Well Now, That's Just Cool.

Have you ever seen the ABC show, Wipeout? It is a show where people run a ridiculous, and ridiculously difficult, obstacle course in order to win $50,000. While on the course, they tend to take some pretty spectacular falls, hence the name. There are also two unnecessary, snarky hosts... who can occasionally be funny themselves. I enjoy the show. It isn't an all-time favorite or anything, but it is great summer entertainment. I watch it for the reason I think most people do; the contestants fall down in funny ways. It's Three Stooges funny, not Seinfeld funny.

Now over the past few weeks, Fin has caught glimpses of the show starting as she got ready for bed and it really grabbed her. This was unique. The living room tv is usually on in the background leftover from the news and Wheel of Fortune (a wonderful tool for letter recognition, I have found); but, other shows on other nights were completely ignored by her.

This week school is out and when Wipeout came on, she was still up and she begged to watch it. I was not too keen on that. I was afraid it would teach her to laugh at people when they fell down or make snide comments. She was so adamant, though, I though I would try one episode and we could talk about it.

Ten minutes in and she hadn't laughed once. She looked at me with wonder during the commercial break and said, "I wanna do dat."

"Huh?" says I.

"Let's go dere. I wanna do dat. I wanna do dat and I wanna WIN."

Where I saw this:


She saw this:


It never occurred to me that this was a competition, that some people might be doing this to push themselves to their limits and be a winner. Fin saw nothing but that. I really need to pay more attention. This kid is COOL!

Most Improved

Fin has what it takes to be successful at gymnastics. By successful, I don't mean a competitive gymnast, I mean competent and able to take away the lessons of hard work and personal achievment. She is physically strong, doesn't mind getting hurt, and is brave. However, she is also unfocused and a jokester. She would prefer to find ways to sneak up and tickle the coaches than listen to what they are saying. It is sometimes very frustrating because if she just listened, she would be able to learn little changes in techinique that would advance her on to other things.

Today was a particularly scattered day for her. The last time she was at the gym was Saturday night for Parent's Night Out, otherwise known as four hours of play time. It was also the last day of school and she was generally hyper from that. Then, at the end of the class, the coach decided to try the girls on running cartwheels. Fin can't do a regular cartwheel most of the time, but this really suited her. Flinging herself at an obstacle without being asked to think about it... right up her alley. The results weren't too shabby!



I know there are other 5-year-olds with nine months of lessons that are further along, but this was big progress for Fin and I am super proud of her!

Compositions

Cleaning out Fin's end-of-year folders, I came to some short compositions. These were dictated to a teacher or aide. Topics ranged... but not much.

Things I Like
I like horses.
I like balloons.
I like cakes.
I like toys.

Elephants
Elephants are very big.
Elephants are gray.
Elephants eat a lot.
I like elephants and horses.

Elephants the sequel, perhaps?
Elephants are very big.
Elephants drink a lot of water.
Elephants have baby elephants.
Elephants can dance.
I love elephants and horses.

Kangaroos
Kangaroos like to jump.
Kangaroos carry babies in their pouches.
After horses, kangaroos are my next favorite animal.

Spring
Spring is here.
Spring is pretty.
Spring is green.

Hey! What about the horses?

The Week That Was

New leotard! Please don't tell her it's leopard and not cheetah. She's been cheetah-crazy lately and she thinks she actually becomes a cheetah when she wears this.



Crazy Charlie. She gets underneath my desk and pops up behind the keyboard pull-out and steals whatever small things she finds.


We were playing a game of "telephone" with this role of wrapping paper. She could have been entertained by that for hours. I couldn't.



Kindergarten awards ceremony. Fin won three awards! One for art achievement, one for doing all of her homework and reading log, and one for... are you ready?... good conduct for following the class rules and teacher's instructions. Huh? Nancy's theory is that she uses all of her restraint up at school. That would explain why when I pick her up, the answer to "Hi, Honey! How was your day!" is usually, "I'm hot and hungry. Carry my backpack."


"Why yes, balloon, I in fact do."


What did she want to do to celebrate? She wanted permission to run in the hall.


Showing off dress for Grandma.


Lunch at the cafeteria. Did you get enough, Fin?


Cheetah at lunch.

You Are Invited for Pot Ropes and Banilla Cake

This is a meandering video I took of Fin and one of her schoolmates at the library this afternoon. She was holding a tea party and it's like you are right there (mostly due to my poor camerawork. I never did get on video what I was trying to grab. She kept saying the food was for "my sweet grandma". My mom is always saying, "Who's my sweet granddaughter?" and I guess Fin figured a sweet granddaughter comes from somewhere!