Again With The Tucking

This morning, she made a "widdle bed" for "the doggies."

That's a photo of PerfectPup from her puppy class graduation, and a Chow magnet that she likes to pretend is BigGaloot.

Later, I asked her to come move them out of my way "So I don't bump into them and wake them up," and she just rolled them over onto their tummies and covered them back up.

Read Across America

This morning, Peeper and I went to the Read Across America event at Target, in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday (coming up on March 2).

T and her girls were there, as well as a few other MOMS Club friends.

Tucked In, Again

The ballerina needed to sleep (on the kitchen floor), because she has a cold.

Oobleck

Cornstarch + Water + Food Coloring = Freeeeeky.

What it is and how it works.

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Fairy Tales

Peeper has discovered fairy tales and wants to hear more and more of them. We're struggling to find ones that we find acceptable. Some of the issue is that we prefer those that are not all about "someday my prince will come," but also, holy cow!

I get that these stories come from a different day and age, and that probably nothing you can find in a children's book today approaches the gruesomeness of original versions, but seriously?

Hansel and Gretel?!

I am MUCH less concerned with the witch trying to cook and eat the children than I am with the parents plotting to abandon them in the woods, because they can't afford to feed them.

Twice. (They made it back the first time, and the parents got mad and tried again!)

When I read it, I'm generally saying, "Um, and then the went for a walk, and they thought maybe they would get lost, so they took bread crumbs, and then they got lost and their parents looked and looked for them but couldn't find them, and . . . . " while hoping she doesn't wonder why it takes four pages to say that.

Funnily enough, her first exposure to most of the fairy tales, especially the ones she's particularly "into" these days - Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel and Jack and the Beanstalk - were through Sesame Street, which of course, shows a very different version of them.

Hansel and Gretel, for instance, are a take off on Hans and Frans and they "just want to throw breadcrumbs!" and Rapunzel cuts her hair because it keeps getting caught on things and she can't have any fun.

So, she saw these, and wanted to hear more about them, so Shrike got out the "Inappropriate Fairy Tales" (as we call it) book and read them to her, and now she's kind of obsessed.

At story time yesterday, I asked the librarian to help us find some more appropriate versions, but guess what? The ones we ended up with are pretty much word-for-word like the ones in that book!

We've actually read (Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture - Amazon affiliate link) that the "gruesome" versions are good, in that they let kids work through scary things in a fun way, but parental abandonment, no thanks!

I'm not totally sure about people getting eaten up, but Peeper seems to be okay about it. It makes Rapunzel-gets-knocked-up seem pretty tame, in comparison.

Bird Bed

I walked into our bedroom this evening to find this.

I do have a vague memory of hearing something earlier about "Dere. I put Big Bird to bed."

I guess she did.

Role Play

Shortly after watching a video of The Three Pigs, Peeper stacked up these things and told me, "Look! It's a house. Made out of crowns and a astronaut helmet and a Boppy!"

When I asked, she told me that the three little pigs live there, and she was the Big Bad Wolf.

She said "Little pigs, little pigs, let me in!" once, and then she started fiddling around with a fridge (okay, file cabinet) magnet and saying something about typing.

After a bit of clarification, I realized that she was texting the pigs to tell them to let her in! (There were better photos of her doing that, but they had a lot more nakiness in them, so I went with this one.)

Then she said, "I don't have a screen. I need a screen."

A moment later, I saw this.

Then she said, "I need my computer. That's not a screen, that's just some magnets."

Story Time - Transportation

This evening was story time at the library, and from what I caught, when I wasn't looking through fairy tale books or refreshing Facebook on my phone, waiting for news from the Maryland Senate vote on marriage equality (Woo Hoo!), the theme was transportation. 

I think there was a book about an airplane, one about a train and one about a hot air balloon. And the kids danced around a houseplant to a hip-hop version of Here We Go 'Round the Mulberry Bush.

Then we made an airplane, out of a clothespin, a magnet and two-and-a-half craft sticks. You can stick it on the fridge, and use it to hold things. How cool is that?

Feeling Better?

. . . aaaand then she coughed til she threw up.

Lego Pants

There are red and green and blue and yellow pants. She made them out of "dese widdle sticks."