Talk in a bucket day

We declared tonight Talk In A Bucket Day. My family started declaiming. First, of course, came the quotes from that episode of Jungle Jam.

Meg: "If we serve it, dey will come!"

Jonathan: "I want to be my own bear!"

"And we did leave you a little potato salad!"

Then things started to deteriorate.

Jonathan: "Ich bin ein Berliner!"

Meg: "I am a little potato salad!"

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be."

"Everyone wants to be a cat, is the question!"

"Margaret, I am your father. Search your birth certificate; you know it to be true."

And to end: "If we serve it, dey will come. Everyone wants to be their own bear. We do have a little potato salad. We do have a little sandwich. When there is a bucket on my head, don't twist it, hit it, click it, or ning it," said Meg.

Seen at the mall

Sears had a holiday display up with giant inflatable Peanuts characters. A little girl was happily using inflatable Lucy as a punching bag. Wham - wham - wham - until her dad called her, and she scampered off.

I feel like there's a metaphor or a moral or something in there, somewhere, but I can't quite track it down...

The great wrapping paper conundrum

This evening as I was wrapping presents, I discovered I had no Christmas paper, only Christmas tissue paper. Additionally, we have no tissue paper except Christmassy, which I discovered last time I tried to wrap a birthday present. In the wrapping paper department we're down to the pink flowers, the purple penguins, the little blue trains, and some kraft paper, which clearly sounds like Murphy's Law to me.

But I really did want to wrap Christmas presents tonight, and not in purple penguins because that would be weird, so I used the plain brown kraft paper. I'll tie it up with fancy ribbons and it'll still be pretty. So I wrapped two presents, which were pretty in a brown paper packages kind of way, but then that was the end of that roll too. I did what else I could with tissue paper, and out of desperation put another present under the tree in a plain shoe box until further developments.

If I give you a pink flowerdy-wrapped present with red poinsettia tissue paper, just know I still love you.

Quote

Jonathan was explaining his game to Meg and said, "I have been able to make close allies with the Portuguese."

Meg lit up. "Oh, I know the geese!"

That's about right

I got a kick out of Meg's Veggie-Tales lyrics update this evening. She sang,
"The Lord has given this land to us
So we can fuss..." (Original: No need to fuss.)

Then Jonathan and I were standing in the kitchen as I gave him his welcome-home kiss. Meg tried to demand a toy, so I paused the kiss long enough to tell her that this was mush and she couldn't interrupt. I felt a stirring by our feet, with some grunting.

"Nnng! Unnng! I'm trying -- to -- get -- IN!"

Quote

"I'll move all the things that I don't like, off the couch. Oh! I found two mouses!"

Such surprise! Such delight! Such eloquence in the cause of making a mess! What a girl.

It was like ice skating

Meg ice skated this morning for the first time! Kirsten and I took her and then went shopping afterwards. Monday morning is a great time to go, with just a handful of adults on the ice practicing spins and other interesting moves and, best of all, not running us over. The thrift store skates fit Meg just fine with a pair of extra socks.

About a quarter of the way around the rink, she got frustrated and asked to go home, but she pulled it together and we made it around several times. She skated holding onto one of us, holding onto both of us, holding onto the wall, and even, just for a foot or two, all by herself. She's good at getting back on her feet, though she preferred to sit on the ice and watch everybody, and her balance definitely improved while we were there.

"Did you go ice skating this morning?" Jonathan asked.
"Yeah," said Meg.
"What was it like?"
"It was like ice skating," she said.

And that seemed to sum it up.

Worth trying

"Just let me know when it's time to eat candy, okay, guys?" Meg

We've started the Advent calendar, you see. We have a big one with pockets and Nativity figures that you put on the stable, and then we have a little one with chocolate. I think the chocolate is leading to some optimism.

Security plan

We ate at a Quizno's in greater Baltimore, the other day. It was a great Quizno's, but as I was sitting at our table I noticed that the door jamb had a sticker with heights marked off on it like you would to measure your kid's height, only this one started higher up - five and a half feet, six feet, six and a half, seven. The door was seven feet tall, I noticed, and started speculating whether that was standard for buildings in North America. Probably.

But then I noticed that this sticker had their security company's logo. It all clicked.

They put it there to measure robbers on their way out.

I love how crimes were something they were planning on having and took steps to prosecute. So, of course, we had to photograph this character by the door to get photographic evidence. I told him to look suspicious.

Persephone is put to bed, clean and a little soggy

Tonight we let Meg have a little cup of pomegranate seeds to nibble in the bath.* Of course the bath got everywhere, pomegranate cup, Daddy-splashing cup, ducks, Daddy, and all, and it was time for the Meg to come out of the bath.  Jonathan dealt with the bathwater first, and while his back was turned, Meg slipped out to come leap on me and my laptop and generously drip all over au naturel, to the musical shrieks of "Get down! Watch the computer!"

Jonathan came along with a towel, and when Meg was dry, pajamaed, and put to bed, discovered that the Daddy-splashing cup had maliciously covered the tub drain so the water wouldn't drain.

I tell this story, not just by way of personal encouragement that these things happen to other people, but also because I found it amusing that I was pounced on by a girl literally wet behind the ears. Metaphor strikes again.



*Doesn't that sounds luxurious and Romanesque? We're starting classical education early. Obviously.