Normally...

I would just post these on my Facebook status, but it's not working. So...

This afternoon, I opened the fridge and saw a few quarters next to the milk. I had given Galina a few quarters to put in her piggy-bank earlier and was a little surprised to see them in the fridge. So, I said, "Galina, why are your quarters in the fridge?"
Brian, from across the house, says, "She likes cold, hard cash."
He kills me. King of one-liners.

Later this evening, I was making chocolate chip cookies and Galina said, "I will need a glass of milk. Milk is very important to cookies. And Oreos."
I love her.

In other news, I did my yearly flower bed weeding this morning. There were rocks bordering the two beds in the front yard and they were slowly being swallowed by weeds and dirt/mulch escaping the flower bed. So, I individually moved each rock (some were pretty big) and weeded, swept/scraped dirt back in, and then resized the flower bed into a size that's much more compatible with my gardening abilities: smaller. I wish I had a before picture - it looks good. Almost good enough to make me want to keep it up. I said almost.

Anyhow, the entire time I was out there, Galina was with me too - talking a mile a minute. At first she was in the garage with a little dry erase board and some dry erase crayons, coloring a picture. From across the yard she was yelling at me, "Mommy, look at my picture!" And then she'd say a hundred other things that I couldn't hear - but she really doesn't require interaction, she just likes to talk.

After her picture was complete, she found a pack of sight word flash cards and was "reading" them to me. She comes up with the craziest things. She'd hold one up, and it would say "ride" or something like that, and she'd say, "What does that say?" So, I'd tell her. Then she'd say, "Nope. It says, "Hay is very important on a farm." and then she'd add, "Say it." So I'd have to repeat her. It made for an interesting half hour. I'm glad she enjoys herself though.

We found earth worms, spiders, something like a newt, ear wigs, and ants. She wanted to see everything and she wanted to hold each individual earth worm. I cherish these years when she isn't really afraid of bugs yet. She picked up a little broom and said, "I will sweep away any spiders I see."

She loves to say, about ants, "They'll bite you for no reason. They're not good, ants."

The last thing I'll say is that, randomly, all morning/early afternoon, that we were outside working, she'd say, "Today is a good day." I guess that about sums it up.