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.
Dorothy was grumpy, and I was making her lunch for school. She complained that I don't cut off every speck of brown crust, and said, "When you don't take off all the crust, it makes me feel like you don't care about me!" "Dorothy," I said, frustrated, "all I do all day long is care for you." "Well, it makes me feel like you don't care about my sandwich!" she countered.
The local library is giving rewards for kids who participate in their October reading campaign and log 4 hours of reading in the month. I loosely explained this to Dorothy, who said, "Ok, I want to do it. Four hours in a row?"
Dorothy was supposed to use the potty, and then brush her teeth. Brian saw her leaving the bathroom.
Everybody was in bed. There was a loud noise outdoors, and Dorothy called through the hall, "What was that noise?" I responded that it was probably a truck or something. Then Dorothy, who has a nightlight in her room, asked, "Then why is it so dark in here?" (The power went out.)
"Maaammmaa!" Dorothy hollered from the shower. "I already put out your towel," I called from the living room. "Maaammmaa!" Dorothy repeated. "What?" I yelled. "Maaammmaa!" she insisted. I stood up and walked across the house to the bathroom. "What's the matter?" I asked as Dorothy, wrapped in a towel, stepped from the shower. "I just have so much to tell you," Dorothy said.
Dorothy wanted her science experiment kit, which is named "My Mind-Blowing Science Kit." She asked me to take out the "Brain Exploding Kit."
After a girl in her class said something mean to Dorothy, she apologized the next day. "Mom!" Dorothy announced as she got into the car, "Evelyn apologized to me! It was on the playground. We were playing tag, and I was so surprised that I just stood there and Olivia tagged me."
Dorothy has been watching a show called Ada Twist, Scientist. Concurrently, she has become a night owl. Last night she posed: "I'm going to go to bed one night with no nightlight, no sound machine, and no dolls. Then on the next night, I'm going to go to bed with all those things. Then I'll see which way is better to go to sleep. Mom, what's your hypothesis?"
Lately we have been watching Fraggle Rock. The show has many different types of characters, including five main Fraggles, Gobo, Mokey, Wembley, Boober, and Red, and other nameless Fraggles in the background. Dorothy exploded with comments: "I love how Red is really active. It seems like each Fraggle's personality is different. I kind of like how they ignore all the other Fraggles and just focus on that clump of Fraggles."
Brian was out-of-town on his camping trip, and after school I asked Dorothy if she wanted French fries, which take a long time to bake. Eventually I served them to her with a blackbean burger, and she only ate the fries and told me she was finished. I said, "You didn't eat your burger." She said, "You didn't ask me if I wanted a burger. You only asked me if I wanted French fries." I said, "Well, we can't have only French fries for dinner." She said, "Oh, I didn't know it was dinner time because Daddy didn't come home."
Dorothy found a notebook that she used long ago as a diary. She was reading it, and said aloud, "I definitely spelled fools wrong." "What were you writing about fools at age 4?" I demanded. "April Fools Day," she answered.
"How much older is Aunt Mary Beth than you?" Dorothy asked. "3 years," I answered.
"How much older are you than Uncle Daniel?" Dorothy asked. "2 years," I answered.
"How much older is Uncle Daniel than Uncle Patrick?" Dorothy asked. "4 years," I answered.
"How much older is Aunt Mary Beth than Uncle Patrick?" Dorothy asked. "9 years," I answered.
"How much older is Aunt Mary Beth than Uncle Daniel?" Dorothy asked. "5 years," I answered.
"How much older are you than Uncle Patrick?" Dorothy asked. "6 years," I answered.
"Now we've got that straightened out," Dorothy concluded.
Dorothy asked me to clip her toenails. "I hate it when they have white," she said. "When I see white on my nails, it's a sign to me that I need to clip my toenails or bite my fingernails."
