MADELEINE: Mommy? In the Josefina book, I was wondering if in 1863, they didn't have electricity, because it said something about hanging their clothes out to dry.
ME: Yeah, because they wouldn't have had dryers yet without electricity.
MADELEINE: But they said they have a stove...
ME: It might be a stove that's fueled by burning coal. The fire will heat things up.
MADELEINE: Oh, yeah, it did say something about a fire! But Mommy! That's *REALLY* old-fashioned!!
I guess she was underestimating the tides of change that have occurred in the last 154 years.
She had more to say on Josefina as the book went on.
MADELEINE: Mommy! I just REALIZED something!
ME: What?
MADELEINE: Every person in the Josefina book, even Papa and Mama...well...well, the Mama is DEAD...every person is like...Ana, Clara, Francisca, Josefina, Papa, Mama...they ALL end in "A!"
I can see she's getting to the deep roots of this historical period.
Furthermore, she has decided that she wants to do chores to be like Kit Kittredge, an American Girl who lived during the Great Depression. However, the chores I suggested won't do. Madeleine specifically wants to wash our dishes and sweep the floors. It doesn't matter that we have a dishwasher and a vacuum and that what I really want her to do is clean her gosh darn room or hang her coat instead of throwing it on the floor. She is bound and determined to wash and sweep, even when it comes to sweeping the rug in the play basement. I guess cleaning up your room isn't old-fashioned enough to qualify as a Kit Kittredge-style chore.
At any rate, I am thankful that we went through the American Girl obsession phase already with Julia, because Madeleine now has her own American Girl library right in our own home! Julia is full of knowledge about which books are the best and is graciously lending them to her sister, so that when Madeleine inevitably finishes her media books in one sitting, she doesn't have to wait a week until her next Media class to devour a few more!
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