The Journal that Brought Them Together

It is challenging being three and now four years old. One is most definitely not a baby (the highest of insults), but one is outright rejected by The Big Kids. This sad in-between state can result in a lot of lashing out.

Within the last couple of months, Miss Margaret wrote in her 6-year-old sister's journal, not to be malicious but desperately to be included in a big kid activity. We promised tearful Margaret we would buy her her own journal next time we were at a store that sold them, but you can see how rarely we go browsing at brick-and-mortar stores that it took us this long to fulfill our promise.

Tuesday was finally the day Margaret was given a little blank journal with roses and butterflies decorating the cover, held together with a pink elastic band.

An absolutely delightful side effect of this new purchase is that the two sisters bonded over writing a story. Margaret is bursting with a story to tell but needs all spelling dictated to her, so she chose to dictate to her big sister, who eagerly served as her scribe.

The girls worked at their story at several points during the afternoon. When we tucked in Margaret to bed and turned out her lights, walking away, apparently Miss Night Owl Mary went back in there to work on the story further with Margaret. Then Wednesday morning before seven o'clock, Margaret announced to me that she was going to wake up Mary so they could get a bright-and-early start working more on the story. I stopped her with a forewarning that Mary is not anywhere as cheerful first thing in the morning as late at night! Steer clear!

This is Margaret's first story, so far, unfinished (and with my adding in proper spelling and punctuation for readability):

Blinky Shoes

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Margaret and she bought some pink Hello Kitty blinking shoes. And when she got home she showed her mother. And her mother said, "Nice shoes, dear."

"Thank you, Mother." 

"Can you get me some shoes, Margaret?"

So she went to the lady's row and bought her mama some blinky shoes. And she went home and gave them to her mother and her mother said, "Thank you, darling. Let's go to the beach."

"Yes, Mama."

And after they were done, they got ice cream at McDonald's. Then they went home and they said "hi" to Daddy. Then Daddy asked for a shake, so they went back to McDonald's and bought a shake for Daddy.

And when they are home, Margaret picked a flower for her mother. Then she went home and gave it to her mama, then . . .