Barbie

I haven't heard much about Aina lately. She's still around sometimes, usually in the car when Alice is expounding on the virtues of some new rule she's learned. No, the topic du jour these days is Barbie. Alice has seen several Barbie movies: Barbie as Rapunzel, Barbie in the Nutcracker, Barbie in Swan Lake, Barbie in Fairytopia, and probably one more. I've been impressed with the quality and story development in these films as far as kids movies go. The heroine is strong, there's a good moral to be learned, and the music isn't half bad. Alice eats it up. Alice pretends to be Barbie. She rarely wants to act out the literal story she's seen, though. She has adapted the film image/character of Barbie into the iconic princess figure that Alice already plays. Other characters from the films are inconsequential. Alice plays Barbie and then dictates how we, the other brand new characters, respond and converse with Barbie in the particular drama she is acting out at the moment.

Our new house has a bay window that is perfectly situated and sized for a miniature stage. Barbie has already put on several voice and dance performances to audiences large and small.

Oh Aina, I miss hearing about you. I love that Alice has stepped from the passive observer into the lead role, but I wonder sometimes about you. How is Jonie? Are you guys growing up as fast as Alice seems to be?

Bugs and Fasting

Alice told me a little more about Aina today. This morning, I heard about Aina trying to step on a red ant to squish it. It turns out, Aina lived in California like I did and came across a red ant. Instead of squishing the ant, it hopped over her shoe and bit her leg.

Correction: "She tried to squish it and it just climbed up on her leg and bit her."

After church, Alice told me about Aina's mosquito bite on her eye. It itched and itched and Aina rubbed her eyes. Alice had a cream that she put on Aina's eyes and it didn't sting and Aina's itching stopped.

Then I learned that Aina fasts every month and week. "She fasts dinner and treat and that's all. She's 8. Today is her birthday. Now she turned eight."

Bunny Milk

At dinner this evening Alice asks for more cheese, "Cheese please. Hey! That rhymes!"

*giggles*

I reply, "Cheese bees!"

*more giggles*

Bobby chimes in, "Bees don't make cheese."

"Uh, then how about 'bunny honey'?"

*giggles*

"Bunnies don't make honey, either, but you can make bunny cheese, I guess."

 I roll my eyes, "That doesn't rhyme. Bunny cheese?"

Alice perks up, "Yeah! I make bunny cheese. Me and Aina. We have bunnies in a cage and when it's time to make bunny cheese we take them out of the cage and cut off all their skin. That's bunny cheese. Aina likes bunny cheese. She eats it. Jonie likes it, too. Then we put the bunnies back in the cage for them to grow more fur."

Bobby groans. I'm speechless.

I ask, "Have you ever eaten bunny cheese?"

"No. Aina eats it. And Jonie."

"Does she like it?"

"Yeah."

Bobby says, "Usually cheese is made from milk. Cows milk."

I ask, "Do you milk the bunnies?"

Alice thinks about it for a second and responds, "Yeah, well, we make the cheese from the milk and then put the fur around it."

"Ah, I see."

"Aina likes it."

"Yes, of course."

Rapunzel...again

All morning, Alice tells me a story with many, many chapters. It starts in a land of fairies that don't serve tea. They eat fairy dust and cocoa. Everything in that land is candy and chocolate. Even the ground. The ground is chocolate and there are gummy worms living under it and you have to get a big shovel and "Nnnnghuh!" get the worms out. She tells me three chapters in the time it takes to change Robert's diaper and get him dressed. She then tells me the story has six chapters altogether.

Somehow, I don't remember how, but the story morphs one detail at a time to include toys and playthings and other morning routine elements (tooth brushing, prayer, etc.) as the morning progresses. Now she's in the story, an integral character, the queen. She rocks her baby Rapunzel to sleep and I'm assigned the role of king. She dons her regal queen voice which is half-whisper, half-song and continues to tell me the story as she dances it out. Her royal queen dress also happens to be the dress she's wearing to preschool. I shuffle around getting everything gathered to go out the door (keys, wallet, Buddy, backpack, shoes on everyone) and when I start listening to her story again she's now the princess Rapunzel and I'm the queen. We go to the car and Alice proclaims that I am the good queen and Mrs. Strom (her preschool teacher) is the mean witch who will trap her forever in the tower. I buckle her into her seat. We start driving to preschool and Alice tells me I am delivering her to the witch. She whispers more of the story to herself on the short drive over.

As we pull up to the preschool, I hear Alice whisper in a harsh and gravely tone, "This is where you'll stay for-EVER!" and then she gasps a princess gasp. Then the gravely voice says it again and the princess sigh is even more distressed. I unbuckle her and she skips to the preschool door, still quietly creating dialogue in two voices. She's so enthralled with her story that she doesn't even say "hi" to Mrs. Strom. She sweeps in and glide-dances about the room exploring this tower cell that will imprison her for eternity. She's gasping and flitting around. Mrs. Strom, not the slightest bit ruffled, says, "Good morning, Alice."

"I'm not Alice."

"Ah! I see. Well, who are you?"

"I'm Duh-nay-nuh."

Mrs. Strom smiles and we share a knowing glance. Another day in the life of Alice.

Cocoa

Bobby made oatmeal for breakfast today (yum!). I was telling him how much I appreciated that because I was just about to be lazy and make cocoa and toast instead (a delicious alternative, but not as healthy, and certainly MUCH more mess to clean up!). Alice heard "cocoa" and perked up in her seat.

"I want cocoa. Can I have cocoa?"

"No, today is oatmeal. We can have cocoa and toast tomorrow."

(*whine whine fuss* she writhes in her chair with disappointment)

Suddenly she sits up, puts her hands flat on the table and proclaims, "But today is a special occasion!"

"Really? What day is this?"

"It's Aina's birthday!"

