Hello Kitty

Although Madeleine has been coloring in her "Hello Kitty" coloring book for months now, she was suddenly struck today by the disturbing fact that Hello Kitty does not have a mouth.

Because I am seen as the ultimate healer of anything that goes wrong in her life (case in point: when unable to put her whole Dora puzzle together, Madeleine came to me, eyes wide and full of sorrow, as I drank my coffee in the dining room, and said plaintively, "Mommy, I CAN'T fix my puzzle!"), it was clearly my job to fix the mouthless Hello Kitty problem.  Little did I know she meant to rectify every single Hello Kitty in her giant coloring book.  Flipping through, page by page, she asked me continually, "Mommy?  Can you make a mouth on THIS Hello Kitty?"  I suggested she try her hand at it as well, to which she responded, "I don't know I can make a mouth."  So for as long as she could hold my undivided attention, I sat making mouths on the various kitties in her book:

(Several of the pages feature music notes, like seen above.  When I asked Madeleine if she knew what a series of music notes was, she replied, "SONGS!")

She was NOT happy with my attempt to break the monotony of the smiley face in this picture.  I initially gave the Hello Kitty on the bottom right a straight, unsmiling mouth.  Unacceptable.  "No, Mommy, can you make a MOOOOUTH?" Oh.  A mouth.  What was I thinking assuming a mouth can also be unsmiling lips?

In the middle of all the mouth drawing, I got a phone call, and was unable to provide the requisite amount of attention towards giving Hello Kitties mouths.  Madeleine decided to take matters into her own hands, with disastrous results.

"NO!  I DON'T! WANT! TO! COLOR!" she exclaimed, putting her marker down emphatically.  I looked down to see what was causing such outrage.  Aha.  She had gone for it, and blown it.  She had failed at mouth construction.  No wonder she wanted to give up her artistic ambitions after such a huge blunder.

I guess the rest of the Hello Kitties are resigned to remaining mouthless.