Stunning

It all started with Violet playing Battle for Wesnoth. There's nothing unusual about that, unless you count the fact that Violet is playing a nerdy teenager-and-up strategy game and downloading various campaigns to keep it fresh. Did I just say that about my 6 year old? Somehow it seems less odd in real life.

Violet has downloaded  a campaign that includes elves, mermaids, wizards and the like, and this morning she came into the kitchen in a white full length slip that went with a second hand flower-girl dress we got at Mama Goose in Ithaca (Hi Amy!). She had worn that outfit several times over the past couple days, which is new. Today she explained to me that she was the Elvish Lady. The Elvish Lady dresses all in white. I asked her if she wanted me to do her hair in an elven style (which was seriously just an excuse to do her hair - an activity I adore and Violet loathes). She agreed, and I twisted up the sides, and then she showed me a picture of the Elvish Lady. The Elvish Lady wears a crown of red flowers over her long blond tousled hair. I opted to ignore the tousled part and asked Violet if she wanted flowers in her hair. She decided on white over red, so I tucked in some just-turning-pink hydrangea flowers.

Awhile later, she shows up in my bedroom, and the camera happens to be sitting there. Amazingly, she is up for a photo shoot.

Holy cow, is that my kid? The same kid who won't put on clothes, won't let me brush her hair, certainly won't wear a dress.

After I finished her hair, she stood in front of the mirror, obviously enchanted with herself. It was amazing to watch and see such pride. Not pride because she was wearing a pretty dress, or adorned with flowers in her hair but pride because she is beautiful. You could almost see the gears turning in her head and the realization overtaking her.

Yes, she might be beautiful, but you know she is always Violet.

Mini-Golf

Jason and I took Stella to play mini-golf for the first time on Independence Day. She was thrilled to get both parents to herself which rarely happens, and she was thrilled to play mini-golf, which she had never done before.

We tried to help her out with the rules and her form, but she wasn't having any of it.

She just wanted to do it her way. Her way included hitting the ball once, picking it up, placing it carefully next to the hole and hitting it in. Sideways.

I don't know if it is her inherited stubborn streak or her inherited love of croquet that renders her incapable of hitting a golf ball properly. Or maybe I should cut the kid some slack? I mean, she's only three.

She was very amusing, in any case.  In this house we spell diva with a capital D.

Family

Quiet

BFFs

June

The Naked Chef

I'm sorry I can't actually post any pictures of the chef in action. You'll just have to trust me that it was a sight to behold.

I told Violet today that she could make lunch. She could make whatever she wanted, and Stella and I would eat it. Her instantaneous reply? "We can have CAKE for LUNCH!!??"

"Yes, we can," I told her "but I don't think grabbing handfuls of frozen cake out of the freezer constitutes lunch. If you want cake, you have to bake it."

Apparently she didn't want to pay the high price of having cake for lunch, so she made soup instead.

The soup du jour turned out to be frozen corn, bananas, pineapple, pears, pear juice, and a single graham cracker. Mixed well and heated in the microwave for one minute.

After it passed her highly discriminating taste test, Violet served  each of us a bowl of soup.

Stella had seconds. I, however, did not.

I consider Violet's first foray into the culinary arts a success. A success in that I managed to swallow my soup with a smile on my face, and it left her with a good feeling about what she had done.

Later we made popsicles for and I took an active role in their making, but come to think of it - frozen soup would have made a rather nice popsicle.