Yesterday my class talked about the election and they wanted to talk to Obama and tell him they were excited he won. After I explained that he probably won’t be making a stop at our school they decided a letter was a better way to go.

Here’s their letter, word for word.

Dear Mr. Obama,

We are in kindergarten.

We go to Dugsi Academy in St. Paul, MN.

We are very excited you are president.

When you won people ran around our houses and yelled “O-BA-MA” really loud. It was fun.

We also had some questions for you. Will you answer them please? Thank you.

1. How are you? Are you excited to be president? (from Asha)

2. How many people voted for you? (from Suad)

3. Do you think you’ll get a surprise being president? (from Mustaf)

4. What is your phone number? (from Zakariye)

5. What school do you kids go to? (from Yahya)

6. Can we see your house? (from Suad)

7. How old are your kids? (from Asha)

8. Are you happy to live in the White House? (from Yahya)

9. Area you good at helping people? (from Roda)

10. Do you want to be president two times? (from Rayan)

Thank you for reading our letter!

From, Ms. Abby’s Class

They all signed their names, tomorrow we are taking a class picture to send along. I’m hoping we at least get one of those form letters back.

I love that my class is very civics minded. They love learning about our country, how it works, how voting works, etc. And they come up with these little projects on their own. I had no plans to write to Barak Obama today but it was something they really wanted to do. So we did it.

Last Friday the kindergarten class was working on a project that required glue sticks. About 100 glue sticks are kept in a bucket on a shelf, the class is free to get a glue stick and use as needed. All the kindergarteners were working quietly in their seats, cutting and gluing away. And at clean-up time glue sticks were being returned to the bucket, with caps on (very impressive). Then it happened. On one of the tables was a giant purple smear. Not an oops-my-glue-sticks-went-off-the-paper smear but a creation of purple, an entire glue stick devoted to this work of art. I asked the class who did it and this pain in the butt kid named Not Me was apparently the culprit. So, I collected all the remaining glue sticks and declared that there would be no more glue stick use until the artist fessed up.

A week went by. A week of me planning fake glue stick activities just so I could give them all the instructions only to end it with “but we can’t do this fun project because we don’t have our glue sticks back yet.”

Today we had another project and this one the class really wanted to do. As I got to the part about not doing it due to lack of glue stick privillages one student raised his hand and asked, “Can we just sit here until the person who did it tells you? I really want to use the glue sticks again.” The rest of the class agreed this was a good plan. And so we sat. For 10 minutes.

10 minutes of students saying, begging, pleading, with the guilty party to just come forward. And she denied it up and down.

Finally another student shouts out, “Do you want to get into heaven? Because if you do you have to tell the truth. If you keep lying, they aren’t letting you in!”

And apparently, all it takes is a little religious guilt. Because the guilty party confessed, told the class she was wrong for lying and using glue the wrong way and promised not to do it again.

And with that the glue sticks were returned and all is right in the world again.

Kevin is homeless tonight. He and a bunch of people from church are sleeping outdoors at the Fair Grounds to raise money for homeless shelters.

Lexi and I dropped him of just before dinner. Here was our conversation in the car as we were pulling away.

Lexi: What’s Daddy doing?

Me: He’s going to sleep outside tonight.

L: Daddy’s not home?

Me: Nope, not tonight.

L: Oh. (long pause) Okay. Let’s go get Chicken and fries and then when my chicken and fries are all gone I can eat ice cream. Chocolate ice cream with chocolates on top.

Me: That’s what you think we should have for dinner?

L: Yes. Daddy’s not home. We’ll go get chicken and fries.

And that’s when I realized that I need to stop taking her to Culver’s when Kevin is out of town (or sleeping outside). But she thoroughly enjoyed her chicken and fries and ice cream. And then fell asleep at 7:10.

Post #1.

Lexi got her hands on my camera. Here’s the world through Lexi’s eyes:

The Laptop

Feet

Lines on the living room floor

Speak and Mazie (or at least part of them)

The living room ceiling - I think she was laying on the floor when she took this.

Lexi: Do you know which one is my favorite bobo?

Me: No. Which one?

L: I like Whistle.

M: Who’s Whistle?

L: (Pointing to Mazie) It’s this one, right here. This is Whistle.

M: You changed Mazie’s name to Whistle?

L: Yes.

M: Kev. Lexi changed Mazie’s name to Whistle.

L: No. This is Mazie not Whistle.

Kev: I’m going to go run an errand.

M: Okay, bye.

L: Is daddy going to Ninevah?

M: No. He’s going to the Hansens’.

L: Oh. Which way is Tarshish?

M: I’ m not sure.

L: It’s that way. (Pointing to her left) and Ninevah is that way (pointing to her right)

M: Okay. Are you going to Ninevah?

L: No. Whistle is going.

M: I thought her name is Mazie.

L: No. It’s Whistle.

M: Okay.

L: Speak is a baracuda.

M: No, he’s a dog.

L: No. He’s an animal. He’s a baracuda.

M: Well, I think he’s a dog.

L: Um, no. Can I get down from the table now?

M: Okay.

L: Jonah does a good job listening.

M: Lexi, do you have poop in your pull-up?

L: No, I just have a fart in my pull-up and you can’t see it so don’t look.

M: I wasn’t planning on looking.

L: I’m going to ride my moose. (riding her moose, singing) Bald women, du-pah-chish, du-pah-chish.

