Non-Fiction

This morning, as Madeleine gazed out the window at YET MORE snow, she suddenly remembered a movie she had seen long ago that features a different kind of weather emergency.

MADELEINE: Mama, what was that movie called where everything was grey and there was a blizzard and a girl named Dory went outside?

ME: Uhhh...hmmm....oh!  Dorothy?  You mean "The Wizard of Oz."  It's a tornado outside in that movie, not a blizzard.

MADELEINE: Oh yeah.  "The Wizard of Oz!" (thoughtful) Mama?  Why when there's a blizzard, does everything turn GREY?

Oh, Madeleine.  So with the program.  After I launched into an explanation of a) the fact that a tornado is not a blizzard, and b) the idea behind the black and white turning to technicolor and what a big deal that was, I thought that was the end of our discussion about Oz.  But nope.

MADELEINE: Wait.  Mama?  Is "The Wizard of Oz" a NON-FICTION movie?
ME: No, it's fiction.  None of that really happened.

I can see why she thought it might be non-fiction, though.  A house flying over a rainbow and landing in a magical land with singing Little People and a talking scarecrow, tin man, and lion is pretty true to life.  Not to mention the witches, and the fact that pouring water on one of them reduces her to a lifeless heap.

Madeleine clearly has non-fiction on the brain, however, because after browsing through her Kids National Geographic magazine, she asked me if pictures can be non-fiction and fiction.  I told her that a true-life photograph can be considered non-fiction.  Madeleine decided to prove to me that not only photos can fit that category.

MADELEINE: Wait.  Mama.  I'm gonna draw a NON-FICTION picture.

So she drew a picture of the swim lesson she had recently been at, complete with a zombie-eyed Mommy sitting on the bleachers,  watching, and a Big-Foot Super-Giant swim teacher:

Julia, for her part, did some non-fiction drawing this evening, as she and Madeleine discussed the fact that both girls will be at the same school next year.

JULIA: And Madeleine.  When you're in kindergarten, and it's Wednesday, the lunch is ALWAYS pizza.  Wednesday is always pizza day!

Julia then began describing other cafeteria lunches, which led to her realization that Madeleine does not know what a chicken nugget is.  Julia set out to illustrate it for her.

JULIA: (in frustration) Mommy!  My chicken nugget does NOT look like a chicken nugget.
ME: I think it does.
JULIA: (dismayed) It looks like a POTATO!
MADELEINE: (turning to me after examining the picture) Uh, she's kind of right, Mama.

At least I know that Madeleine can give herself the same brutal honest assessments she gives to others.  This evening she stood on the couch, making smiling faces at herself in the reflection of the living room windows.

MADELEINE: Mama?  For when I go to kindergarten, I'm trying to see which SMILE is the best smile to do.
ME: Okay
MADELEINE: (smiling into the window)  Ugh.  Too CHUBBY.
(smiling yet again) Err...not really a great smile.

Luckily, she still has half a year to polish her perfect kindergarten smile.  And to learn what a chicken nugget is.