Stuff Jo Knows ...: (58 Months) - 4 Years + 10 Months

At 4 years; 10 months, she can now:
Snap her fingers with both hands, which she practices on a near constant basis, even when she's falling asleep at night.
Open the mailbox alone.
Consistently swing all by herself.
Kind of whistle through her teeth.
Buckle her carseat seatbelt.

This last month (and maybe a few days extra) included:
First official sleepover (without the parents) with Mila, Christmas, New Year's, many snow/ice days and school cancellations, a snowy backyard bonfire and then another huge one to burn the Xmas tree, and the Portland Women's March.

"Why do all the people in the world have noses? I think it's boring."

Francie, eating minestrone soup at dinner: "I'm full. I'm not very hungry."
Mama: "Teacher Wendy said you had a hard time pooping all day. Maybe you should drink a lot of water."
F: "I pooped in Teacher Liz's class."
Alex, giggling: "On the floor?"
F: "Noooo, silly."
Mama: "Did you wipe your own butt?"
F: "Mmmhmm."
Mama: "Did you get it all clean?"
F: "Well I don't really know," she shrugs. "Because I can't see my own butt anyway."

Talks in what I call a "baby voice," but really it's some weird articulation things that drive me bananas. As an SLP, I'm probably doing everything wrong my drawing attention to it and correcting her so frequently.

"Long long ago when everything was different, people just slept in boxes."

Sometimes she takes an eternity at bedtime, with me laying with her til past 9. On occasion, this makes me irate and then family ends the night with angry parents and a tearful child. Most of the time, I so much enjoy the side-by-side time with my Bean.

I've been organizing my office. On one of the "freezing rain" homebound days I was doing a lot of this work in the living room, including a plastic tub to store some things in the basement. The Bean was doing a great job playing pretend - wearing a swimsuit and pretending to be sailing; being a baby in a crib ...
"Long, long ago when everything was different people just slept in boxes."

She puts her initials on everything these days - tagging "FLC" like she's part of some kind of mysterious preK gang.

Naps only occasionally at school. Regularly does a 1-hour Quiet Time at home.

Has developed some stereotypical Only Child traits, such as CONSTANTLY interrupting if it's the three of us during dinner, as though she is competing for attention.

She had her first official sleepover with Mila.

She went to the Children's Nutcracker at PSU. She said she enjoyed it, but she was super antsy and restless through the whole thing, at one point even saying, "Can we take a break and go to Starbucks and get a snack?"
After the performance Alex asked her if watching the Nutcracker made her want to be a ballerina. To which she responded, scoffing, "No, I'm gonna be a construction worker!"

Christmas Eve dinner. The Bean is telling joke after preschool silly joke.
Beebee: Do you know any dirty jokes?
Francie: Yeah! (Giggle giggle).
Mama: Oh yeah? Like what?
Francie: About mud!!

She received a rosary from one of my aunts for Christmas, which has only amplified her "devotion" to Jesus and being a "Christian." For example, one day she was wearing her towel on her head around her face and said, "Look, I'm Mary."
Me, washing dishes: "Married? Or Mary?"
Francie: Mary. Like God's mom.

For Xmas she also received (from me) a long skirt, lipstick, and her first sports bra, to "hold her boobies in."

At Powell's, she spots one of the books by Mindy Kaling, with her photo on the cover.
F: Look! It's Mindy!
Me: Oh yeah, we really like her, don't we.
F: Yeah! She's our best friend that's on TV!

Together we were watchiing the Winnie the Pooh Christmas movie, where he vows to never eat honey again.
Me: I guess Pooh is my Spirit Animal.
Her: And Tigger is mine!

We enjoyed a wonderful holiday celebration at home with the three of us, Beebee, and Mimi and Papa.
"Mama, this is the best Christmas ever."

"I wish I was a dog so I didn't have to wear any clothes."

"I think I'm gonna use the small potty seat until I have big buns like you."

Watching Gilmore Girls (because we've finished The Mindy Project), Rory's secret BF comes on the screen, a lawyer-type, getting dressed for work. Francie says, "Haha, he's putting a belt on his shirt!" Actually, he's tying a tie, but I don't know that she even knows what that is nor has ever seen one!

On MLK Day I attempted to watch a few different education videos on YouTube (we hadn't been to the library for books in a few weeks, not to mention it had been closed related to the indefinite snow days and all). She was only mildly interested, but her curiosity piqued when I referenced something about how Dr. King was assassinated. Foolishly, I defined the word and explained how "bad guys"wanted to hurt him because of the color of his skin. Then we talked more about skin color, as we have done many times before. A day later she says to me, "I'm safe, no one will shoot me, because I have white skin with pink in it." Welllllllshit. THAT was not supposed to be the takeaway. On the one hand, she's right. She is statistically unlikely to be shot at, in part because of the color of her skin, but also because of many other privileges. Of course I want her to feel safe, so I tried to couch it in a way that she surely won't be shot by bad guys, because she's safe and because of where we live and what year it is. I feel like a bit of a liar telling her this, knowing damned well there are plenty of kids her very age who are so much less safe than she is.

Her latest art installment is entitled "The Hotel of the Open Mind" - a three-painting series by FLC: 1) "The Door Handle of the Open Exit," 2) "The TV of the Open Mind," and 3) "The Empty People." Like whoa, that's some deep, deep shit.

Pre-Children's Nutcracker, wearing her new blue satin dress, and Great Aunt Patty's petticoat!

Mama and Francie at the Nutcracker.

Closeman Family Holiday Card.

Lighting candles at the Christmas Eve service at the UU church.

The best "snowmies" eva.

Wonder Woman by day and by night (costume & nightie gifts)

Beebee returned from Costa Rica.

Wearing her new rosary, my obvious reaction with concern, and the awareness that she also has a race car tattoo on her forehead and pirate tattoo on her neck.

Snowy day play include plastic boxes.

Her art has really taken off, this drawing of Elsa, Anna, and Olaf actually looks like what it's supposed to!

Countdown to being 5 - someone is SO excited. Hashtag longest paper chain ever.

Mama and Wonder Woman.

I started a new cross-stitch design to make the Menne Fam, and this is what Francie made. Not too shabby, actually.

Daddy-daughter snowy day backyard bonfire.

Francie's love of snow rivals only Alex's.

Never too much snow to swing.

Flamily winter wonderland walk.

The Mennes were an art theme this month, I think, as Trevor, Rachel, Logan, Max, and Baby Finley are depicted above.

Sledding at Maplewood School.

Our neighbors built this awesome snow cave with Xmas lights.

Just another day working at her daycare.

The snowmies gain a third.

Besties Francie and Mila.

Bestie selfie.

First gymnastics class, at Garden Home Rec.

The only kid in an actual leotard. I swore I'd never let her do gymnastics, because of the nature of the sport and my own experience with it (for starters, the entire competition is based on starting with a perfect score, and then getting deducted for every human error you make). That said, I also swore I would led my kid/s be involved in whatever activities intrigued them. So she asked, and I responded. And it's fucking adorable to watch.

Wild Feminists at work, and home prepping for the march.

Three generations out in the PDX rain showing their support for women everywhere.

Daddy daughter marchers.

Although I assisted with the spelling, this sign was 100% her idea, including hanging it on the downstairs bathroom mirror to remind me not to pick my face.