Yesterday really and truly felt like spring. Great friend Lisa came over and helped me clean up my front flower border; now I can just sit back and watch it bloom. Okay, so the “just sit back” part is meaningless cliche: I have tons of other work to do in the next few weeks, before the baby arrives. But let’s not go there right now…
Anyway, this springtime urge to spruce and tidy is the reason for the blog makeover. I needed to see some green inside the house as well as out.
But it’s one of my favorites. Beanie’s current Beatrix Potter kick brought it to mind yesterday.
When Rose was two-going-on-three, our beloved Alice gave us a "Bunny Bowling Set." The bowling balls were little plastic cabbages with which you attempted to knock down plastic rabbit-shaped pins. Jane set the game up and played it for a while, then wandered off. I was in the next room, fixing dinner, and heard Rose playing with the game. But she sounded frustrated. I kept hearing her knock the bunnies over with the ball, and then she’d cry out in dismay.
Finally she hollered, "Mommy! It no WORK!"
I went to watch her try again. She rolled the cabbage and knocked down half the bunnies. I cheered.
"There you go! You’ve got the hang of it now."
She looked at me incredulously. "No! It no work," she said, through gritted teeth.
"Sure it worked!" I said. "Look how many bunnies you hit."
Her glare was steely with pity and forced patience. "It—no—work," she repeated, slowly, as if she were the adult and I the child. "Bunny won’t catch cabbage!"