Parental Fail of the day: It's 10:50 and Mabel is finally in bed.

Parental Win: Mabel spilled her drink on the floor and was going over the method of how to clean up a spill and the importance of keeping a house a clean. At first I felt proud, but was beginning to worry she about her inheriting some OCD from me, so I said: "but that's not really what's most important." Mabel said, immediately, without any more prompting. "No, what's most important is people dying and being homeless or clotheless or foodless or loveless.

In trying to raise Mabel with some fairly complex ideas about the world, it's neat to see her reactions and take on things. I have her as a total Bernie fan, and she knows Trump is no good. We've discussed the importance of healthcare and particularly preventative rather than curative care. She actually jumped up and started dancing and cheering when I told her that Bernie supported a single payer system.

Some rather amusing misconceptions:
More people in this country are black then white, right?
Donald Trump's brother was already president.

Mommy: If we had lived in Egypt then we would have been slaves too.
Mabel: I thought only Black Jews were slaves.

So proud of my little geek

I suppose most parents spend at least some (if not a great deal) of time envying other children. I know that my kid has probably been the source of envy for a good many parents. She's always been smart, well behaved, disciplined and done well in school. Nonetheless I find myself frequently worrying about the opposite of what most parents probably worry about. "Is she taking enough risks?" "Why won't she run around more and be more energetic?" "Does she have to follow every single rule to a tee like that?" I know, it's laughable. Still, I really wish she would learn how to ride a bike!

Nonetheless, I find myself with the silliest irritations:
"Mabel, for the 5th time, please stop reading that book!"
"No, it's not time to do your homework!"
"If you don't do what I say, I'm going to take that workbook away from you!"
Yes, I can actually threaten my kid with taking away workbooks and bribe her with brussel sprouts.

Today, her joke was "I were..."  "It's incorrect grammar!" Mabel just died laughing at this.

So, today was my day of gratitude for my little geek. I picked her up from school where I ran into her piano teacher, who raved about how good she is and asked if she was in gifted (duh!). When we got home, she asked if she could do her gifted homework (which isn't due for a week). I had to coax her into taking a quick break to help me make rosemary tofu. We ate dinner - tofu, rice, Brussel sprouts, which she loves. She made a grammar joke which she thought was hysterical. The only problem with her doing her gifted homework was that we didn't have time to practice piano before dinner. She totally understood and agreed about doing what you need to do first and what you want to do second. She took a shower all on her on - start to finish, yay! Then read books. Which still remains one of her favorite activities.

Mabelisms

If Donald Trump wins, then we'll probably have to move to Israel and I'll have to finish the school year at Hebrew school. Probably Rabbi Josh will have to move to Israel too.

Mom. At 6 and 5/6, Mabel has definitively decided I am "Mom" and not "Mommy" or "Mama" as I have always been. She has gone so far as to scratch the name "Mama" and replace it with "Mom" on a Valentine's day card for me. She gets angry when I accidentally refer to myself as "Mommy." Well, tonight I had my first glimpse that she might not be totally grown up yet when she asked if I wanted to play "Baby and Mom."

Exactly. She way overuses this term. For example, shortly after Mabel discovered the joy of riding on a bicycle while standing on the pedals, she discovered the pain of falling onto the seat from standing. When I asked where she was hurting, she said "exactly in my vagina hole."

Some choice insights of Mabel's during one of our many conversations about how money is not what's most important:
"but food is more important than recess."
"If you felt happy about a new dress, how long would that happiness last?"
"I don't know, about a year?"

I would vote for Bernie because then the government would pay for all the healthcare. And then if you get sick, you can go straight to the doctor.
Anything else?
And because he seems like he would be nice to everybody.

Mabel: That was almost perfect.
Mommy: Why wasn't it perfect.
Mabel: Because nothing is perfect. But it was awesome.


Mabel: "Did Parkside win the game"
Mommy: "No we didn't."
Mabel " But did we have perseverance?"

"I can't taste the lactose in my milk"

"churn" - at 6 years old, Mabel finally discovered that the word she has been pronouncing as "churn" was actually "turn."

Mabel sees an interesting pattern in her miso soup (probably thinks it's "aesthetic", from hanging around Frances). "Can you take a picture of it mommy?" then "Can you post it to Facebook?"