Some Stretchers

We're in Washington visiting our four-year-old granddaughter (and her parents, of course).  This morning I walked the little girl to her Montessori pre-school. As we passed some dormant rhododendrons, the grand-daughter told me that she saw a "very large antelope" resting under the bushes.  I like her style -- not a dog, or even a deer -- an antelope!  And a very large one to boot.  I love her sincerity, and I love it that she's still young enough to live in the imagination.  What a gift!

Here are some other "stretchers"  -- Huck Finn's word  -- that she's told me during this visit.  That she once ate thirteen bananas in a row.  That her mother and her grandmother had just gone to the Antarctic.  That she had six brothers and eleven sisters.  That the cheese that she was eating was made entirely of "green slimy boogers."  That she had just pooped on her cat.  That she built the neighbor's new picket fence.  "You did?  How did you do it?"   "With power tools."   That she had eaten a whole meal of eyeballs.

Well, she'll have to live in the world of hard facts soon enough.  Everyone must, even those of our leaders who would prefer to reject the "reality-based"  universe.  I say, let her enjoy the fantasy just as long as she is able. 

Comments

[Leonard Schnitzer]

Regarding girls'mandatory costume at assembliesin PS 217: white "middie" blouses with green or yellow kirchiefs. And yes I too cringed when being required to sing (which I mainly mumbled),"Onward Chistian Soldiers". no beingeither a soldier or Christian

[cknc]

Dad,

I really enjoyed this entry and others though I could have done without the NYC shops one :-)

Ella continues to exercise her imagination. Every day she delights us with a story or two.

The other day she held a banquet at the kitchen booth (she set the table herself with bowls, forks, bananas, and tomatoes) to celebrate her papoose which was a baby that was given to her by the Indian king and queen right before they died. How did she come up with this idea?

I believe this scene was developed straight from the chapter I read to her the night before from Little House on the Prairie where the middle child, Laura, asked and asked her Pa and Ma when she was going to see a papoose.

Your other daughter ...