Photo Shoots and More

I begin this blog post with a series of photos.  First, one of Julia eating her dessert last night:

She's not kidding that she sorts her M n Ms into color groups.  Just look at that organization!

Next up is Julia's fashion shoot this morning, showing off her latest haute couteur look:

It is really scary how authentic her model imitations look.

Madeleine, of course, wanted in on the model action as well.  Here are her attempts at modelling her latest Tinkerbell collection:

While she was able to pull off the baleful doe-eyed model expression without a hitch, Madeleine did struggle a bit getting into character.  Part of the problem was that she just wasn't FEELING her Tinkerbell persona; in her mind, a few essentials were still missing from her look.  She discovered what she was lacking as she sat on the potty and happened to glance down at her underwear:

Pointing at Tinkerbell, she informed me, "And Mama, I need some blue eyes and some yellow hair."  Okay Madeleine.  I'll get right on that.  Eye-color change coming right up!

On another note, we were late to both kindergarten drop-off AND kindergarten pick-up today, both times because of poop.  This is actually the second time I have been late getting Julia to school due to an emergency, last-minute poop attack on her part.  At least today she moved a *little* less sluggishly.  The last time we were late, I was literally shouting at her through the closed bathroom door that she really needed to hurry as she bellowed out "We Three Kings of Orient Are" with her faux vibrato while sitting on the pot.  Today she did her best to move things along, but alas, we were not quick enough to meet the teacher at the kindergarten meeting area, so I had to walk her down to her classroom a few minutes late.

Madeleine was the pooping culprit right before school pick-up.  As I frantically wiped her, re-dressed her, washed both of our hands, and shoved her feet into her shoes, I repeatedly told her how late we were running.  Once we both had shoes and coats on, I shut and locked the back door and announced breathlessly, "Okay, let's go like the wind!"

Madeleine had a problem with that analogy.  "Mama," she said contemplatively, "but... the wind doesn't actually have a MOUTH, and the wind doesn't actually have some cheeks, and the wind doesn't actually have some FEET, and the wind doesn't actually have some TOES, and the wind doesn't actually have some LEGS.  So...what should we do?

Okay, Madeleine, you're right.  We can't LITERALLY go like the wind to get Julia.  We had to settle for me running to school as I pushed her in the stroller.

(BTW: "Actually" is one of Madeleine's newest vocabulary words, and she seems to pick up more and more each day.  Just last night, she told me, in reference to one of the candies in the pile she had dumped out of her pumpkin bag, "Oh, that one is delightful!")

Thankfully, we weren't too terribly late getting to Julia's school, and she didn't seem to mind the extra minute or two waiting for us to arrive for her.  As we walked home, she twirled in graceful circles along the sidewalk, a dreamy expression on her face. 

"What are you thinking about?" I asked her.  She immediately broke into a self-conscious grin.  "The things I gallop about!" she admitted. 

Giddy-up!