Little House In The Ghetto

This is just a little post to talk about what the kids have been doing. My kids have really been amusing (to us anyway) lately. I just wanted to record their actions on my blog. The happenings of my children may not be at all of interest to you. If they aren't, read no further....

Okay, you've been warned...

And on a side note, I titled my post "Little House In The Ghetto". Some have argued that I do not really live in the ghetto. That is your point of view. Each of us is entitled to his/her own opinion. These well meaning friends were laying seeds of doubt in my mind as to whether or not my house was, in fact, worthy of being called ghetto. I was starting to think that perhaps I had been judging my neighborhood too harshly. Last week, I was alerted to a string of recent burglaries that have been occurring right here in our neighborhood. Yes, it is true!!! Now, my mind is made up where there once was a smidgen of doubt. Yes, friends, I DO live in the ghetto. The ghetto, by my definition, is a place where you don't feel safe walking around the block. It is a place where your neighbors do very unclassy things, such as blaring their music, parking their boat in their yard, or having wild parties deep into the night. No doubt that there are different levels of ghetto, but to my opinion giving friends I say.... If it looks like ghetto and it feels like ghetto and it smells like ghetto......it IS ghetto.


ON WITH MY POST......

Mary Alice and I have been reading through the "Little House" series over the past few months. She begs for me to read to her every day. My mother read the Little House series to me as a child. It is fun to read them to Mary Alice (and sometimes Major) now. I am reading the stories again that I read as a child, but reading them aloud to my own kids is much different.

I had assumed that many parts of these books would be boring to Mary Alice. There are few pictures. Sometimes, Laura Ingalls' two and three page descriptions of the prairie grasses and the sights and sounds of the open plains is too much for even me (someone who loves way more details than the average person!) Mary Alice is fascinated, though. She asks so many questions! Major is mostly bored by the books, but loves to sit on my lap and suck his thumb. He patiently waits until it is his turn for me to read one of his picture books to him.

In case you are bored to tears now by the endless description of my kids and their reading habits.... I will get on with how they have been using all of their new found information....

My kids have become OBSESSED with the Ingalls family!! It all began when we started reading the Little House series. The questions began... "What is calico?", "Why do they just eat cornbread all of the time?", "Why do they have a dirt floor?", "Why don't they have any toys?","What is salt pork?", "Have you ever been on a horse?" etc. etc. etc. Then, one day, while we were at Wal Mart, Mary Alice asked the fabric lady to show her what calico was. The lady looked puzzled. I explained that Mary Alice and I had been reading through the Little House series and that calico was something that Mary Alice was interested in seeing. The lady was kind and showed her all of their calico prints. Mary Alice has been begging for me to make a calico dress for her and a matching one for her doll. We'll see about that.

Mary Alice loves to interject lots of the new words she has learned into her normal conversations. She has been calling people "Flutterbudget" and saying things like, "That sure is a fine pair of shoes you have on." It is funny to see her try to manipulate words, but can also be annoying at times. She is learning so much about history from these books. I guess I can put up with a few annoying phrases.

In addition to her love of words, Mary Alice recently decided that she prefers her hair in braids and would like to wear mostly dresses and long skirts. This is not always practical, so she doesn't wear only dresses and long skirts, but loves to wear them around sometimes "just like Laura".

I wish there were some place around here that we could visit. Now would be a perfect time for to visit a place where the kids could learn about pioneer life. I guess the world wide web will have to do for now.

Yesterday, Mary Alice put on her Halloween costume from last year (not the crab, but the queen princess). Major put on his beard and mustache. Mary Alice said that she was putting on her best calico dress. They set up a "dry goods" store in our living room. They emptied out all of the pantry that was within their reach and lined up the things in one corner of the living room. Mary Alice was "Ma" and Major was "Pa". They pushed around their babies ("Carrie and Grace") in Mary Alice's pram. It was so cute!

Mary Alice ("Ma") was very bossy to ("Pa"). "Now, Charles!!!" she would say, "You mustn't do that!" She would use this line whenever Major was doing something that she didn't want him to do. Whenever he would interrupt her, she would say, "You need to be fixing the gate!" or "You need to go and trample the hay!" One time, she even said, "I'm tired of living in this shanty! Pa! You need to build us a better house!"

After listening to Mary Alice barking out orders for a while, I finally said, "Mary Alice, I don't remember Ma being quite this bossy to Pa. I think she usually said things like: "Charles, you know best." This quieted her down a little bit. Mary Alice had me playing the part of Laura the whole time. This role play lasted a great part of the day. I listened to her instruct her girls on the art of making sourdough bread and sage stuffing. I listened to her tell her daughters to "mind the children" and praise them for their fine, neat stitches and other such silliness.

She kept directing Major's every move. She told him to "play his fiddle", "Put on his boots", etc. Major loved being "Pa" and let Mary Alice tell him what to do and where to go all afternoon. Of course, "Ma" was giving orders to me as well. Finally, I was so tired of it all that I just quit. No more Ingalls family role play for me for a while! As Pa would say, "I'm plumb wore out."

I know they'll grow out of this Ingalls loving stage soon. We only have two or three more books left in the series. I will be sure to choose more carefully the next time I decide to read a series of stories to them. When we read some of of Roald Dahls' books a few months ago, the kids were obsessed with chocolate (not such a bad thing). For now, I have two little imaginative homesteaders living with me. That isn't such a bad thing either.