Sunday, November 2, 2008

Please use the ...

The girls were having a grand ole time in the playroom yesterday. Home from his week long trip, Daddy helped them each build a fort. Gracie's had "carpet" (a blanket) and a chair and a "couch" (a blanket and a stuffed animal). Clara's got built later in the day, even though Gracie's was clearly big enough for both. But she wanted hers to match. Anyway, Mike helped Clara build her fort after I unearthed a comforter to use as the fort cover. Mike's always in charge of construction. If it involves more than draping a blanket over a few chairs, I'm out. These were fancy forts - couches, chairs, even bookcases were used for support & I'm pretty sure there were clothespins involved as well. So, Mike got the second fort "condo" built & we were hanging out with John Michael in the other part of the house. Gracie came scampering back and asked Mike a question. I didn't pay attention to the question, but noticed she was reciting letters as she left the room, so I tuned in to see what she was spelling: "G...R...A...C...I...E...G...R..."Hmmmm. She has known how to spell her name for about a year so this seemed suspicious. I queried Mike about what she had wanted to know. He replied that she wanted to know how to spell "Please Use the Knocker."

So now you know what the kids have to put up with from their Daddy. Mostly it is pretty funny, but I pointed out that he might be confusing her a little about this whole spelling thing as it is all still a little new to her (and we haven't really gotten beyond spelling Gracie, Mama and Clara). I told him that if he wrote out the words she wanted, she would copy it onto her own paper.

Well, tonight I got to see the result of that. Apparently, Gracie talked Daddy into printing the letters with dots so that she could trace over them. But something went wrong in the translation... her fort sign now says "Please Use the Knookr".

1 comment:

Laura said...

That's a hoot! As for tents, the only way to build them is with lots of furniture and clothespins. As a kid, we had the best dining room chairs for tent building- they were high backed with thin slats that the clothespins attached to easily. I haven't come close to building tents like that since I had Beth.