All About Aubree

* The other morning Bryce wandered into Aubree's room and, by not-so-gently trying to poke her eyes out, woke her up earlier than she preferred. Although she got out of bed, she kept her eyes half-closed and refused to speak or answer any questions. She wasn't upset, just kind-of pretending to still be asleep I guess. We made our way to the kitchen where I asked her what she would like for breakfast. Hearing no response, I decided oatmeal sounded good and began the preparations. A few minutes later, Aubree walked up and handed me a note - "Gist Kix" it read (Kix is her favorite cereal). I love that she's resorting to communicating with me through notes.

* With her new found love of writing, Aubree goes through lots and lots of paper. One afternoon in particular she kept coming back over and over for more paper until I heard her sigh and exclaim in exasperation, "I need longer paper!" Luckily, we happen to have "longer" paper so I pulled it out and went to see what she was working on. On her little work table I found a pile of papers with varying amounts of the following sentence, "I wot u slip in..." She was trying to make a wish list, "I want a slip-n-slide," but couldn't fit all the words on one line. She didn't yet understand she could continue on to the next line.
* Aubree's primary teacher told me the following story:
Teacher - "Kids, what do we need to do to go to the temple?"
Aubree - (throws her hand up in the air) "I know - Drive!"
* Not too long ago I read Charlotte's Web to Aubree. When we finished the book, she watched the movie and then spent the next week pretending she was Wilbur. The rest of us she assigned supporting roles. I got to be Charlotte, Bryce was Avery, and Mark got double duty as Mr. Zuckerman and Templeton. Every day we had to act out different parts of the story. As Wilbur, Aubree tried to act "Radiant," eagerly looked forward to going to the fair, and seemed genuinely concerned about the possibility of becoming Christmas dinner for the Zuckermans.
* We took Aubree to the dollar store a few weeks ago and, since she had a dollar, we allowed her to pick anything she wanted. She chose a small piggy bank (it's actually a lion and Aubree's friend, Cheyenne, later questioned, "it's not a pig, so why do you call it a piggy bank?"). Since then, Aubree frequently asks, "what can I do to earn money?!" I think of extra chores (like cleaning her closet mirrors) and so far I've paid her a nickel for every chore. The last time, she asked for "something else." I gave her the choice of 5 pennies or the nickel. Of course, she chose the pennies. :)

* Aubree can read. No really, she can! Here's a short video from the beginning of July of her reading the first line of a story from her reading book. After the first line she decided she didn't want to read in front of the camera and I've had a hard time convincing her otherwise since then. The story of how she's learned is a little long and the subject of another post. I'll try to get a more updated reading video and post the "story" soon.