"*gasp* But it was Aina's birthday two days ago (and half of the month of March, I might add)."

"Uh...this is a different Aina. My kid Aina. Today is her birthday and April 7th is her birthday."

"Two birthdays? And one of them is Kayla's birthday too! What a lucky kid."

This little kernel of a new story took Alice's attention away from the cocoa issue and straight into a 10-minute description of Aina's life and birthday history. Too many details to record here, unfortunately.

Opened the Floodgates

Okay, so I tried it. I asked questions about Aina. Something this afternoon reminded Bobby and me of the dogs from our childhood. Bees! That's it. Alice was asking if this was a good day for bees (she's terrified of them, so she's always asking about bee-friendly weather). Both of these dogs from our childhoods ate bees. Alice thought that was pretty funny. Then she told us about when she was a little kid living with Aina.

"We had a dog that liked to eat bees and everything else that isn't good for us."

"Wow! What was the dog's name?"

"Roh-nu. That was Aina's dog. And he ate bees but she took the stingers off. That way he didn't get stinged."

"And then my dog, Ru-noh...," she continued for some time about these dogs and growing up with them. Maybe it's my mucous filled head, but I couldn't keep possibly remember all the details she threw out there on our short trip to the hardware store.

Maybe I'll carry a recorder on me the next time. Mwah ha ha haaaaaaa!

I'm glad, in the end, that her imagination remains intact and it's only me that's grown less story-thusiastic. I can change me :)

Aina Lives On

Alice still talks about Aina. Pretty much every day. The problem is, she uses Aina so casually now that I forget to write it down. Alice asks a question, I answer it, then she tells me Aina's experience with that topic, which is almost always totally opposite of Alice's experience.

For example:

"Mom, why do the signs say 35?"

"Those are the speed limit signs. They tell us how fast we're allowed to drive on this street."

"What happens if you go too fast?"

"Then I'm breaking the law and I could get a ticket."

"Aina went too fast. She got a ticket for going too fast. Are you going too fast?"

"Nope. Just right."

No more of those awesome fantasy worlds filled with detail :( Then again, that's probably because I don't ask for details anymore. There's not one "why?" or "tell me about..." in that whole conversation. I'll ask for more details the next time Aina pops up. I've actually been missing Alice's thought experiments a little. Now I have a theory as to why they've disappeared from our conversations. Woo hoo for blogging!

Joni Wins a Prize

"Hey Mom, can you open the purple bucket for me please?"

"Sure."

"Jonie won a prize. He won it at my school. Not my preschool, but my school. He's in first grade. No, he's in second grade. No, he's in third grade. No, he's in fourth grade."

"A prize? What did he win?"

"A pepper. Jonie loves peppers."

I open the bucket and she carts it away. She throws her pretend red bell pepper into it and replaces the lid, "Here Jonie! Here's your prize!"

Alice doesn't like red peppers. She doesn't like any peppers. It's a good thing she and Jonie have complimentary interests.

Introducing Jonie

Alice got married yesterday...and the day before. She's also going to get married when she grows up. The lucky guy is Jonie (when it's not Robert, her brother). He's a nice guy. He is the first male pretend friend ("he's my 'tend friend") to have a consistent name. He's starting to pop up more often these days. Apparently, he and Aina have completely opposite interests and opinions, but they both get along for Alice's sake.

Aina likes to dip her pretzels in mandarin oranges. Jonie doesn't. 

I asked Alice to describe Jonie for me. She says he is tall with brown hair and has pale skin and has hairy arms like Daddy.

I...guess...that's...okay...

Today for quiet time, Alice is playing Dinosaur Monopoly with Aina and Jonie. It sounds like a pleasant game, even if the rules are complex and random.

Pinatas

We're making a special pinata this year for Alice's 4th birthday party. We finished the papier mache this morning and put it aside to dry. Alice wanted to paint right away, but I explained to her that something this wet would need to dry overnight. She went silent for a moment, popped a pretzel into her mouth and shared this:

"You know Aina got out of her bed this night. She got out and touched the pinata to see if it was wet or not. It was dry! Then she hid."

"She hid?"

"Yeah. And you got up in the morning and looked in her bed and she wasn't there. And then you looked for her and couldn't find her."

"Where was she hiding?"

"In the living room."

"Behind the snuggle chair?" (one of Alice's favorite hiding spots)

"Nope. Behind the kitchen table." Then she paused, catching herself in an impossible scenario. I raised my eyebrow. She smiled.

Cookies

Bobby tells us that Yahoo! gave him a big cookie for Valentine's day.

"How big?"

He uses his hands to make a circle about 4 inches in diameter.

"You know, Aina had a giant cookie. It's as big as you are."

*****LATER*****

"You know Aina had a big cookie as big as this house. She had to share it with her family. It was as big as this house and had a chair on it and couch on it. And a A-L-I-C-E on the other side."

Aina on Sunday

Alice was with me while I was reading the scriptures Sunday morning. When I was done with my reading, we played in the maps section of my Bible. She points to Babylonia and say, "Aina lives here."

At dinner, Alice makes a little mess with her Red Beans and Rice. Robert makes a BIG mess with his. Alice asks for a napkin. She then tells us that Aina has giant napkins for Giants and medium napkins for medium people.

After dinner, we were enjoying some "Snowball-esque" cake Bobby created. Alice turns to Bobby and says, "Aina eats cake like this." Then she lifts her plate to her mouth and shovels the cake in.

Lemons

Driving home from an oil change I hear:

"Lemons are yellow, right?"

"All the lemons I've ever seen are yellow."

"Aina has purple lemons. She makes them."

"Purple? Wow."

"They taste like grapes."

"So, when Aina makes lemonade she's actually making grape-ade?"

(pause)

"Yah!" *giggle*giggle*