Took Jojo and a friend to a play at VSAA.  It was an 'interactive' play where the narrator asked the audience questions.  After a story about a river, where actors personified a river, the narrator asked the kids, who were sitting on the floor in front, what they thought.  Jojo yelled out, 'The river was annoying.'  The entire room burst out laughing.

After the play, all the actors/actresses wanted to meet the girl who thought the river was annoying, and of course, Jojo soaked up all the attention.

We went to Ice Cream Renaissance afterwards, a good way to event a fun play date.

Jojo now brushes her hair in the morning - one less thing for me to do, and it looks about the same, so yeah for that.

She taught me something new today: "Dad, you want to know what happens when I brush my hair?  It stretches at the bottom, that's how I make my hair longer. So if you brushed your hair each morning, you could have long hair and I could braid it. And Dad, your beard doesn't count."  "Why not, it'd look cool with braids." I DO NOT want to braid your beard!"

The hat

I found a knit hat and scarf combo this morning tucked up on the coat closet shelf.  It's way too big for her, but Jojo loves it.  She's worn it all day and intends to sleep with it tonight.  I'm glad, as she was starting to claim my black/grey hat for herself. 

She wrote a note for me.  It says, 'There is no time that I can't have the hat.'  Cool to see how much she's learning in 1st grade, as her reading confidence has grown since September. 

On a sad note, we are quitting TaeKwonDo - Jojo wants to take a break, and although I had just started the class, I don't want to attend without her and make her wait in the gym for me.  Mondays were getting too crazy anyway, so although I'll miss the class, I'm sure I won't miss being out until past 7 every night.

It is official: Dr. Who, with Matt Smith, is too scary.  She was ok with David Tennant, but not Smith.  Not sure I really like Amy Pond as the side-kick, so I'm ok with it.  She wants to stick with Monk - comedies about people killing people are ok, apparently, but not with monsters killing people.  Picky picky.  :)

Clue

Jojo got the game Clue from grandma.  She loves playing it, although she doesn't quite get the strategy of it.  She loves to share, to help, and the game depends on being crafty, not sharing information.  For example, she wants to show me her cards, tell me what she has.  I have to explain to her that 'being nice' ruins the game, that it's part of the game to not help.

The other part of the game is the weapons.  I never thought I'd answer, "Dad, how do you kill someone with a rope? a lead pipe? etc."  Not exactly what I want to explain to a 6 year old, but it's part of the game and in context, so I don't think it's a problem.

A busy Saturday for my energetic 1st grader.

First we went to Felida Baptist church to make gift boxes for Operation Shoebox. Jojo made 7 in our 3 hour stint (I made only 4). She spent part of the time with her friend Courtney, but most of the time she was enamored with Gail Kreinbring, who charmingly let her follow her around and let Jojo pick things for her boxes while helping Jojo with hers.

We followed that up with Baja Fresh with Courtney's family, whose mother works at my school. It's good to have a Christian family to hang out with. The five of them (parents, 3 kids) are wonderful people to be around ('Good People' by Audio A. came to mind while writing this).

A surprise movie event at the library - as in, we were surprised to time it almost perfectly - meant we stayed there 2 1/2 hours, eating popcorn and watching Ramona and Beezus. Jojo was her usual friendly self, bonding with a slightly older girl during the movie. I got her Nate the Great on CD, and she loves the stories she has heard so far.

An interesting Jojo quote for today (context - she has been listing to Junie B. books on CD): "Dad, I look at the cover of Junie B. Jones, and I think, how come she has such a pretty voice but she has short dark hair?"

  The evening ended with Sarah and her kids coming over for a pizza night. We played games, watched TV, and made a whole lotta noise with all the kids in the house. Jojo learned how to deal with younger boys, something she's not used to doing. She was sure she wanted to stay up when they left, but she was dead asleep within 15 minutes.

Lacking pictures because of my downgrade from a smartphone. Have to come up with a way, as my phone's camera is poor.

I promised myself I'd start writing on here again.

I've been told that children's minds are sponges, that they absorb everything around them. Since she's been going to a Christian pre-school, her questions about God have greatly increased. She also likes to sing songs from Sunday school. The funny part is that if she doesn't remember the entire song, somehow a "boyfriend" sneaks into the lyrics. Better now than in high school, right?

Her questions about God lead to some interesting discussions. "Does God like iCarly?" "Why did God [corrected to Jesus] have to die on the cross?" "Is your Grandma who used to live at your mom's house in heaven?"

Also, her observations about life are funny. We were at Farmer's Market today, getting our usual cinnamon/sugar donuts and playing on the playground. As we walked around the different booths, Jojo found a booth where kids were sniffing goat cheese soap. A lady commented that she can't smell it because her nose was stuffed. Jojo's advice: "just stick your finger up there and unstuff it."

We went to see Kevin today in rehab. Bad way to spend his 40th birthday. Jojo gave him several hugs, which made him feel a little better. Kevin had shot himself in the leg accidentally with a pistol. For his birthday, we gave him a toy gun that shoots plastic balls. Jojo: "you can shoot yourself in the leg, and it won't hurt."