Morning Melt-downs and More

Auntie Shannon was here this morning to see living proof of the fact that no matter how much forewarning I give about when we need to leave for school, nor how content the girls seem up until it's time to leave, there is ALWAYS some unforeseen melt-down on the part of one or both kids just as I'm trying to herd everyone out the door.  Last week, we had a double melt-down in which Madeleine was sobbing over the fact that she wanted a SHORT-SLEEVED coat, not a LONG-SLEEVED coat, and the fact that Julia keeps feeling like she NEEDS to pee but no pee will EVER come out and she just doesn't LIKE herself.

Today's melt-down was equally as ridiculous, but at least it was only one kid falling apart.  Madeleine simply couldn't handle the fact that Auntie Shannon had braided the two big pigtails she wore in her hair.  We all know that Madeleine can't handle about pants, but we hadn't realized that she also can't handle about braids.  Reaching up to feel her hair and suddenly noticing the braided pieces, she immediately crumpled up her face as tears began pouring out of her eyes, wailing, "No Mama I wanted it to be PONYTAIIIIIILS!  Not BRAAAAIDS!"

Sometimes you've gotta pick your battles.  I unbraided the pigtails and Madeleine was happy once again.  SO happy, in fact, that she announced brightly from the backseat of the car as we drove to school: "Mama, look, it's like I have two WATERFALLS in my hair!"

Madeleine with her two waterfalls


After school, Madeleine joined Auntie Shannon and I for lunch back at our house, and she was so off-the-wall goofy excited to be with her auntie that we could hardly encourage her to eat.  When she wasn't outright saying goofy potty talk or putting her plate on her head, she was impressing us with her linguistic skills.

ME: Madeleine, can you eat a strawberry?
MADELEINE: Mais oui!
ME: Mais oui?
AUNTIE SHANNON: Madeleine, do you speak French?
MADELEINE: No!
AUNTIE SHANNON: Do you speak British?  Japanese?  Greek?  English?
MADELEINE: No!
ME: What language do you speak, then?
MADELEINE: (looking at me with wide-eyed solemnity) Regular!

Duh!  I should have known!  After all, I speak regular too.  How could I be so foolish?

When she's not speaking regular, Madeleine is busy quoting lines from the girls' new favorite movie, "Hocus Pocus."  In fact, as we walked to pick up Julia from school this afternoon, Madeleine felt compelled to whisper movie lines under her breath the whole time.  Suddenly, I was commanded to utter lines as well, and before I knew it, Madeleine was Dani, the main little girl in the film, while I had the good fortune of being Dani's big brother, Max.  Because what better role for her mom to play than that of an adolescent boy?

Speaking of "Hocus Pocus" and the current obsession my kids have with the movie, apparently, last night while I was at chorus rehearsal, Julia came up with a GREAT idea: for next Halloween, she's going to dress up as Emily, a child ghost in the movie who appears for about thirty seconds of screen time.  She planned that she and Auntie Shannon would go online and look for Emily costumes in the morning, but apparently the whole idea was just too stimulating, and Julia came down from her bedroom to announce, "Auntie Shannon, I can't fall asleep, because I'm just too OVERJOYED thinking about looking for Emily costumes!"

I'm pretty sure that finding a costume for a completely incidental character from a movie that was made in 1993 is going to be near-impossible, but I'll leave it to Auntie Shannon to break the news to Julia.