I ordered the Wee One a teeny red backpack for school. It arrived on Friday and she promptly packed it for our upcoming “Girl Trip” to Oregon (the poor Husband has to stay here and work). Here is what she deemed essential equipment for venturing to the hinterlands of the West Coast:

4 packets of Swiss Miss instant hot cocoa, with marshmallows
2 packets microwave popcorn
5 quarters, 1 nickel and 4 pennies
1 pound pitted prunes
1 cup raisins
1 package tamari-seaweed rice cakes
2 graham crackers
1 box, lime Jell-O
2 shirts
1 pair Princess underpants
2 socks, mismatching

I think we're ready.

The Hostile Takeover is Complete

It finally happened. I had to look up a word used by the Biggie. It wasn’t that big a word, and upon retrospect I knew what it meant (this is the “saving face” portion of the program, folks) but she was flinging words at me; we were in mid-fight mode, and I was rattled by her multi-syllabic grenades coupled with my cumulative years of sleep deprivation. “Mama,” she said, “You are simply irrefutable!” and stormed off in a cloud of pre-tween dust. When I asked her what she meant by that (hoping to catch her in show-off mode, like a sophomore Philosophy major), she quoted a dictionary-perfect definition.

Sigh.