Childhood Plays

Sadly, these pictures were taken with my phone and aren't very good, but hopefully you'll get the gist.

When I was at my friend Heather's recently, her daughter Molly Kate (who's been featured before), aged 8, and her cousin Mia, also aged 8, prepared several plays for us. There is a fab, dramatic curtain between the dinning room and the foyer that is perfect for performances. They spent the morning getting ready and then Molly Kate stepped in front of the curtain to set the scene.

Molly Kate: Presenting Tom and Jerry, when Tom gets drunk.

she jumped back behind the curtain

Mia (whispering from behind the curtain): You mean hydrated.

The curtain then opened on a classic Tom and Jerry tableau. At one point Jerry fell into what we were later told was a vat of root beer. His equilibrium seemed to have been compromised by this encounter as he subsequently ran into a wall and tripped over a pillow, but he was in fact hydrated and not drunk. Which means root beer is far more dangerous than we ever thought.

The Inner Workings of a Child's Mind

Setting: abode of dear friends of many years Heather, Bill, Kenzie, Molly Kate, and Landon Duncan

Time: few weeks ago

Players: myself and Molly Kate, very newly aged 7

I was passing through the kitchen on my way to the bedroom when Molly Kate asked, "Ms. Leah, did you know about me?"


Did I know about her? I've been friends with her parents for over ten years, and I've been visiting them over the last several years with some regularity, perhaps not as much as we all would like, but still I don't feel myself a stranger at their house. We've been camping together. We've been to museums together. I've been her chaperone to and from the bathroom. I've played Nintendo DS with her and her older sister Kenzie.

Did she mean did I know about her before she was born? Children so often want to know if you knew them when they were still in their mommy's tummy. That blows their minds!

I walked back into the kitchen and confusedly asked, "Did I know about you?"

"Yea," she replied. "Did you know about me? That I've been making eggs since, like, last year."