The ostracized car, and Madeleine's new love interest

Along with princesses and religious figures, Julia also has a big obsession with matchbox cars. She has collected a fair number of them at this point, and one of her favorite things to do, for some reason, is line them all up on the windowsill and then leave them there all day. I recently discovered one car who had been left out of the pile-up on the windowsill; it was underneath our dining room table right by the window and I assumed Julia had dropped it and forgotten about it. When I tried to hand it back to her, she put her hands out to stop me as if the car were carrying some nasty infectious disease and protested, "Uh, no, he's mean." Taking a better look at the car, I can understand why she would make that assumption:



After weeks of finding this particular car in exile all over the house - underneath the love seat, behind the tv, on the back ledge of the sofa, etc., I suggested we try and give the car away to someone so she didn't have to be so nervous about him. She agreed, and the next time Julia's friend Nate was over to play, I offered him the car. After taking one look at it, he exclaimed in a panic-stricken voice, "I don't want him!! Get him away!" So, word of advice to parents out there: cars with sharp teeth are apparently terrifying to 3-year-olds, so hold off on acquiring them until your child is older. Here are two photos to show you how this poor, fanged car is left out of all the fun around here:

The "in" crowd on the windowsill.



The poor loner. I kind of feel bad for him.


In other news, I caught Madeleine making out with Dickie Dragon this morning:





Busted.


I wasn't doing anything!