Pico DiPaolo

Elise loves to pick out who everyone is in a book.  She is compelled to understand how all the characters fit into her nice and neat world.  For example, there was a book with a dad teaching a baby to swim.  So, that was her daddy and Lisie.  (She told me by pointing and announcing their names.)  The little girl on the beach was Joelle and the mommie sunbathing was me.  The little boy playing ball with Joelle?  “Joelle’s fwend.” 

I was reading the Berenstein Bear Ghost Walk to Lisie and when I got to a page with monsters and other fiendish Halloween characters, Elise announced, “mommie’s hiding.”  I was a little surprised because usually I can pretty easily pick out who she thinks is mommie in a book.  Sorry, none of these characters looked like me and I couldn’t understand why she said I was hiding.  So, I said, “yeah….,” a bit skeptically.  She picked up on my hesitation and said it again with more umph.  I suddenly realized that she had picked up that a wrapped up monster is a mummy and confused that with mommie!  She thinks a mummy is a mommie hiding!  It was so hilarious and smart of her.

Without counting, I know we’ve written about reading or a derivative of reading in some way a lot.  I guess it shouldn’t be a huge surprise to me that Elise seems to enjoy books as much as her sister, but it does.  They’re so different in so many ways, but books are a unifying factor.  Our girlies are at a tough age.  They fight a lot, they horde toys (particularly Joelle) and they hit (particularly Elise).  I’m always trying to find ways to bridge the gap and give them an activity together.  In that vein, I realized that I should try to get Joelle to read to Elise more.  At first, Elise did not want to cooperate.  She assumed, with some merit, that Joelle was just trying to take the book.  Joelle’s reaction was to say, “fine,” and stomp away.  I begged her to come back and sit on my other knee.  She did and I held the book.  When Joelle started reading, Elise did a double take and then looked at Joelle in awe.  Elise knows the words to the books because she has them all memorized and she knew that what Joelle was doing was magical.  It was so beautiful to see Elise so proud and in awe of her sister.  These moments are worth the gazillion fights.

I remember reading a children’s story at Thanksgiving about a turkey who wanted the farmer to name him because he’d noted that all the animals on the farm that had a name were never killed.  Wise thoughts from a turkey, I know.  It’s true though and I defy anyone to find a house more loved then our Wimberley house.  It’s had many names over the years, but it has a current set that I hope stick.  The upstairs room above the garage is “Nana’s Attic”, though Chris nicknamed it the “Alice in Wonderland” Room because of the tiny door on one side and the door that floats high on the other side.  It’s not hard to imagine the girls falling in love with that room as they get older.  The other bedroom is Poppy’s Treehouse because of the trees and the gorgeous porch.  I like the treehouse allusion because of all my childhood memories with Sarah and me playing in what she once dubbed her oneric house (I wish I had that essay she wrote!)

This weekend, Elise called what used to be the “carriage house” (Nana and Poppy’s one room garage apartment) the “Bird House.”  Her use of that word was definitely only because of the bird knocker on the outside, but I love that name.  It’s so fitting because it’s smaller and cozier and I like to think of Joelle and Nana hanging in the hammocks looking for birdies.  Joelle jumped in on the naming game and called what used to be the outhouse, the “kid zone.”  I think she likes it.

Thank you, Nana and Poppy, we love what you guys did and can’t wait to have more and more stories.  “God’s Little Acre”, certain to stick with the lovely sign, is very appropriately named.