* I’ve been reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe aloud to Scarlette. I did not intend to do this and will likely repeat it in a few years when she is old enough to appreciate the story more. What happened was, I usually read out loud to her while she eats her morning snack. Except one morning we were having a picnic outside and I forgot to bring any of her books out with us and I didn’t want to trek her peanut-butter covered self back into the house with me to retrieve one so I just started reading the only children’s book on my kindle, which happened to be The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
Turns out, Scarlette loved it and kept asking me at snack time to “wead me dat story about da girl named Wucy and all da snow.” Whenever I get to a stopping point she yells “NO MOMMY! YOU KEEP SAYING ALL DOSE WORDS TO ME! YOU KEEP SAYING DA STORY!” which is completely precious. So when I saw Turkish Delight at the grocery store I had to buy some and tell Scarlette that I had the candy from the story. It’s not really the same but was fun for us anyhow.
* The other night J was up late so I decided to sleep in the guest bed because I was exhausted from being up with Scarlette the night before. Night terrors are the WORST. I tossed and turned all night long and felt as though I could feel every single spring in the mattress. The next morning when I was awake and alert it occurred to me that I had taken the mattress off of the bed the day before to clean (potty training) and that what I had actually slept on were THE BOX SPRINGS. I slept on box springs, y’all. This is what happens when I am sleep deprived. I literally can not form a logical thought. I mean, I recognized that it felt like I was SLEEPING ON SPRINGS and still I did not make the connection.
* Later that day we were driving to the farm when I told J that in high school my friend Dustin told me that if a stop sign had white lines around it, that meant it was optional. And I completely believed him, right up until the first time my dad took me out to practice driving and I blew straight through a stop sign. “It’s a good thing I developed more common sense as I aged” I mused to J. He raised his eyebrows at me and said “SLEPT ON A BOX SPRING LAST NIGHT.” Touche.
* I just finished reading Now I’ll Tell You Everything, the final book in the Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. I’ve put off reading it in particular because I started reading Alice when I was in junior high and have read every single one of the twenty eight books in the series. I almost didn’t want it to end, I felt so connected to that character having grown up with her. It’s funny, nothing about turning thirty made me feel any sort of sadness or loss. It was the opposite, actually, because I feel so content with my life choices, peaceful about relinquishing control over my circumstances to the Lord and am ever counting my blessings. And yet it was this book that made me feel the first pangs of a closing of a chapter, a goodbye to the wild abandon of youth. I got a little emotional over this last book is what I’m saying. I may or may not have cried.
* Somehow Scarlette learned about Red Lights and Green Lights. I’m assuming because I taught her how to play Red Light, Green Light in an effort to get her to stand still for three seconds. Today on our way to the store she started yelling “MOMMY NO! DAT A WED WIGHT! YOU NOT CAN GO ON A WED WIGHT! WED MEAN STOP AND GWEEN MEAN GO! YOU BWEAKING ALL DA WULES!” I wasn’t really sure how to explain the concept of “Turning Right On Red” to a three year old and despite my valiant attempts she still proceeded to tell J that I did NOT stop at the red lights as soon as he walked in the door.
