Today, a story started by Maddie and later corroborated by Sophie, on how our family got to be where it is today:
Maddie, when Sophie was not in the room:
Mom…you see, we have special powers. Me and Sophie already knew each other when we weren’t born yet, and we agreed that we should get adopted by the same parents so that we could be best friends. So we decided who should go first and who should wait, and then we ran off to our Chinas [Maddie differentiates our different adoption trips as “my China” and “Sophie’s China”] to hurry up and get to our new family. We used our powers. So we already knew everything that was going to happen!
I thought that was really sweet. Later on, when Maddie was not around, I checked in with Sophie on the whole “special powers” thing.
Me:
So, Sophie, Maddie tells me that you both have special powers that you used to get adopted into the same family when you knew each other before you were born. Is that true?
Sophie (without skipping a beat):
Oh yes. That’s right. But you know the powers where you can make sparkles fly all around and have shiny stars and ribbon things appear? Maddie doesn’t have those powers. Only me.
Me:
My goodness, Sophie! I had no idea. Do you have those powers now? Can I see them?
Sophie:
Oh, no, I don’t wear them every day. I keep them in my underwear drawer. You have to keep it shut tight or else they will fly away.
Makes you want to look in YOUR underwear drawer, doesn’t it???
It’s been a whirlwind week…Sophie went to a one-day “Princess Camp” at a local dance studio, which turned out to be a fantasy come true for so many reasons - rooms with wall-length mirrors in which to admire oneself, all the pink tulle you could imagine, and crowns galore. Seriously though - like any other “camp” she’s gone to recently, Sophie was admirably brave and went all by herself not knowing anyone, for a good 5 hours (Maddie is not into princesses at all, proof that this stuff is hardwired. I’d like to blame Disney but…). Also true to form, Sophie held to a strict code of silence about whether she liked it or not - it’s like “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” - but she did tell Maddie that it was fun and she made 4 new friends. Too early to tell whether she’d like to take a dance class or two, but we’re glad she had a good time.
Later that day it was off to an art opening of mine, where the ladies humored me by watching my new video project. They didn’t actually tell me that they liked that either, but they didn’t tell me they hated it, so we’ll call it a success. It was cute though - they wanted to get all dressed up and wore their fancy church clothes, which made a really interesting picture I didn’t catch when they went over to view the creepy green monster face in the large video screen in the back corner. Like some strange contemporary art fairy tale…
And then just a few days ago, we finally received a new addition to our household - a pretty, glossy new piano. Mad and Soph will of course be fulfilling every suburban Asian American child’s destiny by suffering through many years of obligatory piano lessons…ha! Just kidding. I’ll be their teacher to start, although Maddie announced after the first day that she didn’t need any lessons because she taught herself how to play the first song in her beginner book. Gotta hand it to her - that was pretty amazing. But maybe I can at least get her past the hunt and peck stage. We’ve already been enjoying the constant music in the house, even if it is mostly random notes. Andy and Tim claim to be just one more round of “Heart and Soul” away from playing like Fats Waller. That’s going to be one LONG round for that to happen!
OK well, not so tiny, really. We got this great little gadget several weeks ago that makes enormous soap bubbles up to 10 feet long, and there’s something about the shimmery slimy fun of it all that somehow makes playing in 100-degree heat not so awful. A good part of our Independence Day weekend was spent bubbling, and the girls got pretty good with their technique.
Sophie was more of a sit-and-spin kinda girl…
…whereas Maddie preferred to go long with it down to the end of the drive. Somehow, I think I’ve ruined it for those little tiny bottles with the wands that always fall down into the bubble soup. I don’t think you can ever go back from making bubbles this big!
Saturday morning, Sophie also lent a helping hand cleaning out the weeds from the butterfly garden out back, which has been keeping the butterflies happy and fed all summer. It’s hard to believe that this mess came from a bunch of seeds only three months ago. Sophie preferred telling me where the mulch should go rather than pushing it around herself, but hey, at least she was out there sweating with me. What a good little trooper! Of course, it was about 7:30 AM in this picture and already sweltering. Even more reason to be proud of my cute, if mildly reluctant gardener!