Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

Someone taught Evie the rhyme “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” and now all decisions must be made this way. What will you eat first off your plate? Which crayon will you use? Who should put you to bed tonight? Always, eeny, meeny, miny, moe, like it’s some sort of infallible magic 8 ball, with all the right answers.

Evie’s actually learned a few of these lately, although eeny, meeny, miny, moe seems to be the rhyme of choice.

Bubble gum, bubble gum, in a dish,
How many pieces do you wish?

These really brought back some memories, I haven’t thought about a lot of these since I was a kid.

Engine, engine, number nine,
Coming down Chicago line,
If the train goes off the track,
Do you want your money back?

The part that is funny is that everybody has their own set of “add ons” onto the base rhyme.

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch a tiger by the toe,
If he hollers, let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miney, moe

Now here’s where it starts to get interesting:

My mother told me to pick the very best one

I would assume the purpose of these add-ons is to allow you to select the outcome you want: if you don’t land on the right thing, just tack something on the end and keep going.

And out you go with a dirty, dirty dishrag on your big fat enormous toe

However, it never worked that way for us; we always did the whole thing, all the way to the end.

Signed by the U.S. of the A.

And yes, I have Evie doing all the extras now.

Sara thought all of these extra additions were pretty hilarious, although I never really considered them much before. I probably learned them from my mom, they kind of sound like something she would do. What about you? Did you stick with the eeny, meeny, miney, moe, or did you have your own extras at the end? Were they the same or different from what we had?

So, Evie’s onto algebra now…

Evie was doing algebra today. No, seriously.

She was writing things like A + B = 3, and B + B = 4. At one point she was even working on R * 2 = ?

And if you don’t believe me, let me explain. She decided that every letter was worth a number, A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc., and she could do math with the letters instead of the numbers. If that’s not the definition of algebra, I don’t know what is.

On the other hand, I like to believe it’s her first foray into cryptography…

A Very Thoughtful Birthday Present

We have been on the warpath lately about homemade gifts, and so far, everybody has risen to the occasion. Since we made our decree, I couldn’t be more thrilled with the results! Yes, it is very difficult, but the gifts have really been amazing. And people have really come up with some amazing ideas, including people who thought they had nothing to offer in the homemade gift arena.

So I wanted to talk about one such gift, my mom’s present to Evie for her birthday. For those of you who do not know my mom, she is somewhat obsessed with the Wizard of Oz (along with the rest of her family…Aunt Emily and Aunt Laurie proved they have no problem reciting the script word for word!) And Evie is no slouch in this arena either, given her love of Wicked and the way she orchestrated a Wizard of Oz play for Oliver’s birthday.

So my mom’s present to Evie was a big box of Wizard of Oz dress up clothes.

Almost indistinguishable from the original cast!

Let me tell you why I love this gift.

First off, dress up clothes are infinitely variable, because they allow for unlimited imaginary play. The simpler something is, the more fun you can get out of it; think of how much more opportunity for play a doll offers compared to some super complicated, technologically advanced Barbie playset. With the doll, the sky’s the limit. With the playset, no imagination is required; you can only really play with it in the way it was designed to be played with. Your imagination can be lazy.

But second off, I’m sure one could go out and purchase a “Wizard of Oz dress up set” with outfits and props. But in this case, the items were things my mom already had, things that were handmade or sewn, or things re-purposed from thrift stores. Things were combined in new or different ways (like the Tinman’s painted oil funnel / hat, toy gas can / oil can, and Halloween meat cleaver / ax). It’s very clear that a lot of time and effort were spent putting everything together.

And I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s one of the best times anyone has had putting together a present!

“Excuse me sir, do you have any brains to spare?”

Every homemade gift is so much more charming and special than a simple store purchase!

The ruby slippers and their cloud of magical rubies which follows them everywhere they go

Of course, the set got some use right away, in an impromptu performance.

The cast takes a bow

Thanks for the thoughtful gift! It’s well appreciated (especially by me!)

A little note from Evie

Evie dictated this note to Sara:

What Evie would like to be when she grows up:

  • mommy
  • firefighter
  • grandma
  • doctor
  • factory maker (not work in one)
  • my baby goes to daycare just like me when I was a baby

That’s all.

(That last bullet makes mommy feel pretty sad!)

Later she added:

And also I want to work at a regular job too, like what daddy does.

I think that means work in an office, but I’m not exactly sure.

Magic Land

Evie and her friends hatched an elaborate plan today at school. When I got home from work, Evie wanted to know if I could drive her to school tonight, after it was dark. The plan was for the girls to meet at the playground so they could go to magic land. Some of the girls were going to sneak out and drive their Barbie cars, but Evie, not having a Barbie car herself, required a ride.

Evie informed me that, when she emerged from Magic Land, she would have green eyes and a neon dress. When I asked her why she wanted to have different colored eyes, she told me that she needed green eyes so that, “if the sisters come to Florence’s house again and bring a flower, then I’ll have something to pet.” “Is she on acid?” I asked. We were thoroughly through the rabbit hole here.

We tried to convince her that the other girls would not be allowed to go to school in the middle of the night either, but she’s not buying it. She’s convinced she is going to be left out; the only kid who doesn’t get to visit Magic Land. I mostly felt like she was speaking another language.