Icons and Books

After church today, I had a church choir rehearsal, so I brought the girls up to the choir loft with me and set them up with some paper, pencil, pen, and crayons.  Julia must have been inspired by all the icons around us, as she came up with the following drawings of made-up saints:

St. Julia
(JULIA: Mom?  Do you think this looks like the kind of clothes people wore in the olden days?  Like, all colorful and stuff?)

The Thing and Maliee and St. Maliee
Looks like St. Maliee was a martyr saint, given her tearful expression as she balances that big boat (crown?  ice cream sundae?  mountain range?) on her head.

St. Madeleine and St. Bebe.
Love all.
(I think this one is my favorite...)


Madeleine made her own church-inspired contribution during the rehearsal, announcing to me that she needed to go poop, then considerately leaving her clothes on while she went on the pot.  Given that she absolutely cannot even fathom sitting down to poop on the potty at home without stripping herself of all clothing and jewelry, this was definitely a big step for her.

MADELEINE: Mommy?  At HOME, you take off all your clothes, but at CHURCH you DON'T take off all your clothes.  Because...Father the PRIEST doesn't want to see us being NAKED in the BATHROOM.

I am so relieved that, despite all the naked Barbies lounging on their sunroof at home, Madeleine at least has some inkling of when it is and when it isn't appropriate to be in the nude.

When we got home, Julia got back to work on her newest book, "So it's black now."  She seems utterly convinced that once she finishes this book, she's going to give it to the media center at her school for other kids to check out.  She has been talking all day about how she's making a media book.

I thought she was pretending.

I was wrong.

JULIA: Well, Mama, do you think that this CAN be a media book?
ME: Uh...well...I think libraries really only lend out books that are actually published.
JULIA: What do you mean?
ME: Well...usually a book needs to get published before it can be put on the shelves in bookstores or libraries.  A library wouldn't just take the one and only original copy.  Books need to be produced in a publishing house, so that there are lots of copies made, enough for different libraries and bookstores all over the place.
JULIA: (looking momentarily crestfallen) Oh.  (brightening) Well, Mama, could we take this to one of those places?
ME: What place?  A publishing house?
JULIA: Yeah.  Could we bring it there?

Well, at least she is confident in herself.  They may be delusions of grandeur, but it's nice to know that Julia truly believes herself to be, at 6 years old, worthy of publishing a book.  And of making a real movie.  And of recording a real rock music CD.  And of being a fashion model.  And of being an Olympic swimmer.  Dream big, little love!  The sky's the limit!