Snow Daisy

Violet and I were doing drawings today. 

First I made a sketch of her, which she colored quite nicely. Then she made a drawing of a bluebird on a branch. 

Then she made a drawing of a snow daisy. She explained that it was a very special flower that only grows in the special snow of a melted snowman. The drawing showed a tall slender flower with purple petals growing from a puddle with coal eyes and a carrot nose. 

Where do these ideas come from?  Outstanding. 

Red Tree Sacrifice

Christie had her heart set on buying a certain antique rocking chair from a person who refinishes them. She called their store to make sure they were open and to tell them she was on her way, only to learn that it had been sold out from under her. 

Violet was very saddened by this news. She knew how much her mother wanted to buy it. 

She looked outside at the red Japanese Maple in the yard, the tree she climbs and thinks of as her own. 

She said, "If Momma can't find another chair that she likes, I can use the wood from my red tree and make one for her."

I said, "But then your tree would be gone."

She said, "That's OK. I just want Momma  to be happy."

It's nice to be reminded that in hey heart she's a really good kid. 

Ownership

Violet starts up a story after dinner tonight. 

Once upon a time there was a Mommy and Daddy, and they owned a Violet, a Lila, and a Jasper...

Maddy

Violet was difficult all day.  I spent a lot of time correcting her and yelling at her.

At one point she said, "Your name is Maddy because your always mad at me."

She's the one being bad, and testing my patience, but I come away feeling guilty.  Victory: Violet.

Mars

Violet made me a paper rocket ship and a blue moon while I was at work.  She greeted me with these the instant I walked through the door.  

She explained what they were: "That's a rocket and that's a moon that you can see while you're flying in space."

"Cool," I said.  "Are there any other things out in space to see?"

"Yes, there's Mars.  Let me go make it for you."  She took off to her little art desk.

"Do you know what color Mars is?" I asked.

"Orange," she said, certainly, already cutting some orange paper.

Close enough, I thought to myself.

"Here you go," she said a minute later, handing me a little piece of orange paper the size of a quarter.  "It's small because it's so far away from the moon."

Mornin'

Sometimes, if we're up in the night with Jasper, Violet gets up before us.  She usually gets herself one of her breakfast bars and plays with the iPad for a little while.

This morning, Christie woke up and went into the living room.  She found Violet watching videos on the iPad and unapologetically eating potato chips.

Violet looked up and said, "Morning," and went back to the iPad.

It was like she was a roommate, not our four-year-old.

Wings

Violet took a page from a My Little Pony coloring book and started in with purple. She finished coloring with purple tail, mane and hooves.

No big deal.  But then she did something that surprised us.  She drew a wing coming off the left side of the body, the side facing us.  Next she drew the wing on the right side, but only the little bit you could see under the body, looking from the left side.

We were startled that she had the understanding to only draw the little bit of wing you'd see from the other side.

More markers for her!

Violet the Imitator

Today the weather was gorgeous.  Spring was in full effect.  When Christie picked Violet up from preschool, she decided that it was windows down time.

Violet complained.  "Mom, my hair is blowing in my face.  Mom, I don't want all the air."

It was just too nice a day, after the long winter, to seal the nice day out, even if it meant placating a cranky Violet.  "Sorry, Violet, it's windows down time," she said and turned up the radio.  Christie decided to take the long way around the reservoir, to have a few more minutes of fresh air and something nice to look at on the drive.

"Mom, you're being a bad listener," Violet said.

Basically, Violet went through all of the phrases we use to try to get her to listen to us.

"This is not good behavior," Violet yelled over and over.

She might have tried to assign Christie a time-out, but the window was open and the radio was too loud....

Ginger Aled It

We were at the supermarket and I said "Snailed it," from the movie Turbo.

Of course, Violet started saying "Snailed it!" over and over too.

Then, we rolled our cart through the soda aisle.  Violet asked, "Are we getting some ginger ale for Mommy?"

"Yes we are," I said.

Then she gave me a long giggle and said "Ginger aled it."

"Ginger aled it," I said, "that's a good one."

The only problem was that for the rest of our time, maybe only 10 minutes, at the store she said it over and over again.  She probably said it 50 times.  The looks from other customers went from whimsically curious to irritated.  Too bad they couldn't appreciate her creativity.

Butt Lipstick

Violet ran off to poop this evening.  I went in to check on her and she was sitting on the toilet with an issue of Parenting magazine open in her lap.

"Violet," I said, "are you done pooping?"

"Not yet," she said, turning the page.

"One more minute then you're done," I told her.

That minute up, I went in and tell her she's done.  I asked if she actually did poop, and she told me that she did.  She popped off the toilet and pointed her butt at me so I could wipe.

I did my fatherly duties and she said, "I put lipstick on my butt."

"You did what?"  I was stunned.

"I put lipstick on my butt.  As a joke."  She giggled like mad.

I looked and saw sparkles on her butt, like from her princess lipstick.  She really had put lipstick on her butt.  I wiped the sparkles from her butt, but it really bent my brain.

"Why would you do this?" I asked.

"It was a joke," she said, and laughed again.

Christie heard this exchange and went into Violet's room.  She found a lipstick tube with the lipstick tip mashed.  "Yep," she said to me.  This looks like our guy.  We threw the used lipstick out and went about our night.

Later, putting Violet to bed and Christie noticed something on the ear of her doggie stuffed animal.  She said, "Violet, did you put lipstick on Doggie's ears?"

"Yep," she said, completely unabashed, fully smiling.

While Christie and I tried to not to laugh, Violet said, "And Monkey's butt."

At that point, my parental disciplinary stone-face cracked and I just started laughing.

"And Tootie's butt", Violet added, pointing to her stuffed bear.

"And Blah Blah," the sock monkey.

So to recap, Violet decided to it would be "funny" to put lipstick on her butt, and then on a bunch of her stuffed animals.

What?