Whirlwind

Lamb was on fire yesterday.

She played a bit on her online computer game. And then, in serial fashion, had me build a paper deer from a paper animal kit I just got for her, made some crayons in her crayon "maker," played with her Spirograph, used her stamp sets, started to paint a little snow man figurine (she stopped when the paint dripped and she decided she needed it to dry and paint over it with white), and put on a magic show for me and several of her stuffed animals. Oh, and she checked out her inventory from the scrap box store (where you buy industrial debris useful for arts and crafts), since I recently promised we'd return there to pick up odds and sods she'd like.

On the magic show, I'm relieved. I got that for her (or did Santa? Have to be careful about that...) but the instructions for most of the tricks are fairly complicated. But she enjoys wearing the cape and making up her own "magic" tricks based on some of the ones we tried after Christmas.

Oh, and we went over the science fair project plan and timeline, so she'd understand the project and know when I expect her to work on it. Apparently, projects are closely held secrets at school as the angling for the single trophy per grade has kicked in. I said if anyone asks her about her project, she can say her dad calls it "the Manhattan Project." She didn't get it. That's OK. Sometimes I make jokes only I get. I'm odd that way.

And she had a lovely snack of cracker pizzas; cucumber, lettuce, and carrot salad; chocolate-dipped strawberries; and vanilla-flavored milk, before it was time to cart the kids off to their mom's house.

I enjoy seeing that kind of activity. Kids should have fun. They'll spend a lifetime at work as it is. As long as they do what they need to do in school, I see no reason to Tiger Dad them to a premature ulcer. Hey, she had a very nice MEAP result, so you can't say I'm fast-tracking her to a minimum wage career path.