Joni Wins a Prize

"Hey Mom, can you open the purple bucket for me please?"

"Sure."

"Jonie won a prize. He won it at my school. Not my preschool, but my school. He's in first grade. No, he's in second grade. No, he's in third grade. No, he's in fourth grade."

"A prize? What did he win?"

"A pepper. Jonie loves peppers."

I open the bucket and she carts it away. She throws her pretend red bell pepper into it and replaces the lid, "Here Jonie! Here's your prize!"

Alice doesn't like red peppers. She doesn't like any peppers. It's a good thing she and Jonie have complimentary interests.

Introducing Jonie

Alice got married yesterday...and the day before. She's also going to get married when she grows up. The lucky guy is Jonie (when it's not Robert, her brother). He's a nice guy. He is the first male pretend friend ("he's my 'tend friend") to have a consistent name. He's starting to pop up more often these days. Apparently, he and Aina have completely opposite interests and opinions, but they both get along for Alice's sake.

Aina likes to dip her pretzels in mandarin oranges. Jonie doesn't. 

I asked Alice to describe Jonie for me. She says he is tall with brown hair and has pale skin and has hairy arms like Daddy.

I...guess...that's...okay...

Today for quiet time, Alice is playing Dinosaur Monopoly with Aina and Jonie. It sounds like a pleasant game, even if the rules are complex and random.

Pinatas

We're making a special pinata this year for Alice's 4th birthday party. We finished the papier mache this morning and put it aside to dry. Alice wanted to paint right away, but I explained to her that something this wet would need to dry overnight. She went silent for a moment, popped a pretzel into her mouth and shared this:

"You know Aina got out of her bed this night. She got out and touched the pinata to see if it was wet or not. It was dry! Then she hid."

"She hid?"

"Yeah. And you got up in the morning and looked in her bed and she wasn't there. And then you looked for her and couldn't find her."

"Where was she hiding?"

"In the living room."

"Behind the snuggle chair?" (one of Alice's favorite hiding spots)

"Nope. Behind the kitchen table." Then she paused, catching herself in an impossible scenario. I raised my eyebrow. She smiled.

Cookies

Bobby tells us that Yahoo! gave him a big cookie for Valentine's day.

"How big?"

He uses his hands to make a circle about 4 inches in diameter.

"You know, Aina had a giant cookie. It's as big as you are."

*****LATER*****

"You know Aina had a big cookie as big as this house. She had to share it with her family. It was as big as this house and had a chair on it and couch on it. And a A-L-I-C-E on the other side."

Aina on Sunday

Alice was with me while I was reading the scriptures Sunday morning. When I was done with my reading, we played in the maps section of my Bible. She points to Babylonia and say, "Aina lives here."

At dinner, Alice makes a little mess with her Red Beans and Rice. Robert makes a BIG mess with his. Alice asks for a napkin. She then tells us that Aina has giant napkins for Giants and medium napkins for medium people.

After dinner, we were enjoying some "Snowball-esque" cake Bobby created. Alice turns to Bobby and says, "Aina eats cake like this." Then she lifts her plate to her mouth and shovels the cake in.

Lemons

Driving home from an oil change I hear:

"Lemons are yellow, right?"

"All the lemons I've ever seen are yellow."

"Aina has purple lemons. She makes them."

"Purple? Wow."

"They taste like grapes."

"So, when Aina makes lemonade she's actually making grape-ade?"

(pause)

"Yah!" *giggle*giggle*