OMG I made two of these jokers / ETA what even is that?

The big one is home from school sick today, and therefore so am I. Academic schedules rock. I am alternating like a magpie between work, household stuff, and seeing to the head-ache-y stuffy-nose girl like the Oooh! Shiny! magpie that I am.

I took a break from tending to things to watch a few episodes of her favorite show with her, Phineas and Ferb, and I give her credit, she’s come a long way from Wordworld and Dora, both of which made me stabby and I am not looking forward to going back there with the little one.

Anyway, she flailed at me about wanting me to watch a particular episode because, she explained, it told the same story from different characters’ viewpoints. Oh, hi, child of my brain. Can I tell you how many movies just went on my “OMIGOD I can’t wait to show you this when you are old enough because it will BLOW YOUR MIND!” (She’s a little young for Pulp Fiction and Amorres Perros yet, right?)

I am not sure I have bragged enough about her lately, because a. she has been driving me crazy with the moaning and the attitude and b. the little one is so frakking* crazy right now that she tends to dominate the headlines ’round these parts.

Let me tell you about her writing — she does it all. the. time. Leave her to her own devices and you will come upon her hunched over a notebook, scribbling away, or sprawled on the floor with her art markers. She has notebooks, journals, scraps of paper, all of them filled with vignettes, fables, comic strips, chapter books, plays, short stories. She soaks up influences like a sponge and puts them down on paper filtered through her own peculiar worldview.

Predictably, she gravitates toward stories about animals, and most especially, cheetahs — there are a lot of creation myths, magical fables, and surreal plots. Dragons, wolves, and other predators show up, too. There’s a lot of fire, a lot of slapstick, and some truly spectacular breaking of the fourth wall and meta-fictional devices. I did not know what the fourth wall WAS at 7, never mind how to deploy such a conceit in a story. Some stories work, others don’t, but I love to read her attempts, to follow along as she explores, fearlessly, how to do this thing. I love that she can’t help herself.

***

Because the little one DOES dominate the headlines with her crazy, though, I need to show you this picture of today’s outfit.

So, to explain: She wanted HOITH! shirt*** which is actually a deer but don’t even bother telling that to her because HOITH!, okay? Anyway, HOITH! shirt was in the wash and so was TAR! (guitar) shirt, the only acceptable alternative. We finally found a shirt with a panda that was deemed acceptable. DITTY! pants are usually worn with HOITH! shirt but apparently don’t go with bear shirt, so we had to find an alternative, which seems to be these red and white seersucker bloomers that are supposed to go under a summer dress. I felt like they weren’t warm enough and explained that she had to wear tights underneath, and when I produced her black tights with the silver sparkles, she agreed. And then she wanted her brown and pink hiking shoes.

ETA: When Jim went to get her ready for bed, she insisted on wearing her seersucker bloomers over her pajamas. Like you do.

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* So I follow Mark Ruffalo on Twitter because I follow all the Avengers cast members who are on Twitter ** and he Hulks out about fracking but everytime he goes all rant-y about it I have a moment where I think he’s swearing in Battlestar Galactic-ish.

** The best Avenger Twitterer hands down is Clark Gregg (aka Coulson, aka sneakily-attractive be-suited bureaucrat who disarms robbers with bags of flour) because he thinks all the fangirling about the movie is hilarious. To wit: when the Avengers action figures came out and a fan asked him via Twitter if it would be OK to dress up his Coulson figure in a dress, this happened: “@abe_j15: @clarkgregg How would you feel if i bought that coulson figure and put in a dress?” –It better be stunning. No off the rack s*#t

*** Sample conversation with Lucy in the car yesterday after picking her up from daycare where they had been watching Mulan and had just gotten to a part with a horse in it: A! HOITH! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! HOITH! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! HOITH! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! HOITH! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! HOITH! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! HOITH! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! HOITH! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! HOITH! HOI-THEE! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! A! HOITH! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE! HOI-THEE!

Etc.