded that we should definitely wrap her fish up, as it is, after all a present and a surprise (well the  kids logic these days...)

Gwen: Oh, my presents!!! Where is my surprise wrapped fish?
......
She said that she was afraid till the last minute that we would not get her another live creature --- we do have two cats already, after all  :)

Pizza

We are planning the upcoming birthday party, while chewing on a nice caramelized onion pizza from Trader Joe's.
Gwen: Mom, for my birthday we should get cheese and pepperoni pizza only... you know, most of the kids out there do not appreciate nice pizza. I do, but I want to keep it a secret to stay cool.

Full day

Today we barely stayed home and Gwenchik loved it! Went biking along Charles River in the morning and than wandered around MixFest at Esplanade. Bikes on the rack and off to Union Sq for a lovely festival of accordion music among the local crowd. Directly from there to a friend's house with lot of kids.

Got home around 9pm, totally exhausted, but Gwenchik wanted a repeat for Sunday.
Thank God for math class Sunday morning :)

Crush update

As we are walking back from school, Gwenchik just gives me one word answers to all the questions about how her day went. Such a difference from just a few days ago. So I prodded about her crush (he sits right next to her).

Gwen: Well, he is no longer as fun and interesting as he used to be. I remember last year he was so much fun, but now that he is sitting next to me he is kind of average... and I think he is starting to mix with the bad boys in class.
....
Oh, the disillusionment comes so fast.

Ms. President 2

While we are studying Spanish, which we haven't touched in over a year, Gwenchik is surprised that she remembers so many words.

Gwen: Wow, I guess Spanish is not that hard. Presidency, here I come!

Ms. President

Gwen: You know that I can actually became an American president, because I was born here.

Me: Yes you can. But it is really hard to become a president -- you have to learn a lot of things and study really hard.

Gwen: Well, I already know Russian, which is hard. So when I become a president and could actually talk to the Russian president without a translator.

Me: It is great that you know Russian, but you really need to learn Spanish as it is becoming the second most spoken language in America.

Gwen: No, Spanish is way too hard. Ok, I better be a doctor.

First day at school

My God, Gwenchik is already in third grade! She got up really early today to prepare for the first day at school -- uniform, braids and to come up with the "cool list" for the intro circle.

Me: You went to Toronto this summer.

Gwen: Everyone goes to Canada, what's cool about that?

George: You have two cats, one of which has six toes.

Gwen: Wow, that is actually cool.

.....

Me: Your Dad works for Google.

Gwen: Oh, I forgot -- Google is really cool!

New class, old crush

Today we stopped by the school for a brief introduction to the teacher. She looked pretty strict, so Gwenchik is worried. And her friend from last year is in another class, so future didn't look all that rosy. However, she read her class list and realized that her all time crush is in HER class.

For the next three days all we talked about if he would like her or not; how to behave as, of course, she can't just like him or play with him and playdate is out of the question..... Oh, the angst.

And all the discussions were away from Dad, as obviously he is a boy and wouldn't understand this :)

Hurricane Irene

Gwenchik helped prepare for the hurricane Irene --- flashlight, bottled water and snacks. Two days later

Gwen: The news lied! Not once did we have a power outage. When is the next hurricane?