Madeleine Turns 10

HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY to this kid!!

Madeleine has been SO excited for this day that she had even googled "Ways to make the day pass faster." At long last, the day is here.

We started off the morning with homemade pancakes and presents.  Madeleine was delighted by all her loot, but soon had to leave it behind to head off to school.  No big deal, though; at school, her classmates all signed a birthday poster for her to celebrate the day!

While the girls were at school, I got busy baking for the upcoming Friday night birthday party.  Three dozen pumpkin cupcakes later, I headed out to pick Madeleine up from school.  She had been adamant about wanting to help me frost the cupcakes, so I waited until after school to mix up some vanilla frosting.  Madeleine is having a Harry Potter-themed party, so she wanted to color the frosting Hogwarts House colors.

We each got started with a bowl of frosting.  Madeleine dropped in yellow food coloring to frost some Hufflepuff cupcakes.  I went with blue for Ravenclaw cupcakes.  When I moved onto Green Slytherin frosting, I added some yellow to my already-blue frosting in the bowl.  All that was left was red for Gryffindor.

MADELEINE: Mommy, can I frost the Gryffindor ones??
ME: Sure.  You can just put the red food coloring into the main big bowl of frosting, since it's the only color we have left to do.
MADELEINE: Okay. (tipping a small bottle upside down and dropping some drops into the bowl) It's not working!
ME: Let me see. (Peering into a bowl of still-white frosting) Did you stir it around yet?
MADELEINE: Uh, not- (peering at the label of the bottle she was holding) This is PEPPERMINT EXTRACT!

So we had peppermint-flavored frosting and pumpkin cupcakes.  A match made in Heaven, amirite?

ME: Okay, well, we can't use the frosting then...
MADELEINE: Uh, should you make some more?
ME: Well, I just used up ALL of our confectioner's sugar.
MADELEINE: Uh, should we go to the store?

No.  We should not.

I managed to save the day by adding red to my green frosting, making a perfectly Gryffindorian maroon.  Not too shabby, right?:

To cap off the birthday, we had a family dinner out to the restaurant of Madeleine's choice.  Here's what she wore to dinner:

Celebrating 10 years of uniqueness!  Here's to many, many, many more!  Keep on being your wonderful self, Madeleine!!

On The Invention of Weeks

Shhh!  Don't tell!  I'm breaking the "No Electronics" rule for a few minutes.

On our way to swim practice, Madeleine made a poignant observation.

MADELEINE: Hey.  Mommy!  I think I figured out how WEEKS were created!
ME: Oh yeah?
MADELEINE: Yeah.  I think, like, the people who predict the weather realized that they could only predict the weather for the next seven days, so that's how weeks were invented!

Um, yeah.  That's...not it, but...A for effort!

Weekly Schedule

Madeleine made a weekly plan to try and stop global warming, and tomorrow is supposed to be "No Electronics" day.  She expects the rest of the household members to adhere to her plan, but Julia isn't having it.  Now the girls are in a big fight because Julia is insisting that Madeleine can't decide for her whether or not Julia can watch tv tomorrow, and Madeleine is adamant that everyone in the household has to abide to her arbitrary rules.  I, as a loving mommy, am offering to do no electronics along with Madeleine, but that's not helping.  Also not helping is a big sister who could possibly make a *few* concessions (or at least pretend to.)

JULIA: How about I just use my phone, my computer, and the tv?

So, you mean, like everything?

At the moment, the girls are separated and Madeleine is sulking around the house, getting ready for bed, utterly wounded that we're not all jumping for joy over her plan.

I tried to go and talk calmly to Madeleine about her feelings, but she had to go take Luna her pet rock dog out to pretend pee, so I was left alone and unappreciated in her room.

So, if all goes according to plan, I guess you won't be hearing from me tomorrow, since I'm not allowed on my computer, so...'til Monday!

The Awkward Grade

Walking home from school with Madeleine, we chatted about friends, classroom behavior, and the general elements of school.

ME: And you're behaving in class, right?
MADELEINE: (solemnly) Yes.
ME: I figured.  I just know that some of the kids in your class can get wild, so I wanted to make sure you're not getting pulled into that.
MADELEINE: (as if stating the obvious to an outright dolt) Mommy.  It's FOURTH GRADE.  Besides, everybody knows that's the AWKWARD grade.  Because...you're getting HORMONES.  And...it's close to FIFTH GRADE.  And FIFTH GRADE is the worry grade.  Sixth grade is the ADJUSTING grade.  Third grade is the STRESSED OUT grade because you're in the upper level classrooms for the first time.

