Ethan and I had an incredibly busy weekend, thanks in part to a dress rehearsal and concert we partook in on both Saturday and Sunday. Consequently, the girls wound up spending a lot of the weekend under the authority of their aunties.
Last time the aunties baby-sat for a whole day, the girls were NOT very well behaved. In fact, Auntie Shannon had needed to lay down the law and tell them that unless some very specific things changed, she was not going to talk to them until they could behave nicely.
A month or so ago:
AUNTIE SHANNON: Okay, girls. Listen up. I'm only going to talk to you if-
MADELEINE: (pointing out Shannon's error) You're talking to us.
AUNTIE SHANNON: (ignoring Madeleine) Rule Number One: RESPECT THE AUNTIES.
MADELEINE: Uh, what does "RESPECT" mean?
As you can see, Madeleine was truly letting the message sink in.
However, she did apparently learn something from that experience, because as I was kissing the girls good-bye on Saturday before heading out to my dress rehearsal, Madeleine took it upon herself to come up with some behavior rules.
MADELEINE: Okay, here are the rules for how we should behave for our aunties. Rule Number One: If you want, something, please say "PLEASE." Rule Number Two: If your auntie gets that thing for you, please say "THANK YOU." And Rule Number Three: Don't forget to remember NOT to pick at your NAILS.
Madeleine's nail/cuticle picking is a pet peeve of all of us in the house, but she knows that the Aunties will call her out on it much more quickly than her pick-your-battles mother.
Thankfully, the girls proved to be on (mostly) great behavior for their aunties over the course of the weekend, and they got to do all sorts of special activities together. One of the most exciting was the baking and decorating of turkey-shaped sugar cookies.
Madeleine and I had a discussion about the cookies today, which led to Madeleine rattling off her Thanksgiving dinner wish list.
ME: Did you have fun making turkey cookies with your aunties?
MADELEINE: Mmm-hmm. But...the FIRST day, we didn't bake the cookies, we just made turkey dough. (softly, to herself) Is there such thing as turkey dough? (louder, to me) Mama? Is there such thing as turkey BREAD?
ME: Uh, I don't think so.
MADELEINE: Hmm. Well, how about you make CORNBREAD sometime?
ME: I can make it for Thanksgiving.
MADELEINE: Oh! Yes! And Mama? Can you make pumpkin pie?
ME: Sure. I thought you didn't like pumpkin pie, though.
MADELEINE: I did. Mama. Remember last time I tried some and I liked it?
ME: Uh, not really. (Remembering instead that she recently asked me to make apple pie, claiming she likes it, then practically gagged on her first bite and decided she doesn't, in fact, like it. I suspect the pumpkin pie scenario will play out much the same way on Thanksgiving, seeing as she didn't like it last year, despite what she says.)
MADELEINE: And Mama. You can make pumpkin MUFFINS, and I can SEE if I like them.
ME: Or I could just make pumpkin bread.
MADELEINE: Yeah. Both. You could make both. You could make EVERYTHING! (thoughtful) Except asparagus. Because I don't like asparagus. Mama? Have I ever TRIED asparagus?
ME: No.
MADELEINE: Well, I think I wouldn't LIKE it, because Julia doesn't like it.
ME: I know Julia doesn't like it.
MADELEINE: Yeah, so I don't really want asparagus for Thanksgiving.
And there you have it. From making turkey dough to planning out the Turkey Day menu, Madeleine has got Thanksgiving on the brain. As a kid, I always thought of Thanksgiving as the boring holiday that marked time between the GREAT holidays of Halloween and Christmas, so I'm glad that my kids can get excitement out of the Thanksgiving preparations. However, I'm not sure our actual Thanksgiving is going to live up to the expectations inside Madeleine's head. For example, we just had this conversation:
ME: Madeleine, what's making you so excited for Thanksgiving?
MADELEINE: (clasping her hands together and scrunching her face up with excited anticipation) CORN!
We've never had corn for Thanksgiving. We weren't planning on having corn at this upcoming Thanksgiving. I'm not entirely sure why Madeleine thinks corn is the exciting part about Thanksgiving, but I can only guess that the Indian corn decorating shops all over town has something to do with it. I guess we've received our instructions, however.
Thanksgiving dinner, Madeleine-style:
-Pumpkin pie
-Cornbread
-Pumpkin Muffins
-Pumpkin Bread
-NO asparagus
-Corn
I mean, we might as well buy just two ingredients: pumpkin and corn. That ought to be enough to cook a dinner to Madeleine's satisfaction!
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