Why My Kid is Brilliant

1. We were reading Fancy Nancy and the Book Report, which is about the character doing a report on a biography of Sacajawea.
Josephine: Is Fancy Nancy a real person?
Me: No.
Josephine: Then this book is not a biography, is it?

And she's decided to be Sacajawea for Halloween.

2. Jo brought home a coloring book picture of Minnie Mouse from preschool. All by herself, she cut it out, traced the cutout on another piece of paper, cut THAT out, and then proceeded to copy - draw Minnie Mouse on the blank cutout. And it looks amazing! I'm just so impressed she came up with this idea and executed it - and her drawing talent is awesome.

3. Her new preschool teacher, the very kind Mrs. Cook, told me that Jo's writing ability far and away surpasses other kids her age - "she's ready for kindergarten," she said.

4. As you can see in the picture, she loves studying Asterix books. Today she was reading the book to Sam. And asked me: What are Romans?
I explained about people in the area of modern-day Italy wanting to take over the world...

5. And this was just cute. We sat down for dinner the other, and Josephine, quite seriously, said, "And so, how was your day?" in this very adultish way. Too much. Too cute!

6. Oh, and Why does Sam have a shirt on his head? Because he's pretending to be a puppy, of course. And that last picture is Josephine's sad face...

Boy Locks Himself in Bedroom; Girl Hysterical

I'm trying to get ready for work. The kids are playing some game, as far as I can tell it's "go in and out of mama's bedroom and make a lot of noise doing it."

Then Sam slams the door shut - on Jo's head.

"WAHHHHH!!!!" she wailed.
"Oh, yes, yes," I say, inspecting the purpling bruise. "It's bad, but I don't think he meant it on purpose."
"YES HE DID, HE DID IT ON PURPOSE, WAH," she continued to yell.

I go to my bedroom to get Sam to come apologize and such - still need to put on deodorant - but no. The door is locked.

"Oh no," I say.
"What IS it?" Jo wails.
"He's locked in," I say.
Jo peels off into more wails. "LITTLE BROTHER, OH MY LITTLE BROTHER," she sobs. The night before, her babysitter had complimented Josephine's huge and impressive lung capacity while singing. "She can really belt it out! She sang for ten minutes!" the sitter said.
She had no idea.

"Sam," I say through the door. "Sam, can you hear me?"
"No," comes a soft squeak.
"Sam," I say, "unlock the door." I say it, even though I know I'm talking to a wall. Well, a door. He's learning a lot of words and concepts these days, but this might be above his head.
"Try to turn the -" Knob? Does he even know what a knob iS?
"Little brother!" wails Jo.
"Josephine, that's not helping," I say.

Now, I wasn't panicking, exactly; but I sincerely did not know what to do. I learned how to jiggle open certain interior door locks with the inside of a pen back when Jo was this age - she loved locking herself in her bedroom. But this particular knob looked very different... just not my area of expertise.

Flashes of a story about myself at this age locking myself in a church bathroom and the possible calls to the fire station came to mind.

"Sam, honey, turn the doorknob," I tried a few times.

And, eventually, he did it.
"I did it!" He exclaimed, rapturously.
"MY HEAD!" wailed Josephine, returning to her initial chant.
"Good lord," I sighed, giving them both a kiss and forcing them - nicely, of course - to hug and apologize.

And that was all before 8 am.

MidSummer update

1) Up top photos - Jo's funny hamming it up faces
2) I told Jo and Sam to sit down and they both sat on a step of the stool - too cute
3) You can't tell, but I made their dinner into little happy faces. It did not help Sam eat his, as you can see from the sorrowful big blue eyes.

Not pictured: Josephine laying her brother on the ironing board, draping him with a black silk drape, and singing in her opera voice: "You will die before I do!"

Also, Sam's language is exploding! Full sentences, imaginative play - his little cars take on personalities and give kisses - and the other night, "I take ballet, Mama? I wanna ballet!" Too cute. He's also not crying anymore when he goes to preschool in the morning. And working on the potty thing. They both love swimming but Sam adores the water, totally unafraid.