Favorite Things

On Back-To-School night, when Lorelei first met her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Lien, she gave her the year's first assignment. Lorelei handed Mrs. Lien a list of her favorite things, along with a duplicate page for Mrs. Lien to fill out and a stamped envelope with our home address. Lorelei loves getting mail. Here she is, tearing it open when it arrived the next week.

 Lorelei learned a lot about her new teacher: she likes golfing, running and being outdoors; her favorite color is blue; her favorite tradition is her family's Christmas Eve spaghetti dinner; she's a fan of Dr. Seuss; and her favorite season is the same as Lorelei's (fall), among other things.

  Lorelei loves Mrs. Lien. At dinner, she pretends that she's Mrs. Lien and makes us, Mark, Mommy and Gryffin, pretend we're her students. First she went over the name (M-O-M) of the day: "Mix it, mix it, who will it be? Mix it, Mix it, I hope it is me!"  Then we played "Poison Frog."  Then we did the ABC rhyme she learned in school. She adores being in kindergarten.

 Gryffin's a lone cowboy for a couple more weeks until he begins preschool with Mrs. Bergdall and Mrs. McNally, two teachers we are crazy about that Lorelei had at Christ Lutheran.  He's in class with a bunch of his friends--Dylan, Nolan, Rohan, Kevin, Georgia--and has already been invited to his first preschool playdate next week with Elijah.

 Here are Gryffy's FAVORITE THINGS:
COLOR: red
BOOKS: Toy Story
FOODS: pasta with broccoli with shrimp
RESTAURANT: Red Robin
SWEET TREATS: Lollipops & orange slices
SONGS: Baa Baa Black Sheep and Twinkle
MOVIES: Toy Story 3, Smurfs
GAMES: Monster and Hide-and-Seek
HOBBIES: Playing (pounding) the piano, playing with big sister (usually imaginative play with little toy figures), swimming
HOLIDAYS: Halloween and Christmas and Easter
TRADITION: He enjoys roasting s'mores (each week during family nights)
SEASON: ?
I AM REALLY GOOD AT: (Mommy's input): helping Mommy cook, making the bed and taking his food to the sink (unprompted), making up "mix-up" stories before bed, being kind and helpful to others, sharing, doing thoughtful things (he brings Mommy the neglected baby from Toy Story 3 everyday for a kiss, etc.)
I LOVE: friends, Daddy, Jack & Charlie (neighbors), Lorelei, Mommy, Mr. Tubbins, Grammy & BPop, Grammy Great

This boy is so thoughtful. This morning Mommy and Lorelei were laying in bed, so Gryffy went to our library cubbies and picked out Charlotte's Web so that I would have something to read (he knows Mommy loves books), then said, "I get one for you too, Lorelei," and brought her the Smurfs book. He sat beside her and read it to her as she woke up.
Lorelei, too, made the bed all by herself this morning without being asked at all.  She even pushed the trundle bed underneath, and pulled all the covers up and fluffed the pillows. She was so proud of herself, she begged me to come and see.
I am so in love with my sweet kids!