two funnies before 8:15am.

First, Elisabeth has an imaginary friend named Elspeth. Doug tells her wild stories about the adventures of Elspeth. Last night, Elspeth had a slumber party with Elisabeth. This morning, Elisabeth brought Elspeth in to wake me up. Elisabeth always carries Elspeth in the palm of her hand, how one might carry a teeny little fairy or something (to the extent we carry fairies, but its the best example I can come up with). Her hand held palm up at about shoulder level, with her fingers partially curled up - as though her cargo is quite precious. She said, "look mommy, Elspeth came with me to wake you up."

When we first wake up, Elisabeth gets to watch a bit of educational TV (parents: watch Between the Lions and Super Why - they are really great programs that teach kids to read! And, Between the Lions has some Wayne's World and Monty Python references). She likes to sit in my chair with me "for a few whiles." This morning, though, Charlotte wanted to eat which meant Elisabeth couldn't sit with me. I cautiously explained this to Elisabeth, fully expecting tears, and she said "oh that's ok. But Elspeth can sit with you. You know why? Because Elspeth is pretend, so she doesn't take up much space."

Then she followed that up with, "Daddy, Mommy and I heard the baseball song yesterday." Doug immediately thought this was his favorite baseball song (Centerfield by John Fogarty), but in fact it was "Take me out to the ballgame," which is Elisabeth's favorite baseball song. Elisabeth continued, "Mommy wanted me to sing 'for its root, root, root for the Phillies' but I want to root for the Humpty." We tried to get it on video, but its hard to understand her with the cereal in her mouth.