Me vs Disney

Syd, yelling from the shower she just stepped into: Moooooommmmmm!!!???
Me, from a foot and a half away: Yes?
S: Can you fix the shower curtain?
Me: Of course.
Fixed.
Syd: Thanks. You're the best Mom ever in reality.
Me, laughing: Reality?
Syd: Ya. I mean, there are some pretty great moms in cartoons. But you're the best one EVER...in reality.

ha ha ha...I think that's a truly heartfelt compliment. But... I just gotta say BLAST those Disney Moms! I don't even know which one I'm being compared to. I certainly didn't ask.

Cutest wicked witch...

...you ever did see....

Yep, you heard me. Against all that wants to protect my own squeaky clean image and wants to tell everyone who sees my daughter's Halloween costume that she's actually very sweet and doesn't like EVIL stuff...I let her be a wicked witch for Halloween. The Wicked Witch of the West. Elphaba, to be exact. But here's how it happened:

about three months ago
Me: So Syd, what do you want to be for Halloween?
Syd: Well...I either want to be Elphaba or Dorothy. But, I really want to be Elphaba, but Dorothy would be ok, if Elphaba isn't ok.
Me, looking to Patrick for help and seeing only amusement in his face: You want to be the...the...(throat clearing) Wicked Witch????


Now, let me insert my inner dialogue. I LOOOOOOOOVE Wicked, the musical. I get Elphaba and she rocks the socks right off my feet. My child has adopted my love for the whole story and SHE gets Elphaba and Elphaba rocks HER socks too! BUUUUUT, I'm a good girl and good girls' lil' girls don't trick or treat as the WICKED WITCH! I mean, what will people think? Will they think that we go to church on Sunday but secretly worship the devil? (I KNOW that's what my neighbor thinks, especially now that we have little soggy ghosts hanging limply from our trees ...but that's a story for another time).


But back to our conversation.

Me: So, why do you want to be the Wicked Witch?
Syd: Well, because Elphaba's not really wicked, Mom!!! She's just misunderstood. Everyone hates her because she's green and that's not nice. She wanted to be good, but everyone was soooo mean! It was NOT nice.

Enough said, brilliant, sensitive child. You can be the Wicked Witch but ONLY if you declare your reasoning at every threshold!

Ding Dong.
"Trick or Treat. I'm Elphaba and just really misunderstood!"

And the cutest lil' witch you'll be.

...with the greatest cloak-span

...and goofiest grin...

These were ALL her idea.

Yep, this one too

and this one

and this one

and DEFINITELY this one!

lata.

*kudos goes to Nana. Thanks for the crazy awesome sewing skills and making all of our Wicked dreams come true!

When I grow up...

I want to be an artist...

I thought I'd give you a glimpse of Sydney's utmost passion: art. Almost all of these pieces are from her kindergarten art class. I fully expect to see some new ones come out of her creative FIRST GRADE mind this fall.

Bold, simple, and her name is written in the clouds. Hum....

An abstract pencil sketch of a flower.

I love love LOVE this rendition of Frosty the Snowman. She did this one at home, actually, and her idea of Frosty looks delightfully cuddly to me. And the pipe! I can't get over the huge pipe!

This was her first true watercolor experience at school and I LOVE it.
I wish you could see it up close.
Notice a theme with her "S"? It's always backwards. We're still workin' on that one!

This is one of Patrick's favorites. Sydney is unsatisfied with it because it isn't "finished."
She's waiting around for me to get some brown watercolors so she can
fill in the legs and hollow arm.

This is one of the first art projects she did in kindergarten. It's made of scraps of material left over from other projects. She had a BLAST with this as she is absolutely fascinated with using recycled materials for crafts. I have to admit, I get a little irritated when she tries to rescue some nasty piece of junk from the trash. The words "but we can use this for crafts!" are like a life motto for her. But... I like that about her.

The words on the bottom read:
This is my turtle. It lives in the pond and it can swim in the pond to the next grass as well. It sleeps in its shell and it lives around the earth. It walks real slow but it's fast in water. My turtle lives around the water on the waterbed. Sydney, August 2008

A good one to end with.
Free. Bold. Colorful. Bright. Boundless. Unhindered.
Yep, that about sums her up.

I hope you've enjoyed a glimpse into our little artist. We fully expect her to become very, very rich some day and take care of us in our old age. Hum....want to buy a painting?

Lata.

the past 24 hours

In the past 24 hours these are the questions I've had to face:

"Mom, how does a Mommy feed a baby?"
"Where does the milk come from?"
"But, there's no hole there. How does the milk get out?"
"Do a mom's hips go back to the same size after the baby is born?"

and then....

"How do we know the Bible is real?"
"If God decided to make everyone obey Him, what would He make us do?"
after this particular question, she informed me that she really does believe in God and that she thinks the Bible is true, but there is "just this inch in me...just an INCH...that doesn't know. I can't understand. How can we KNOW?" Lord, help me. I don't know how to answer a six-year-old teenager's questions.

"What will we do in heaven?" to this I began to explain about God restoring perfection, the way things were meant to be...surprisingly (or not) she completely got this and the idea of perfection, of no more tears, of no more hurt, of perfect relationships with God and others...she got very excited. Even as young as she is, her heart longs for more....

check out the first-day-of-school 'do. headband. one braid on one side. Classic.

"Will there be houses in heaven, because I really want a great big house."

"How could Jesus and John be cousins if Mary and Elizabeth were cousins?" Hmmm....are they
second cousins? Because that's what I told her.

Ok, that's all I can think of for now, but that's because my brain is melting down at the moment. I KNOW there were more questions. Many, many, many more. Whoever said there was a "why" STAGE didn't know my kiddo. This is a "why" LIFE!!!

Why am I soooo tired????

lata.

but, why?

Father's Day

I just noticed that I started this post a long time ago (obviously, considering the title and content) but never finished it. I thought I'd go ahead and put it out there. I can't remember if there was more to the story, but it was just such a sweet moment of seeing into the deep heart of my young child...and I just wanted to share it and remember it. So, what follows is the post pretty much as I wrote it that night (I fixed a few typos, that kinda stuff)...I wish I could remember more...

Father’s Day. Sydney and I are driving to church and she looks at me through the rearview mirror:
Syd: Mom?
Me: Yes?
Syd: I bet Father’s Day is really sad for you.
Me (a little taken aback): Well...what makes you say that? What are you thinking about?
At this point, Syd kinda pulls back and I can see that she is second guessing her choice to say anything.
Me: It’s ok, babe. What are you thinking about back there that made you say that?
Syd: Well, it’s just that, that, well, your dad died and it must be really sad on Father’s Day to not have a dad.
Me (now with great big tears welling up in my eyes and my voice quivering a bit): Humm...well, it is sad sometimes. I mean, I don’t think about it all the time, but... it actually really makes me feel happy that you thought of me today and chose to say something to me about it. Thanks, honey. You just have a really, really sweet heart.
Syd: Thanks Mom.
silence for a while
Syd: Mom...........I'm really glad I have a Daddy.
Me: Me too, Babe.
silent tears and mascara streaming down my face...just in time for church. oh yay.