"There's no place like home for the holidays," the song sang. "It's more like, 'There's no place like not-at-home for the holidays to get a break from your home,'" Dorothy commented.
Again this year, we each named something we're thankful for every day during November. Dorothy's list follows!
Dorothy commented on Notre Dame's final score of 55-0 over Georgia Tech. "I like how when the other team doesn't score any points, it's called a wipeout."
We were reading a picture book about Sarah Hale, who lobbied to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. She wrote letters to presidents in the 1800s, when "skirts were long and hats were tall," as the book said. Dorothy added, "If I wrote this book and I wanted to tell when it happened, I would say that it was when pens were feathers."
I started singing Love Me Tender, and when Dorothy didn't recognize it, I told her it was by Elvis Presley. I pulled it up on YouTube to let her listen, and before she even saw the video, she complained, "Let me guess. This is in black and white."
Dorothy was playing with her feet. "Look, Mom," she said. "I have five toes, but only four slots."
You can see her ad hoc paper bow peeking out above her white clip.
I asked Dorothy what she learned in CCD. "We learned about God's Creation and a little bit about Adam and Eve, which I was really glad about, because I've always been confused about that story," she told me.
I told Dorothy that I couldn't take a photo for her because my phone was charging on the other side of the house. Not long after, she saw the phone, which was close to the charger, but not connected. "I thought you said you were charging your phone," she demanded. "I was, but it finished charging," I replied. She looked at the phone and the cord and asked, "When it's charged, does it spit it out?"
Dorothy's classmate sent home Halloween treats that included mandarin oranges with faces drawn on them. Dorothy wanted to save the peel, and though I managed to peel it neatly, Brian warned Dorothy that it will dry out and shrink. "So it will grow old," I said, "and get wrinkles." Dorothy didn't like this idea, but she was quick on her feet: "It'll come right out of the bath," she countered.
In the same day, Dorothy took for her own my tomato pin cushion, and received a balloon animal at Gulfstream's Family Day event. Of course, we joked that she should not let them touch. "I can play coronavirus," she said, "and they'll have to social distance."
It seems that Dorothy has inherited Sarah's sense of direction. She told me, "I'm the line leader this week. I made some mistakes today. I kept going the wrong way. I even took us into the kindergarten hall."
Dorothy was gathering items for her Nancy Drew costume for school book character dress-up day. "Why do I like preparing so much?" she wondered aloud.
Nancy Drew in the Clue Crew series makes a list of suspects and crosses them off as she determines each person's innocence. In preparing for her costume, Dorothy wrote her classmates' names in a notebook and lined through some of them; then she rewrote the list and lined through different names. She explained, "Even though in real life my friends would be happier to see their names crossed off, I think in the costume they would be happier to see their names not crossed off."
Dorothy's Ranger Rick magazine had a photo of a piece of agate colored like Cookie Monster. Perhaps you've seen it in the media. Dorothy showed it to me, and I said, "I recognize that! I saw it in another publication." She replied, "I did too. I think it's a phenomenon."
In preschool Dorothy learned a song about the days of the week to the tune of The Addams Family. She was singing it recently and I pointed out that a member of the Addams Family is Wednesday. "That's a day of the week! I wonder if that's why those songs are related," I suggested. "They're related because it's the same tune," she clarified.
