Mona's Story

"Once upon a time there was a stray cat and she was cute, black and had a little bit of white and everyone that saw her called her a snowball. She was so cute and not a mean cat at all, even when she scratched. One foggy year Mona went to the same house every day and she was sooo happy."

At the park across the street from B&C. Nick spun around on seats perfectly angled to keep the victim spinning. After a bit of spinning Natasha asked her Dad: "Are you fatter?"

Looking

This one was reported to Mom from preschool teacher at pick-up yesterday.

N was found crawling around on the floor looking under tables and chairs. When asked what she was looking for she replied: "My sense of humor!"

Dinosaurs

N: Mom, there were no dinosaurs left when you were born right?

Mom: Yeah, they had been gone for millions of years by the time I was born.

N: Yeah, they were here way back in the 1950's.

Su Hua

N: Hi.
Mom: Hi.
N: I'm going to pretend to be someone else. (runs away)
Mom: Where are you going?
N: (from other room) I'm at my home in China!
(Nat runs back into the kitchen) Hi! I thought I'd come over for a visit and see your town.
Mom: Welcome to our home, you can stay as long as you like, what's your name?
N: Su Hua. I'm from China. I've never seen this kitchen before.
Mom: Wow. You traveled a long way.
N: I went on a plane. It was longer than planes to Michigan.
Mom: Would you like a snack, Su Hua?
N: Yeah. I like snacks at my house in China what snacks do you have at your house?
Mom: Well, my daughter, Natasha, likes to eat yogurt with blueberries in it, does that sound good to you?
N: I've never had that before. Sounds great!
(Mom starts yogurt prep)
Mom: So tell me about where you live. Do you live in a city?
N: No. I live in the desert.
Mom: Do you have any animals?
N: Just camels. Three of them. I know a lot about camels so you can ask me any question about camels and I can tell you about them.
Dad joins in: Do camels really spit?
N: Noooo! That's not real. Most camels are really friendly.
Mom: Wow, camels in China, who knew. Do you have any brothers or sisters?
N: Nope. No Mom or Dad either.
Mom: No mom or dad? Are you a grown up or a kid.
N: I'm all grown up. I'm eight.

The tale continued and N made up an entire biography of this eight year old camel-riding Chinese orphan raised by good friends in a desert in China. She remained in character for almost three hours including going to the grocery store and commenting that everything was different "in your town" that it was in China and asking which aisle had "camel food" so that she could take it back with her. She also invited us to visit her in China which involved a "plane flight" to the back of the house and introducing her to her camels and helping her name them.

Daddy has two daddies

Nat: Did you know that Daddy has two daddies?
Mom: Yeah, I guess he does.
N: Grandpa Moon AND Grandfather. Some people have two moms, or one mom and one dad, or one mom. But Daddy has two daddies. That's unusual. Families come in all shapes and sizes. (hand on hip and head nodding galore).

Stretching

N: Wanna watch me do this stretch?

Mom: Sure.

N: If I don't stretch I'm kind of smaller.

The mark of the calendar

Mom: There, now we have it on the calendar so we won't forget.
N: Can I have that pen?
Mom: Sure, do you have something else to write down?
(N makes a big squiggly drawing in one of the squares of the calendar.)
N: There. All set. I'll try to do it in the other squares just for revelations.