A "Porse" is a "Porse", Of Course, Of Course...

When in need of creative inspiration, one need look no further than the bosom of their own home.

On Monday night when Lucy is tumbling, Henry and I have been finding ourselves at the library. He plays in the toy nook while I look for books.

It just so happens that they have a fabulous Parent's Shelf right on the Children's Floor. So, before choosing our storytime and bedtime books, I look for ideas for myself.

This past week, I found a book bursting with things to do with children. I believe there is no craft, no outdoor activity, no imaginary play concept, no homemade ball of Playdough that isn't contained in this glorious book. (Although I'm having difficulties with making paperdoll chains...the instructions leave a bit to be desired. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't admit that it might be my spatial reasoning deficit getting in the way...how I loathe geometry....)

Anyhow, this week, I've been turning to this book "365 Fun Things To Do With Preschoolers" for fun ways to spend our evenings.

Some of my favorites: 

• Letter finding games where you assign each child a letter and fill a sheet of paper with both lower and upper-case P's or G's or R's mixed with other letters. They circle their assigned letter and cross off any additional letters. I found this worked great with Henry practicing identifying lower-case d's, which he sometimes confuses with lower-case b's.
• Car quizzes where you ask your children to tell you their definition of certain interesting words. This week, we talked about "graduation". Priceless to hear their responses...!
• A chore jar filled with tasks that are simple or require adult assistance. We filled an old coffee can with strips of paper, each one with a chore written on it, and they took turns pulling out their chores. A spray bottle of vinegar and water (aren't you proud, Mom??) and some fun music and the house starts to look less disastrous.

One of the ideas that I've come across is to take a picture and adhere it to a bar of soap with canning wax to turn it into a gift or a fun bath tub accessory. Problem is...well, we don't have a bath tub. But this was one of those ideas that I just couldn't pass up.

So, I called the playschool on Thursday and voila! I'll be showing up at the school next Tuesday around 9am-ish to help the class make soaps for their dad's as Father's Day gifts. (The teachers are taking photos of each of the kids with a toolbelt and hammer, which we'll use as the photos on the soaps.)

Earlier this year, when it was "Dental Health Month" at Lucy's preschool, I volunteered to take in two dozen hard-boiled eggs dyed in tea along with toothpaste and toothbrushes (which the teacher supplied, bless her) to demonstrate to the kids how they should be brushing the plaque off of their teeth. Of course, Chris and I tested the project on one of the dyed eggs to make sure it worked, as know one likes to make a fool of themselves while speaking publically - especially in front of impressionable preschoolers with a tendency to chatter and laugh at just about anything.

Well, I thought that I better get the supplies early to test out my "picture soap project".

Four times I walked past the prominently displayed canning section at Wal-Mart before breaking down to ask a stocker to point me in the right direction.

Once we came across the canning section, conspicuously displayed in the front row of the kitchen section, I searched each shelf repeatedly for "canning wax". Wouldn't you know it? They had sugar-free pectin, canning kits, freezable jars, pickling spices and salts, and even pretty gingham jar wraps. But not one container of this now elusive "canning wax".

So we left Wal-Mart with 16 bars of Fresh Scent Zest soap but no canning wax. Now where to turn?? Does such a thing even exist? Oh book of books, please don't let me down... I'll try to use part of this weekend to get this wax, otherwise I'm going to be ridiculed by Kool-Aid faced four and five-year-olds on Tuesday...

More to come on that...

Now, for my unusual title.

Lucy, our firstborn, has long been referred to as "the serious one", a "CEO in a sundress", an "old soul". For a long time, Chris and I thought she just didn't like us. Now we realize that this is just her personality. And, every now and then, she surprises us with her uncanny ability to find the humor in a situation.

Tonight, we were having Family Movie Night (which Lucy pointed out is really not "family" because Daddy is at work...I tend to agree, but we have to give it a name as we mourn his absence while he works second shift for one more week). Lucy and Henry each chose a snack at the store.

Henry chose cinnamon mini-donuts and Lucy chose bakery cupcakes - some were yellow frosted (of course) and some were red. She carried the package of cupcakes inside only to find that a few of them tipped over on her voyage from the van to the front door.

For some kids, this might be silly or they may just ignore the fact altogether. After all, a smeared cupcake tastes the same as a non-smeared cupcake, plus there is the fact that we don't usually buy or get to enjoy cupcakes at home (unless Grammy is down and spoiling them OR it's someone's birthday).

Not our Lulu.

She was in hysterics by the time we got inside. Tears were streaming down her face as she awkwardly held the plastic tray of cupcakes. Thru those tears she angrily declared that the cupcakes were now "dirty" thus inedible.

After taking the tray from her and asking her to excuse herself upstairs while she regained composure (and knowing all too well that she was hungry, hot and tired), I took the cupcakes into the makeshift kitchen and stowed them away to prevent further mental damage.

Meanwhile, Henry was chucking his shoes into the closet and chasing Pearl around. Could there be two more opposite personalities?

To make a long story short, Lucy quickly composed herself and came downstairs. We did not discuss the cupcakes.

We had dinner and watched a really cute movied called "Five and It". While the movie was playing, I took advantage of the time to catch up on laundry, change bedsheets, etc.

After the kids had eaten their dinner, Henry declared quite assuredly that it was now time for snack. After a quick shudder went thru me, I excused myself to the kitchen. I opened the tray of upside-down cupcakes, hunted down a spoon and smoothed frosting on a yellow cupcake (as it had by now all slid off). I did one for each child (as Henry decided a cupcake would be better than a donut after all).

I presented the cupcakes to the kids and....silence. They gently gnawed at the cakes while watching the movie (which is so cute and awesome and was created by the late Muppet Master Jim Henson's  daughter and features a turtle-like magical sand fairy and an English palace...need I say more???).

Whew...tragedy averted and tears...there were none. These are the things I'm stressing over lately, dig?

Anyhoo, after the movie was over, each child demanded a letter-finding game, which I had happened to drum up for each of them before work this morning. Today, Henry's letter was G and Lucy's letter was P.

After X'ing the incorrect letters and circling the right ones, Lucy presented her paper, complete with her name neatly printed on the bottom, to me for final approval. She had done a fine job, as I knew she would. She knows all of her letters, so it's more fun and "puzzle-esque" for her.

So I decided to take it a step further. "Lucy", I say, "can you tell me some words that start with the letter P?"

"Pig!"

"Great!"

"Pippi!!" (as in Pippi Longstockings)

"Excellent!"

"Porse!"

......

"Porse?", I ask.

To that she crinkled her freckled nose and replied, "Yes, a porse. It's a pig and a horse. Ya know, like if they had babies? It has a pig face with a pig snout that is very long like a horse. And it has a big body with a fluffy tail, and it can fly. It's clearly a porse."

Oh the joy that I felt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I picked her up laughing hysterically and hugged and kissed her repeatedly and told her how creative and thoughtful and insightful her definition of a "porse" was, and, of course, the word "porse" clearly started with a P!!!!!!!! And I wrote the word "porse" at the top of her paper so that I would never forget this moment when my serious child, the same one who cried over toppled cupcakes just a few hours earlier, caught me off guard and taught me that she is a dichotomy. She reminded me that we should never judge people, especially about what we think we know. All too often those people will surprise us in the most amazing ways and capture a moment in time in our hearts that hopefully will last forever.

Lucy, I promise, if I can find one, I will buy you a "porse" for your next birthday!!!