Apparently using one's imagination makes one hungry.

Oyster just pranced into the room where I have been sitting with Cheddar snuggled in my lap. She is wearing a Sunday church dress with a bikini top peaking out, dress-up shoes two sizes too big, and a pretty hair bow. She is carrying a beaded evening purse, which contains index cards that have been turned into money in denominations like $5,000 and $2,000,000. She tells me she is a queen, Skids and Scooter are her guards, and Cheddar is the King.

After I obediently took her purse and her hand and help her onto the stool she carried in earlier, she "encouraged" the king to skedaddle and climbed onto my lap. Once cannot allow the king all the cuddling.

It is hard to resist the imp, with her pretty smile and puppy eyes, but I manage to convince her that I believe all queens play the violin and she needs to go practice. Which, of course, means she is hungry. Since she just ate one and a half slices of cheese pizza, a serving of peaches, a glass of milk, and an ice cream bar, I don't feel too bad about insisting she play before she is provided with more sustenance.

Mom does stand for Mean Old Mommy, doesn't it?

Peer Pressure and Education

We've all had experience with the power of peer pressure. And we all know the benefits of education. Well, we've gotten to see the two hand-in-hand in our household recently. Thanks to an in-depth (for second grade) study of the life of George Washington Carver and the lunches packed by her friends, Oyster has suddenly decided to try peanut butter. And--surprise! She likes it. Since late February she has eaten a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich at least 5 times weekly. A big change for a child who until then swore there was little on earth as disgusting as peanutbutter.

When I comment on it I am told, with a little disdain in the tone, that she is allowed to change her mind...REMEMBER. She points out that she used to like all kinds of things that she doesn't enjoy much anymore, like spinach, prune juice, and pumpkin. However, she also used to hate peppers, but now loves raw red bell pepper.

I guess she is like all of us, constantly evolving our preferences. And I guess you can't ever go back to really enjoy a taste you have outgrown. For Oyster it may be spinach. (For me it is YooHoo--that chocolate flavored drink of my childhood. I made the mistake of giving in to nostalgia and bought one a while back. Wow! What a totally shocking experience! I used to love to drink that? YUCK!!!)

Back to Oyster, peer pressure, and education. The child recently tanked her grade in one class. Up until the last week of the quarter she had 100% in language development. The school sends home weekly progress reports, so it is easy for parents to keep up. However, Oyster earned a B in the class for the quarter. Turns out she refused to do an assignment--write a hiaku, a task she had completed successfully earlier in the quarter--earning a big fat zero to average into 40% of her grade. Turns out at least one kid in her after-school program had been teasing her about being smart and therefore being different. No kid her age wants to be different, especially if others are going to make fun of her for it. So she proved she wasn't so smart. To them and to me!!

She got the grade she earned. I just wish she had chosen to earn a grade based on her abilities instead of based on her attitude. But, as Lit has pointed out, this costly mistake is considerably less costly in the second grade than in college. Let us hope the end result is worth it.

And kudos to George Washington Carver and the great peanut!