Entries from September 2014 ↓

This morning we packed up Ada the octopus and Dragon the dragon for Stuffed Animal Sleepover at the library.

Each stuffed animal was packed in a bag. Ada was in an ocean bag and took a pink blanket and a small pink puppy to be her stuffed animal in case she gets lonely and can’t sleep at the library. Dragon was in an outer space bag. Ivan assured me that Dragon loves outer space. He took a flannel baby blanket and Peanut the pink elephant as his stuffed animal.

Here’s Ada and pink puppy.

Ivan giving his dragon goodbye hugs.

We rode the elevator with its sparkly floor up to the 2nd floor and admired the view there.

We are looking forward to seeing what Ada and Dragon do at the library this weekend. Ezri thinks Miss Mouse might play school with them and she would be the teacher and the stuffed animals would be the kindergartens. Ivan thinks Miss Mouse might let the visitors sleep in her basket.

Update: Ivan informed me that Dragon breathes fire when he is lonely. This was a worry for him during Dragon’s time away. The librarians informed me Dragon was well behaved during the sleepover. Ivan and I were glad Dragon did not damage the newly renovated library. The booklet of photos showed the Ada and Dragon had a great time in the library playing with Miss Mouse and exploring.

Looking at some photos of a gay wedding with two brides in white dresses. Ezri asked what they were doing. I said the two brides were getting married to each other.
Ezri: Two brides!
Amanda: Yes, when two women fall in love and get married there are two brides.
Ezri: I know, but shouldn’t one of them get to be the groom?
Amanda: Well, usually we call the woman getting married the bride, but I suppose if one of them wanted to call herself the groom she could.
Ezri: That’s good. I would want to be the bride.

E (sounding a little exasperated): Ivan, I need you!
i (bounding towards his sister): I am right here. I am right here, Ezri.
She needed him to help her carry stuffed animals upstairs to the pet salon (bathroom).

Ezri asks questions that are hard to answer and they are never the ones I am prepared for. I try to answer them.
1) What is a church? We are secular. She doesn’t have a church, so how to describe it – the building? the faith community? what faith is? why there is more than one? what a deity is?
2) Are there still pirates? Her vision of pirates is Captain Hook and silly, scurvy seadogs that never truly existed outside of media and stories. Piracy happens today. There used to be sea going pirates. The whole thing was a tricky conversation that boiled down to the historical pirates that inspire the Disney show Jake and the Neverland pirates do not exist, but piracy still does.
3) Who will live in our house when we die? This one wasn’t that tricky to answer because I don’t know and won’t ever know, but it started a discussion of death as a separation from knowing and I still don’t know exactly what gears I turned in her head about what it means to die.
4) Why is it bad to be old? This question was asked after a discussion of how it is not nice to say to be “wow, you are really old” which she had done. I don’t believe it is bad to be old, but culturally it is not nice to point out someone’s age. I think I said something about how we avoid talking about certain things and tried to explain taboos and included some ramblings about how we don’t show our underwear even though we all know people wear underwear. So, sure you are going to notice people’s wrinkles and know they are old and they know they are old, but we still don’t mention it.

We assembled our dragon and dinosaur toys (and a bunny and Twilight Sparkle) to watch the movie How to Train Your Dragon.

When asked her favorite part of the movie, Ezri answered that she liked it when Hiccup and the dragon Toothless became friends.

When asked his favorite part of the movie, Ivan answered “eating popcorn.”

Untitled Bathtub installation

Wookiee

Ballerina

Elsa looks sweet.

But don’t cross her or she will blast you with her ice magic.

The dress is right at floor length which may lead to tripping during Trick-or-Treating, but Ezri loves its length and swish/spin factor. She made me take video of her spins. They end like this.

Ivan named the dragon he got for his birthday “Dragon.”
Aunt Amy also sent an unbirthday present for Ezri.
Ezri named her octopus “Ada.”
She hugged Ada and said, “I named you Ada because you have eight arms. Eight-ah Eight-ah.” Then she counted the arms to be sure.
Perhaps this octopus is named 8A.