Cyrena's Brain

In this picture Cyrena is leading the girls in some jumping jacks.  I'm pretty sure they think they got to 200, what a feat! :)

Oh our girl is one of a kind.  Cyrena is the kind of kid that will tell you anything and everything that is going through her mind.  She's going to be an easy teenager in that regard. We won't have to wonder what's going on in her life. 

I've been meaning to write this post for months now.  I want to record some funny things she says and does that show how truly unique she is.  Here goes:

1.  When I expressed how much I was going to miss her while she was at Kindergarten ALL DAY she told me not to worry because she promises to give me BIG hugs and BIG kisses before she left and then again when she gets home.  So far, she's kept her promise.

2.  She asked me one day "why we don't have air holes in our house- how are we breathing??"  This one stumped me a bit.  I tried to explain about vents, oxygen but it wasn't satisfying her.  I told her we have windows and doors but she's smart enough to know we don't open those while it's 115 outside.  I told her to ask her dad.

3.  Another question was "How did Heavenly Father get to be in charge of Heaven?" This girl is a thinker.

4.  One day this summer she said she "figured something out." She told me that in Bambi, his dad is in charge of getting food and shelter for his family.  And other animal dad's hunt for food to feed their family.  In our family, our dad goes to work so we can buy food for our family and have a house to live in.  She was so proud of her reasoning!  She "figures things out" all the time.

5.  One night we were playing around after dinner.  Natalie was sorting color cards and Cyrena was doing an addition game with David.  She's getting really efficient with addition, number sense and number conservation.  I told her this and she said, "yeah, I'm pretty mathy huh?"

6.  A couple of weeks ago I was alone in the car with Cyrena.  She was talking nonstop as usual.  She told me how lucky she is that she gets to dance with her dad.  She said one of her kindergarten friends has just a dad and no mom, his mom had died.  I told her that was really sad and she said she would be so sad if she didn't get to be with me anymore.  I told her that's why we need to pray everyday and thank Heavenly Father for the chance to be together.  She got excited and said/sang "That's like 'Families can be together forever.'.."  Then she continued talking about how lucky we are and how it would be hard to be apart but at least we know we can be together forever.  It was very sweet.  

7.  The girls watch a movie every Friday night.  Recently it's been a fight over who picks the movie.  One night David said for them to pick a number between 1 and 10 and the closest person would get to pick the movie.  I didn't think they would really understand.  Cyrena picked 5 and Natalie picked 3.  David said the number was 3 so Natalie got to pick.  Of course Cyrena threw a fit and then there was this whole sister moment where Natalie was sweet and told her not to cry and that Cyrena could pick.  They hugged and then Cyrena gave in and let Natalie pick.  It was quite the drama with hugs and kisses and tears all around.  Anyway, the next day Cyrena was still thinking about it and said "but Mom, 5 is really between 1 and 10"  After listening to her and following her logic I realized she thought that she was supposed to say the number that was exactly between 1 and 10-which would be 5.  That's my logical, literal, black and white girl-she is just like me!

We just love this girl and can't imagine life without her incessant chatter.  She is loving all day kindergarten.  She gets on the bus at 8:10 and then the bus brings her home at 3:30.  It's a long day, but she's handling it well.  

Her teacher met with me last week to come up with some ways to 'enrich' her.  She tested on a 2nd grade independent/3rd grade instructional reading level.  For right now they're having her do some second grade reading work and we'll see how that goes.  So far it seems easy for her. They haven't tested math yet.  I'm not worried about her being bored because she loves everything about school and I know we can continue to challenge her at home.