ME: Madeleine, did you have a good time at school? I missed you! What did you do today?
MADELEINE: Uh, wait, Mama. First I have to tell you the TRUTH.
I braced myself for a Julia-style, brutally honest truth: "I'm not sure if I missed you too." "I don't know if I had a good time." "Mom? Do you THINK I had fun at school today?"
Madeleine is a different bird, however.
ME: Okay, tell me the truth.
MADELEINE: Mama, I noticed you were in the bathroom with me, helping me wipe myself and wash my HANDS.
That really is the truth. When I arrived to pick Madeleine up from school, she was in the bathroom, so I met her in there and helped her finish up.
That was a really important truth for her to tell me. I wouldn't have known that I'd been in the bathroom with her, or that she had NOTICED me being in the bathroom, if she hadn't made that announcement on our way home.
Our conversation resumed.
ME: So, what did you learn about today?
MADELEINE: Um...I didn't learn ANYTHING!
ME: Well, what was the story about this morning?
MADELEINE: Um, two stories about POLAR BEARS who got VALENTINES!
ME: Oh, wow, how cool!
MADELEINE: Yeah, and the Daddy polar bear gave the Mommy polar bear TWO Valentines!
ME: You know what I was thinking? When we get home, you should decorate a Valentine for Julia for Valentine's Day.
MADELEINE: Arrrgh! Why do *I* not get two Valentines?
ME: You will! On Valentine's Day.
MADELEINE: Well, Mama, Valentine's Day was ALREADY the other day.
ME: No, Valentine's Day is next week. That's when we'll give our cards, and you'll get some cards. I have a card for you!
MADELEINE: Well Mama. Is it up in your ROOM?
ME: Yup! It is.
MADELEINE: And Mama, I know that JULIA has a card for me that's up in HER room.
ME: That's right.
MADELEINE: So I will get two Valentines! Awww, Mama, isn't that SO NICE of you and Julia?
ME: It IS nice of us.
MADELEINE: Yeah. Because. Mama. I know I love my BIG SISTER!
You know what I love? I love Madeleine's infallible logic.
Here is how the Valentine is working out, so far:
The orange thing underneath Madeleine's name is a cup with dirt, out of which is growing a flower, bonking directly into both the "M" and "A" of her name. This was extremely frustrating to Madeleine, but when I suggested she start a new cup of dirt over in the blanker section of the card, she found this unacceptable, because, "Well Mama. This is just the PERFECT SPOT."
May I point out that it was entirely Madeleine's idea -- and execution -- to make the letters of her name multi-colored pink and green? I find her fine motor skills and artistic abilities so freakishly good that sometimes I half expect to see her shoot lasers out of her eyes to create her next work of art.
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