K.Lo

• At the library (which we visit so frequently these days, both kids say, “Library!” at the sight of it), K.Lo judges books by their covers. She gets that from the Manager. Anyway, we end up with a lot of pink books, and many are not very good. It’s with a fair amount of trepidation that I read the book for the first time. Today we ended up with a story about a shrunken old lady and her horrible hats, as well as a book whose illustrator I’ve seen before… and somehow don’t enjoy at all. The drawings are big and garish and generally unpleasant. Quietly back into the Library Bag these books go.
• K.Lo says “I love you” and also “thank you” quite excessively, neither of which I am arguing with, one bit. The other day, she very sincerely told me thank you for washing her clothes (which previously had vomit or “throw” on them), and then after a pause added, “I appreciate it.” Aw. A man in the grocery store called her out for saying “I love you,” but we weren’t in the cookie aisle, so it wasn’t like she was begging for favors. We were looking at cooking oils.
• Forget all those darling shirts, tank tops, shorts and jammies that lay waiting in K.Lo’s drawers: dresses are it these days, 24/7. It’s simultaneously charming and exasperating, considering the clothes that aren’t being worn. Although she is getting quite a bit of mileage out of last year’s dresses, so maybe there is hope next summer for the shirts and shorts, if she doesn’t grow too much. She is all girl in this respect, pretending to be a princess/ballerina/princess-ballerina, twirling around the office and practicing her arabesques, wherever she learned those! She also tires easily of the dresses and wants to change into the next several times daily. Initially, she said they were dirty, and I took her at her word, which resulted in quite a bit of extra laundry. The Laundry Fairy, as a result, staged a revolt, and so I have been surreptitiously returning the dresses to their drawer in between changes.
• From a “Max & Ruby” book we have out from the library at the moment (the cover of which is, incidentally, pink), K.Lo has garnered the term “ice-skating ballerina” from a gift that’s supposed to be purchased for Grandma. So, every ballerina is an ice-skating ballerina, which I kind of love.
• She was quite an assistant at the grocery store self-checkout today, insisting on getting out of the cart so she could hand me all the items underneath.
• Loves to pick the zinnias and has recently stopped asking, which is an Employee Code of Conduct violation, but considering they are the flowers she herself planted and she is so sweet about handing them out to each member of the company, the Manager *might* look the other way.
• Constantly speaks of her war wounds, i.e. bug bites, which she has mixed up in her mind with sunburns, so they come out as “bug burns.” She will tell you about each of them, whether they are new or old, and how much they itch. She might ask you for itch cream. And let’s not get started on our bumps, bruises and scratches.
• Has learned to twist up the swing and let it go so she spins round and round and round...

FYI, that’s a mailing envelope hat.