(Tall) Tales, Stuffed Animals, and More Cousins

Rachel is 18 now...and it's kind of hard to think about my child being an adult. 

It's hard for Phoebe, too. Alexander (jokingly?) told her that adults don't get birthday presents and so when Phoebe saw Rachel this morning she was like, "Happy birthday...sorry you're an adult now..."

"Uh...why?" 

"Be-tuz adults don't get birthday presents."

Phoebe was rather relieved when Rachel did get birthday presents after all. 

Anyway, we'll write about Rachel later because for now I will share some thoughts about Phoebe (who is still a child, and who wants the exact presents that Rachel got today for her birthday when she turns 18, which I suppose simplifies our shopping). 

Not only did Phoebe have a very cousin Saturday, but she also got to have a video call with some more cousins today. We made an effort to phone my parents a little earlier in the evening so the kids could talk with them (so often I call after the kids are in bed, simply because we're a few hours behind all the happenings in the west). Phoebe had a great time talking (and talking and talking). 

She would start off each story with a little nugget of truth like, "The other day we found an Easter egg and it had actual candy inside!"

That is true—we found an Easter egg that we had not found during our Easter egg hunt. It had a few Robin's Eggs inside and I think Alexander, Zoë and Phoebe each ate one. 

"And then I went upstairs and my bed was all the way filled up with candy and I had to eat it all and it was so good!"

That is not true, actually. 

"I went to the pool with Oaklyn and Ireland and they're my best friends now!"

The truth meter is high. 

"And I wanted Daddy to push me into the pool and he did and I forgot to hold my breath."

Possibly true. 

"But then I remembered to hold my breath and I stayed under water for eight minutes!"

"I don't think that's true," Auntie Josie said. "Eight minutes is..."

"Well, maybe it was eighteen minutes!" Phoebe said. 

"That sounds...more plausible...yes..." Auntie Josie said (or something like that). 

"How did you stay under water for eighteen minutes?!" Zoë asked. "That's impossible!"

"I did!" Phoebe insisted. "Because I had my goggles on, okay?"

"Ah, yes—goggles," Auntie Josie said. "Well known for helping one hold their breath for eighteen minutes."

Although she didn't hold her breath for eighteen minutes, I'm sure she held it for what she felt was an impressively long time. And she was just full of these "tall tales" stories and after sharing plenty of them with Naanii and Bumpa and Auntie Josie, we said goodbye and started into our scripture study. 

Uncle David messaged me then to say that Millie wanted to talk with her cousins, so we finished up (some work on memorized passages this evening) and hopped on a call with Uncle David and Millie (and Ethan). Mostly Millie and Phoebe wanted to show each other toys, but we learned that Millie likes flamingos and ladybugs, pink and purple, and all the Disney princesses. She showed us a lot of toys and then Phoebe felt she needed to grab some toys to show Millie—among those toys was an Eevee doll that Auntie Josie had given to Phoebe when we went out to Utah in September of 2022.

Incidentally, my mom pointed out that Phoebe and I saw Austin then so it had only been three years since we saw Austin...but seven years for everyone else.

Auntie Josie actually gave an Eevee doll to Millie on that same trip as well (and perhaps to Ireland...I'm not sure). 

Anyway, when Phoebe held up her Eevee, Millie started digging frantically in her stuffed animal bin so she could hold up her Eevee as well. I didn't like this picture when I took it initially because Millie's face isn't in it...but Millie's face isn't allowed on the internet, anyway, so I guess it worked out alright:

Here's another shot where I did get Millie's face (which I blacked out). I'm mostly sharing it for my brother's face, though...

...because later Millie held up a Peppa Pig toy that she has and then we said goodbye and Phoebe had to take all her stuffed animals back up to bed. But when she got there she found her little pig pillow (that Miriam made for her a few years ago) and she really wanted to show that to Millie, too. I told her that I'd take her picture to send to Millie and she made the same scrunchy nose face as Uncle David!

It was fun to get to talk with everyone today. 

*****

One more random story about Phoebe and her stuffed animals. Last night we were choosing books to read before bed (and she had a little zoo of stuffed animals that she'd brought along with her for story time). 

"I want to read book one first, and then this one," Phoebe said. "And can we read my stuffed animals?"

I figured she had simply forgotten "to" in her sentence, so I said, "That sounds perfect. We're read both of these stories to your stuffed animals."

Modeling correct language usage, as one does. 

But when I finished reading the second book Phoebe said, "Okay! Now it's time to read my stuffed animals!"

And she proceeded to act out a little story using all of her stuffed animals. She created a little formula for herself to follow: all the little animals introduced themselves to a little doll of Finn (from Star Wars) and he got to learn about what all the animals were doing.

"Hello! My name is...reindeer. How are you?"

"Hello, reindeer! I'm good. What are you doing?"

"I'm just...stomping around in the snow."

"Oh. That's cool."

"Hello! My name is...sea turtle. How are you?"

"Hello, sea turtle! I'm good. What are you doing?"

"I'm just...swimming around in the ocean."

She crafted a wonderful little narrative about her stuffed animals and it was an excellent reminder to me about how children (certainly children, but also adults) really read "the world," as Paulo Freire says, in addition to reading "the word."