McKenna Shoots for the Stars

Last night, the girls re-watched the American Girl movie "McKenna Shoots for the Stars," which always gets them into a gymnastics-y mood.  I had already forewarned them that this wasn't going to be one of those McKenna watchings in which they dress up in leotards and thump around the living room attempting to pull off McKenna's gymnastics tricks, so the kids were stuck expressing their gymnastics obsession in a different way.  Julia quickly got to work on the following drawings:

Take a good look at the second of these pictures.  Somebody ELSE in the family decided to try her hand at a gymnastics drawing, and clearly used Julia's drawing for inspiration:

I find it interesting that Madeleine drew basically the same people, but in opposite order from left to right.  She also accidentally drew the black-haired girl upside down, which caused her to have a momentary freak-out.  "Uh-oh!  WHOOPS!  Mama, I made this HEAD the wrong WAY!" she shouted in a voice of barely-contained panic.  Of course, the solution, in her head, was for me to somehow magically fix the error, because I'm Mommy, and I can do anything, right?  "Uh, Mama, so...can you make the head go the RIGHT WAY?"

If I had a magical eraser that can get rid of any trace of Crayola marker, perhaps I could have helped her.  Even White-Out would have done the trick.  But alas, I had no advice for her besides that of drawing a new head that went the right way.  THANKFULLY, she complied without having a complete and utter panic attack over the imperfection of the upside-down head.

While Julia was off at school today, Madeleine decided to act out the McKenna movie, complete with her sparkly purple leotard that she wears anytime she's a gymnast.  While she pranced around, performing her gymnastics tricks and commanding me to clap whenever a routine was done, I encouraged her to take a gymnastics break and finish her lunch.  She would occasionally pop into the dining room to eat a strawberry slice, but was otherwise disinterested in food, which is not all that unusual.  However, JUST to be on the safe side, I asked, multiple times:

ME: Madeleine?  Do you think you need to poop?
MADELEINE: Uh...NOPE!
ME: Why don't you go try?
MADELEINE: Uh, I don't need to.  I'm SURE.

You can likely guess where this story is going.  Fifteen or twenty minutes later, while she was being McKenna having play-time at school, chasing a bouncy ball around the dining room, she let out a sudden explosion.

MADELEINE: (sharply) Mama!!  I think I just felt some POOP go in my UNDERWEAR!

The stench alone was proof that she was spot-on in her thinking.  It's always a fun day when Madeleine poops in her pants, but when it's a rocket-like explosion that leaks through her underwear and all over the seat of one of our dress-up outfits, it's EXTRA exciting.

It gives a WHOLE new meaning to the title "McKenna Shoots for the Stars."

Needless to say, the leotard went into the wash, Madeleine went onto the potty, and the gymnastics act was retired for the rest of the day.