Madeleine's Commentary and Pretend Play

Madeleine has been full of it today, from the moment she first got up.  Trotting downstairs and into the bathroom at the exact moment that Ethan was stepping out of the shower and beginning to towel off, Madeleine paused in the doorway to announce brightly, "I love your nice worm, Daddy!"

Later in the morning, after we were home from dropping Julia off at school, Madeleine decided she needed to be a ballerina, and somehow became convinced she had accomplished this task by putting on a dress-up wedding gown and ballet slippers.  I had just started running through music for a concert I'll be performing in this weekend when Madeleine decided she needed the floor clean in order to dance.

MADELEINE: Mama?  Can you clean up our MESS?
ME: No, honey, you need to clean it up.
MADELEINE: No, I want YOU to do it.
ME: I'm singing right now, honey.  You need to clean up your own mess.
MADELEINE: But...I can't right now, because I'm doing BALLET.  So, if you do it, I will be sooooo HAPPY!
ME: I can't, sweetheart.  I'm singing.
MADELEINE: One...two...three...four...five...TIME OUT!

Don't worry, I pulled a Madeleine and ignored my time out, preferring to continue singing instead.

After being a ballerina for awhile, Madeleine then got busy with the wooden figurines from our manger set.  You may remember that back when I started this blog, Julia, who was Madeleine's current age at the time, was going through a heavy manger-folks-obsession.  It's interesting that Madeleine has now become fascinated with the manger people, herself.  She set them all out on the living room table and began a whole, complex pretend game with them:

The wooden nativity set figurines, joined by one brown Little People horse.

The manger people started out playing nicely enough, but before I knew it, the angel was getting all uppity with the brown horse.

MADELEINE: (pushing the angel up to the horse's face) I'm VERY angry.  I need to get a NEW horse.
ME: Uh-oh!  Why is she so angry at the horsie?
MADELEINE: Because!  He knocked down GOD!

I looked down on the floor and saw poor God, lying supine on the dining room floor.

Apparently God is a shepherd.  They don't say "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd" for nothing, after all.

A few moments later, God had been rescued and laid gently back on the dining room table.  Unfortunately, the troubles were not over, as Mary desperately attempted to get God's attention, to no avail.

WISE MAN: Oh, he's sick!  He can't answer you.
MARY: Ohhh, my heart is broken.
MADELEINE: Mom?  Mary's heart is broken, because GOD is SICK.

The horse, feeling guilty, started trying to get himself back in Mary's good graces by walking around the table saying "Neeeigh!  Neeeigh!"  Finally sick of Mary ignoring him, the horse then violently knocked one of the three kings onto the floor.  A wise shepherd came to reprimand Horsie.

SHEPHERD: Horsie!  You CAN'T just knock down my KING!  I'm a PRINCESS!

But Horsie wasn't done there.  He next knocked another Wise Man to the ground, and man, oh man, did the shepherd have at him.

SHEPHERD: Horsie!  You CAN'T just knock down my KING!  She's my SISTER!

Once the sisters were re-united, attempts to reconcile with Horsie were made.

SHEPHERD: Sister?
SISTER: Yes, sweetie?
SHEPHERD: Um, my HORSIE just knocked you over.  Is that okay?  Is that okay, horsie?
HORSIE: Neeeigggghhhh!

Finally, the attention was drawn back to God, who seemed to be doing better, at least spiritually, as Baby Jesus came to comfort Him and lay by His side.

God and Jesus, together at last




MADELEINE: Awwww, Mama, lookit, Baby Jesus is laying with God!

And finally, in a happy ending to the game, ALL of the manger folks decided to lay down together in peace and harmony.  I don't think Madeleine quite realized the symbolism she achieved by ending her game this way, but look, here they are, united and together in sleep.  Even the brown horse managed to get himself back into the circle:

Phew.  I'm so glad to know that the trouble in Bethlehem came to a tranquil resolution.