LoveandHate

We went to coffee, carrying with us 5 picture books and Jack Jones and the Pirate Curse. We got settled in, when one of the families we often see arrived; the 4 year old was clutching a copy of the Magic Treehouse Research Guide on Mummies and Pyramids. She and Opal settled into the same chair, and she said "This book is about mummies and tomb robbers. Do you know what tomb robbers are?" Opal said "Of course!" and her friend said "What are they, then?" So Opal explained that they took things from places where people were buried, which was a satisfactory answer, and then we discussed cousins for a while.

Then came the first friction; time to read a book. Each of them wanted her chapter book, scorned the other, and refused all notions of reading one of the picture books. Eventually the other girl caved, and agreed to read Opal's book, a solution which satisfied only Opal. The other mother and I were not really OK with this, so I read the rest of the chapter in Opal's book, and then declared that I was only reading picture books and the other girl got to pick first. Return of the lovefest. Desire never to be separated from each other. Entreaties to stay together. OK. says the other mother, I wanted to get smoothie fruit anyway, and there wasn't any yet when we went. We can go. Lovefest lasts one block, and then they both want to go first. "I always get to go first because I'm biggest!" "You are not, your mommy is!" "I'm the biggest kid." "I'm the biggest kid in my family." It's like watching Opal argue with her younger self. Unfortunately it all ended in tears, we parted, and Opal claimed to hate her for nearly 45 minutes. (Opal "I hate her! I never want to see her again!" Me "You're very mad at her now." Opal "I am always going to be mad at her. Oooh, pluots. Can I have a pluot?" Lather, rinse, repeat, changing food items.)

Then Opal played Dreambox for a while ("I HATE the frog!" she says, and then plays the frog game 5 times, starting to learn about negative numbers, and says "I love the frog game. I'm so good at it.") Then we eat lunch ("I HATE cucumber salad. I love fish.") And she and Paul go to Bujinkan ("I LOVE Bujinkan" Paul, plaintively: "Then why didn't you participate?")

And we had a rainbow dinner for pride. Opal doesn't particularly get the pride concept (some people like boys, some people like girls, and your point is?) but anything that involves a lot of rainbows has got to be a good idea.

Read to Opal today: Some of Jack Jones and the Pirate Curse, Animals Born Alive, Martha Walks the Dog, The Big Pumpkin

The Running Book Count: 241 + 69 (last year 1170 + 121)