don't put pretzels in your belly button*

Because I guess right after your kid gets a handle on potty training it's time to start talking about elementary school, that's what we're doing. There's an allegedly great school near us that does half-day Japanese instruction and we really REALLY want Kiddo to go there. I say "allegedly" because we don't really know a heck of a lot about it besides they do Japanese immersion and the bilingual thing remains important to us (even if some of us are not actually bilingual ... why are you looking at me?). That and the school has a great reputation. The bummer is that we are not in the district and while we can apply to get into it we are either de-prioritized because we are out of the area but maybe re-prioritized because Mimi is a native speaker. So maybe it's a wash.

There's also a private school nearby that does Japanese instruction and while we never thought we'd be the private school types, we did some quick math and with some creative living we could probably make it happen. Such is our desire to make sure she continues to learn and speak Japanese. Of course she'll probably decide to be a French major in college, but we'll keep trying nonetheless.

Or we could just freeze time and keep her at almost-four-years-old forever and not have to worry about it. Sigh.

Oh and while we are making ourselves crazy with all of this, Kiddo has decided that she cannot go to sleep without us being in her room. We are trying to get her back to how she was in the good old days of September 2010 when we could kiss her goodnight and walk out of her room without a problem. But for now we sit in her room with her until she falls asleep and hope that she sleeps through the night instead of coming in to our bed at 3:00. Or screams from her bed until we go into her room at 3:00. And then we try to ignore the stories from our friends whose kids had sleep issues until they were 8. Or 11.

And lately I've been going through our Book of Quotes that we keep for Kiddo and now I am going to share some with you because it's more fun that stressing out about schools or wondering when I'll ever get a regular night's sleep.

*The title of this post is actually something I heard Mimi scream at Kiddo just the other day.

My daughter the Catskills comedian after taking her clothes off and announcing she was playing "beach":
Me: Are you at a nude beach?
Kiddo: No, I'm at an old beach.

My daughter the delicate flower after ... breaking wind while sitting on a wooden bench:
"That sounds like a scooter!"

While folding both of her ears in half because I guess it felt interesting:
Kiddo: I'm making my ears into a house.
Me: Who's going to live there?
Kiddo: Just me. No more grownups in my house.

I think this one was inspired by a book we had from the library:
"I'm going to change my name. From now on call me Betty."

I don't even know what this one was about:
"My hair got strong and puffy like a blueberry."

And then sometimes she manages to be sweet as pie:
Kiddo (at bedtime, handing Mimi imaginary objects): Here put this in your eye. You'll have nice dreams.
Mimi: What's this one?
Kiddo: That is a bunny dream. Here, put these in your eyes.
Mimi: What are these?
Kiddo: These are Yuki dreams.