Oh, okay, well now I get it.  Those pesky hormones making fourth grade so awkward, right before you're about to enter the Worry Grade.  I can't believe I was such an ignoramus about something that EVERYBODY knows.

Night Time Fears

So, Julia came into the bedroom at 2:30 am to tell me she thought she's seen an intruder in the yard.

JULIA: I think I saw a person out the window in our backyard.
ME: You did?
JULIA: Yeah.  And he was wearing a Plague Doctor mask.
ME: Okay, no, I'm sure there's no one in a Plague Doctor mask in our backyard.
JULIA: But it really looked like it.
ME: Well, just make sure the back door is locked.
JULIA: (gripping my hand in terror) Come WITH me.

We went and looked out the back door.  I saw nary a Plague Doctor.

ME: I don't see anything.
JULIA: It looked more like it when the LIGHTS were off.
ME: Okay.  (turning off the kitchen lights) Let me see.
JULIA: (clutching my hand in terror) Stay with me!
ME: Let's look together.
JULIA AND I: (peering into the blackness of the backyard)
ME: Um.
JULIA: See?  Doesn't it look like it?  Behind the grill?
ME: No.

I sent Julia back to bed but it took many more assurances that there was not a Plague Doctor in our backyard before she could leave my side.  I mean, even if there was a Plague Doctor out there, what was he going to do?  Cure us all of the plague?

I guess Julia might not be able to wear her costume on Halloween because she might scare her own self.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

We Rowes have been watching the new series "The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance" as a family, and today we finished the first season.  Three of us watched the series only when the whole family could sit down together; Madeleine was too impatient to wait for us, so by the time we got to the finale this afternoon, she had seen the entirety of the season probably 5 or 6 times.  She has been absolutely OBSESSED with the show and the fantasy world of Thra.  As someone who was totally obsessed with the original movie as a child, I can kind of relate, except that I didn't grow up with the technology to binge-watch a show/movie repeatedly, the way she can.

Madeleine has decided that she wants to be her favorite "Age of Resistance" character, the Gelfling Deet, for Halloween.  Because there are no actual costumes of Deet for sale, I have been ordering a hodge-podge of things to try and put a costume together.  Most recent to arrive was the Gelfling ears.  Now Madeleine can turn herself into a Gelfling when she's doing any old activity around the house!:

Bedtime reading.  (I guess she was so excited about her Gelfling ears that she put her pajama top on backwards, because there are supposed to be graphics on the front of it)

Doing arts and crafts.  Why not be a Gelfling while you're making a cardboard dollhouse??

Eating tortilla chips and watching tv.  Because, let's face it: you HAVE to dress as a Gelfling to fully enjoy "The Dark Crystal" viewing experience, amirite?


With all the effort put towards Madeleine's costume, I should be able to count on Julia to pick something totally generic and easy for her Halloween costume, right?  So, she wants to be a plague doctor.  But with a red robe and a white face mask, not the standard black that one can find in catalogs and online. 

Halloween 2019: Deet the Gelfling and Plague Doctor Julia, because my kids have totally normal and mainstream interests like the cult classic "The Dark Crystal" and the bubonic plague.

Settling Into School

Middle school parents have been notified that their child's advisor will be calling over the next week or so to check in about the first few weeks of school.  Julia's close friend just got her check-in, so Julia is awaiting the phone call to me with her usual abundance of self-confidence.

JULIA: But what if she only has BAD things to say about me?
ME: I think that'll probably be the case, because that's how it always seems to go with you and teachers.

She decided not to respond to my sarcasm, but I must have rattled her, because she then proceeded to eat a blueberry lemon muffin with the wrapper on, then drop the muffin on the floor when she was halfway through, letting out a shriek and scrambling out of her chair to snatch it back up.

Meanwhile, Madeleine decided to give an obnoxious response to her teacher when asked what she'd be doing over the weekend.

MADELEINE: I didn't really know what we'd be doing over the weekend, so I said: "Breathing AIR and saying hello to people."
ME: That's what you answered to your teacher?
MADELEINE: (proudly) Yes.
ME: Great.


So.  Madeleine better be saying hello to people this weekend or I'm calling her out on it.