I could keep going with this, but you get the idea of what life with Lexi is like. This conversation took place in about a 5 minute period. She’s now bouncing on the couch singing several songs at once. I think it’s the ever popular Jonah was a Prophet/Every Step I Take/The Breakfast Time Song/Bald Women/God is so Big medley.

About 2 months ago, Lexi saw someone on Sesame Street playing the violin. Now she turns lots of things into a violin. My favorite combo has been the t.v. remote and a safety pin. But her favorite violin is her xylophone. After she’s finished playing she’ll put it down and say “See Dorothy? That’s how I play my violin.” (If you’ve seen Elmo’s world, you’ll understand.)

Kevin is in Chicago for a couple of days, leaving Lexi and I carless. At first I thought it would suck to be stuck at home for 2 days with no real way to get out of the house. Then I remembered how much Lexi loves to ride the city bus. Today we rode the city bus. A lot.

We caught the 67 at 10:00 and rode it to the library. Only to discover that on Mondays the library does not open until 11:30. No big deal. We played in the park, looked at art downtown, ate at Subway and then went to the library. Caught the bus home at 12:45 and Lexi went down for a nap.

After her nap I needed to go to the post office and Target, so back on the bus we went. This time we caught the 67 going the opposite way at 4:00, got off at the post office, mailed our letters and transfered to the 68 at 4:45 and went to Target. We got our supplies, ate dinner and went to wait for the 68 to take us home. Well, after rush hour (which ends at 6:00) it stops coming every 10-15 minutes. And it only comes once an hour. So we waited at the bus stop for almost 45 minutes. During that time Lexi entertained herself by telling us what color the cars were that passed. And she earned $0.50. The guy who was waiting with us was impressed she new her colors so he gave her the change. Go figure. Anyway. The but came. Problem was it got to our stop at 7:00. The 67 (which we needed to catch to get the rest of the way home) left that stop at 6:53. We had to wait until 7:53 for the next bus. I was not too excited about that. But there was a Caribou Coffee at the stop and they have toys for kids to play with so we killed some time there. Lexi was pretty well behaved for the whole thing. Considering it took us over 2 hours to get home (if we would have gone by car it would have been 10 minutes at the most). When we got home I still let her watch her Veggie Tales movie that I had been promising her all day long. Hopefully I wore her out and she’ll sleep in past 8 tomorrow.

My favorite part of the day? Lexi and I were on our way home from the library. She was laying around in my lap, jabbering away. Suddenly she stops, folds her hands and says, “Dear God, Thank you for city bus. Amen.”

“So…” She says this at the start of a sentence, often with her hands on her hips.
“Packanoni” Her word for pepperoni.
“He’s got new rain brother, in His hand” translation: He’s got you and me brother, in His hand.
“Ee-oh-pee-opah” translation Ethiopia
While at Underwater World “Look! It’s a zone, zone, zone” This took a while to figure out. Her favorite movie is Finding Nemo and Mr. Ray (the sting ray) sings “oh, let’s name the zone, the zone… and she’s decided that sting rays are called zone, zone, zones
Another Nemo, she retells part of a joke in the movie that starts “so there was a mullusk and a sea cucumber” and then at some point they finish with “with fronds like these, who needs anenimeas?” Lexi will randomly say “a mawwusk and a sea cumber fronds like these who needs ananemies?”
“Really?” We’ll tell her the name for something or what we’re doing and she’ll give us a very incredulious/disapproving, “really?!”
ex:
Us: Lexi, that’s a school bus.
Lexi: A school bus? Really?
She has started calling Kevin and I by our first names and shorting Kevin to Kev.
“PPL” translation peanutbutter
If you ask her what a sea turtle says she will answer with “Dude, totally, sweet” (another Nemo reference).
“Salts and Peppers” is salt and pepper.
She’s a big fan of the letter “w” and points it out all the time.
She calls band-aides “bandanas”
“Spacket” translation basket
For a while she was introducing herself to strangers as a 3 year old named Emily.
“I’m carefulling.” translation I’m being careful.

Today was the last day of GAC (Great Adventure Club). This was Lexi’s first year as a participant and she loved it. (and I loved it because she came home everyday exhausted and slept for about 4 hours.) Her favorite part was the music. She sang the songs, usually adding her own words, did all the hand motions and was right up front jumping and singing. Next year, I’m looking forward to not doing anything - just dropping my kid off and enjoying time at home with the younger one. Although, I’ve said that every year and every year I end up doing something. Maybe next year I’ll do behind the scenes stuff like shop for snacks.

If you’re interested here’s a couple of songs Lexi has rewritten the words to (some are GAC songs and some are Veggie Tales songs):

Original version:

I’ve got love like an ocean, I’ve got love like an ocean, I’ve got love like an ocean in my soul.

Lexi version:

I’ve got love like a lotion, I’ve got love like a lotion, I’ve got love like a lotion in a hole.

Original version:

The Lord has given this land to us
No need to fuss, He knows what He’s doing
We know that He will take care of us
If we will follow Him.

Lexi’s version:

The Lord has given this land two bus

No need two bus, He knows what He’s doing.

We know that He will take care two bus

If we will follow Him.

Great Adventure Club (GAC) started today at church. This year, I don’t have to run it. I’m just teaching the preschool group and so far, it’s been fun. There are 12 kids in my group from 2 1/2 - 4 yrs. old and like every other group of kids I’ve taught I have double the number of boys to girls. It’s fun teaching preschool again, but I’m glad it’s only for 4 days.