Interests and Preferences

Clearly, the constant debate over clothes is on Madeleine's mind even when we're discussing something else.  Today, after I picked her up from school, she made sure to let me know how much she disapproved of the "classful" music I was listening to on the radio.  It happened to be a beautiful little piece by one of my favorite early composers, Henry Purcell, but Madeleine had no use for it.

MADELEINE: Mama?  Why did you put on GROWN-UP music?
ME: Well, because I like listening to this.
MADELEINE: Well, I don't like it.
ME: You don't, huh?  Why not?
MADELEINE: Because.  I don't!
ME: What don't you like about this music?
MADELEINE: That it sounds like: "rrrrreeeeeeeew!   rrrrrrreeeeeeew!" (imitating a violin sound.)
ME: Oh.  Well that's too bad.  I really like it.
MADELEINE: I.  Only.  Like.  DIFFERENT.  Outfits.
ME: Different outfits?  Or different music?
MADELEINE: Uh...different MUSIC!

Well, that was a Freudian slip!  (Or perhaps I should say a "Laura Ashley" slip...)

Trust me.  I already KNOW she only likes different outfits.  That one's a no-brainer.  The polka dot dress was a no-go this morning because it was too cold out not to wear long sleeves and pants.  Madeleine had trouble handling my decision, insisting that she was hot, despite the fact that on our walk to drop Julia at school Madeleine was asking for a hat and gloves to go along with her jacket, long pants, socks and shoes.  She sure found a way to make her point, however, by choosing to wear both her sleeves as well as the legs of her pants rolled up throughout her entire school day.  She LAUGHS in the face of cold weather!  She shows off her BARE KNEES AND ELBOWS in the face of a chilly wind!

At any rate, once Madeleine was home from school, she bundled up in a fleece blanket and started playing with magnet Barbie people.  Apparently I was supposed to be intuitively aware of the pretend-play game she was enacting, as she suddenly asked me a big stumper of a riddle.

MADELEINE: So Mama.  Guess what different WORLD the doggie is in.  Here, Mama.  I'll give you a hint.  It sounds like the letter "P" and it has TEETH.

ME: Uh...puppy?

MADELEINE: Nope!

ME: Princess?

MADELEINE: Nope!

ME: Uh, can you give me another hint?

MADELEINE: Nope!  That's the ONLY HINT I know how to GIVE.

ME: Okay.  So it sounds like the letter "p" and it has teeth?

MADELEINE: Uh-huh!  And a tongue.  And it can eat CHOCOLATE.

ME: Is it an animal?

MADELEINE: A mammal!

ME: Is it a person?

MADELEINE: (delighted) YES!!

I see.  So the dog is in a person world.  I'm not sure I quite see how that's a different world.  At least in the world that I'm from, doggies and people co-habitate.  We all suspect Madeleine lives on a different plane of reality, so perhaps in her alternate universe dogs and people aren't aligned.

Now, while Madeleine is busy stating her musical and wardrobe preferences, Julia has been hard at work on a school project, due on Friday.  Each member of her first grade class is instructed to decorate his or her Writer's Workshop folder to reflect his or her various likes, interests, and inspirations.  I'm sure you are already aware of the main, prevailing theme of Julia's folder:

Inside Folder

Back Cover

Front Cover


(FYI, I took the liberty of printing out the family photo at the CVS and sticking it on Julia's folder.  She has yet to see it, and she may very well be horrified by the intrusion of a bunch of Muggles into her Harry Potter world of decorations.  But hopefully she'll allow us to join in...)

At any rate, Madeleine and I are off to pick up Julia from school soon, and then I'm heading out to teach a bunch of classful, grown-up music to my piano students!