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.