Tales from the Rowe Household: Julia's Dream, and More

When I got up this morning, Julia was eager to tell me all about the dream she'd had during the night.

JULIA: Mom, so. I had a DREAM that we were walkin' up that SAME OLD hill, walkin' home from school, and there were TWO Madeleines, and one of the Madeleines got hit by a CAR and turned into a FISH!
ME: Wow, that's a crazy dream!
JULIA: Yeah! I guess, because, like, when we were walking home from school yesterday and we had to look out for cars, I must have been THINKING of it when I was dreaming.
ME: Yeah, you're right, because we had to walk in the road up that hill yesterday.
JULIA: Yeah. And, Mom, it was kind of like a BAD dream, because when I woke up I was feeling really SCARED and I then I realized that Madeleine didn't REALLY turn into a fish.

Julia then trotted off to tell her dream to Madeleine, who was on the couch watching "Curious George."

JULIA: So, Madeleine. I had a DREAM that we were walkin' up that SAME OLD hill, walkin' home from school, and there were TWO Madeleines! (waiting eagerly for Madeleine's response)
MADELEINE: (completely zoned out, staring at the tv)
JULIA: (trying again) And...you'll NEVER believe it. There were TWO Madeleines.
MADELEINE: (no response, eyes fixed on the television)
JULIA: And ONE of the Madeleines got hit by a car...AND...turned into a FISH!!
MADELEINE: (stony silence, totally absorbed in her show.)

I told Julia that I would share her dream on my blog, since she is so eager for people to hear about it. She was especially excited that Daddy would be able to hear the details by blog, because: "Mom, so, it's a GOOD thing I only told Daddy that I had a dream that there were TWO Madeleines, because then he can read ALL ABOUT the other parts of it when he reads your BLOG!"

Speaking of walkin' home from school, despite the fact that it is indeed spring, this is what things look like around here:

(this must be the OTHER of the two Madeleines; the one who DIDN'T get hit by a car and turn into a fish)

So, it is understandable that Madeleine doesn't actually believe it's spring. Instead of asking over and over when it will be the end of the world, she is now constantly asking me when it's going to be spring. She is filled with righteous indignation every time I tell her it really is spring, because she TOTALLY thinks I'm full of it.

MADELEINE: Mommy? When is it going to be SPRING?
ME: It IS spring, honey. It turned to spring yesterday.
MADELEINE: No! No, it's NOT spring!
ME: It really is.
MADELEINE: No! It's WINTER!
ME: It FEELS like winter, but it really is spring.
MADELEINE: Nooo! We don't have SNOW in spring!
ME: We usually don't, but we've had some wacky weather.
MADELEINE: Well Mama. When is it going to be SPRING?

And the cycle begins anew.

In other Madeleine news, I discovered yesterday that, despite the fact that she often appears to be in her own little world, she has actually learned how to spell quite a few words. She decided to "quiz" me in the car yesterday, spelling various words that I hadn't even known she could spell, and asking me if I knew what word it was.

I was able to capture her attention for a short bit this afternoon and have her spell a few of these words on camera:

Who is this kid?!? I can't figure her out from one moment to another. On the one hand, she draws better than I do, and she surprises me by spelling words like "Julia" and "stop," and on the other hand, she does things like this:

MADELEINE: (counting her toes one by one) One, two, free, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, ELEVEN! I have only ELEVEN toes!

On the subject of new accomplishments, Julia has met one of her kindergarten goals: she is now able to get across the monkey bars! It only took a lot of hanging in terror and whimpering, with her feet a mere few inches above the ground, before she got up the courage to try reaching for the next bar. Once she discovered that lightning didn't shoot her down from the sky, she warmed up to trying a few more bars, and now she's a monkey bar pro!