When Vivian’s bored, she either draws or writes. We used to call her a one-girl craft production factory, but now she’s a writer in charge of a word assembly plant. James Frey would be lucky to have her in his sweatshop of young writing grunts, earning $250 per book they churn out.
Last week, Vivian must have been more bored than normal, because she decided to try a new genre: play-script. While I was multitasking in the kitchen (doing dishes and tweeting), she was sitting in the living room, busily writing in her journal.
“Mom,” she said, walking into the kitchen, “I wrote a play.”
“Really?” I questioned, feeling both impressed and unproductive.
“I did,” she said. “William’s a cow, you’re a sheep, and Daddy’s a pig.”
I stifled a laugh at her casting choices and said this:
“Yes,” she said earnestly. “And you’re a sheep.”
Animal Farm aside, at that moment I felt superior on the evolutionary ladder.
“Let’s rehearse,” Vivian said.
She had torn out four pages: on one page, essentially the director’s script, was the whole play; on the remaining three pages, she had written each of our parts.
After I practiced my part a few times, which involved saying “honk-shoo” (her onomatopoetic version of snoring), she corralled her brother and father.
When William refused to read his part, she threw it aside.
My husband and I rehearsed three times.
We told her that was enough for tonight.
“Okay,” she said, “but tomorrow we’ll add costumes.”
Stay tuned.
Ha. Nice. Look out Hollywood! Bizzare thing I heard this week: “The sun is blowing up.” (aka Solar Flare on Monday). Fortunately for us, Earth was not in its path. Had the sun blown up, there’d be no Whiteboard Wednesday!
I totally missed the Solar Flare news…except on your blog…The only things I see falling or blowing up lately are my back account and the snow on my blog.
Ok, I know you usually avoid photos, but I’m anxiously awaiting a visual of you in your costume. 😉
Oh let’s see… my days are blurs of organizing. Too much pressure..
As The Tackler played Angry Birds on my phone (while my house was cleaned around me) he failed at clearing one of the levels and said, “I’m not doing so well. I need to get those pigs.”
I was tempted to make a “Baa” joke, like I’d look baaaaaaad in a sheep costume, but I know puns are yesterday’s humour. Too late now, I suppose. I love the “I need to get those pigs” line!
My whiteboard Wednesday for this week (oh, how I enjoy this part of your blog), as said to my 17-month old: “If you’re hungry, eat the banana chips, not the rubber dress.”
That had me howling out loud. A “rubber dress” conjures so many images!
That’s terrific that Vivian goes to the notebook and gets her write on. Our kids do that, too. It’s fun to see what they come up with.
Love that she was able to cut out William’s part so effortlessly. It’s like, “Okay, sheep and pig, we’ll make this work.”
Yes, William’s part was definitely dispensable…as were most of our parts, I suspect. She rehearsed just with me the other night. As they say, “The show must go on!”
I love this whole situation. This sort of performace happens a lot in our house too.
I had a funny phrase fall out of my mouth a few days ago that I thought you would appreciate…My daughter likes to tell me something is good not only with a double thumbs up, but also a double big-toes up. When I asked her how her dinner was the other night, she showed me four appendages above the table to non-verbally state “It’s yummy!”. My reply? “That’s great hunny. Please try to not get your feet in your food.” I then quietly laughed at myself.
Just tonight, I had to say:
“Santa Claus is not dead.”
What, in God’s name, is going on in Grade 1 classrooms these days?