Just who is this Mano??

Aie! Margaret screams, as she herds ants on our dining room floor. Mano! Mano! Come here, Mano! And then, a few days later, Josephine is talking on my cell phone (not the new one, which Auntie Pamela provided after the last was thrown to the floor in a pique of rage. Why don't people call me back?? Really? No really, it wasn't me.) Anyway, Miss Phinie-Weenie is on the phone chatting with... Mano?? Again, who is this Mano?? They just giggle and run away.

Lulu, do you know this Mano? She looks thoughtful. "No, no I don't."

"Margaret, who is Mano??" "Mano!" she yells cheerfully.

I think it might be their secret baby.

Ear Wax

Lucy has a friend at school who knows all about big-girl things like Hannah Montana and home heating costs because this friend has a BIG SISTER! And this big sister recently visited Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum and now all the pre-kindergartners have heard about this amazing place where people are made out of WAX!

Lucy pauses in the telling of the story of this incredible place to ask, briefly: "Is that like ear wax??"

Last night, we were out in the garden, watering our baby bean plants. "I'm like a mommy!" shouts Josephine, cheerfully spraying water all over my feet. And then the girls meowed and made nests with their arms to carry their baby kittens (pretend), until they had to do something else, so Josephine carefully laid her kitten under the Rose of Sharon, where Lucy traipsed over with her Clifford on a leash. And Josephine cries, "LUCY! You stepped on my kitty!!" And Lucy yells back, "JOSIE! I can't even SEE YOUR KITTY!"