Worries

About twenty minutes after we put her to bed tonight, Sarah came downstairs wailing, "I don't want to die!"

Shannon was on the phone so it devolved to me to handle the situation. I said, "It sounds like you've been thinking about death while trying to go to sleep."

"Yeah, and I don't want to die! Especially I don't want to have a heart attack."

I tried to reassure her that she was not in danger of a heart attack. "Sarah, I'm sure some children have died of a heart attack, but I've never heard of anyone as young as you having one." I also explained a little bit about what causes a heart attack so she'd know she wasn't much at risk of one.

"Okay, but can I sleep down in the office so if I have a heart attack you can take care of me?"

"No, you'll be fine upstairs."

"Can I at least sleep downstairs so if I do have one I can wobble into the office and find you?"

I nearly lost it at "wobble." Fighting to keep a straight face, I assured her that we'd be able to help her no matter where she was in the house.

Then she asked about what they do to help people who are having a heart attack. I told her that they use a technique called CPR to push against a person's chest and get the heart to start again, and that sometimes they also use electricity to send a signal to the heart to tell it to start. She was calmer by this point and presently went back upstairs to bed.

After Shannon and I had a good laugh about "wobble" and I had started this blog post, Sarah reappeared in the doorway and asked in a mildly concerned tone what would happen if you pushed on your own chest when you weren't having a heart attack. "'Cause I just pushed on mine," she said apprehensively. We told her that you couldn't do CPR on yourself because it took much stronger pushing. "Oh," she said in relief, and scampered back to bed.

Well, I declare

Sarah wasn't feeling well a few days ago and left the table early to go rest in her room. Several minutes later she came out and said, "Well, I declare I'm feeling a trifle bit better." She didn't understand why Alan and I found that so amusing.

ready?

Setting: After her shower

Mom: Sarah, are you ready yet?
Sarah: I'm done lotioning. (sigh) All I need is faith.

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

On the way to our surprise destination on Monday night: "Daddy and I ransacked a plan," she said.

Who does this remind you of?

Active

On the way home Sarah was playing a noisy squealing game with Alyssa. Eventually we told her to quiet down and play something quiet. "But that takes all the fun out of it," she complained. "I'm active and high-spirited!"

Wow! America

This is Sarah's reflections entry.

Reflections Contest

Sarah won the art division of the Reflections Contest at her school and took 3rd place at the city level. We are very pleased with her efforts. :)

So she is like me after all

I found this while tidying Sarah's desk.

We should have named her Anne-spelled with an "e"

Sarah is so much like Anne, in Anne of Green Gables. She is dramatic, emotional, and delightful. She reads voraciously and incorporates the characters into her own life regularly. Sometimes though it gets her into a crazy crying state. Tonight at bedtime she for some reason asked Emmie who she (Emmie) liked better: her (Sarah) or Alyssa. Emmie, being brutally honest, said without any hesitation that she liked Alyssa better because Alyssa didn't pester her. Naturally this was not what Sarah wanted to hear. 2 minutes later she was sobbing about trying to not pester and working so hard at being kind and it being just so hard and being so devastated and sad that Emmie didn't love her best. I let Alan deal with her directly because sadly I am more like Marilla, I just want to tell her to be sensible and quit overdoing the drama. However I did suggest that Emmie go give Sarah loves and reassure Sarah of her love. I reminded Emmie that Sarah is doing so much better at not pestering and that of course she loves Sarah and so forth. I am left thinking this child is not like me. She is like my mother. I sometimes wonder how she ended up my daughter and not my mother's. Regardless we should have named her Anne with an "e".

Dialogue

Setting: The whole family is in the car, on the way home from having dropped off Grandma P. at her house.

Sarah: This is the Addams Family song: [Sings the ditty: "They're creepy and they're kooky...."]

Emmie: I think Adam and Eve's family are creepy.

Dad: Emmie, the Addams Family was a TV show, and Addams was their last name. It wasn't Adam and Eve.

Sarah: I don't want to talk about the Addams Family anymore. It creeps me out.

Sarah to Emmie

"Will you stop talking like a grown-up! You're always talking like a grown-up and I'm sick of it." (Sarah lost her glasses and Emmie was suggesting she put them away when she takes them off so she knows where they are.)

Romeo and Juliet

After telling us that she had read Romeo and Juliet (we're sure it was a children's version) at Grandma's house Sarah said, "I felt a terrible sadness in my heart. It lasted a long time, like even until it was time for bed."

Spelling list

Sarah's class has a weekly spelling list. The first six words are chosen by the teacher for the class, and then each student chooses four more to work on. As an advanced reader, Sarah gets to replace half of the class words with her own spelling words each week, in addition to the four she already gets to choose. Sometimes she chooses them from books she's been reading, but I think this time she opened up a dictionary and chose words that she found interesting. Here are this week's words.

1. spicate (instead of "Sam")


2. spiral (instead of "tram")


3. speculation (instead of "scam")


4. amble


5. scram


6. camera


7. sodium


8. sopaipilla


9. spacious


10. spazzes

Sarah's Introduction

Alan and I thought this should be shared.

Sarah handed me her swimsuit inside out and asked me to please "fix it outside in".

Sarah at the talent show

(Emmie and Alyssa were making it difficult for Alan to hold the camera steady.)
This was at the 1st grade talent show.

Cuteness

I was doing Sarah's hair this morning when she asked me, "May I be cute?" Uh, you don't need my permission. Go ahead.

I did try and do a cute ponytail.

Airplanes

At breakfast today Sarah said, "The airplane was invented in ?? (she knew but I can't remember) but it wasn't very popular at first. When the Righteous Brothers flew it not too many people liked it." Alan immediately started to sing, "You never close your eyes anymore when I fly my plane..."

Sarah uses words we don't hear much anymore

Sarah is starting to use more and more words and phrases that she reads in books. The ones from Little House on the Prairie are a bit dated and others are just strange to hear from a 6-year old. She'll say, "I declare, we're almost out of soap in this bathroom."