All the news that's fit to click

Tonight before bed Edith said she preferred that we play bride & bridesmaid rather than read books. She has been listening to Beverly Cleary's Ramona Forever on CD each night after lights out for the last month or so, specifically chapters 7-9 about Aunt Beatrice's wedding. Recently she came across the filmy green wrap that came with a bridesmaid dress I once wore, perfect for a veil. So we played wedding.

Edith put on some old flats that I'd bequeathed her, then told me that because they were so big on her, she would not pretend they were too tight and drop them into a plant before we marched down the aisle, as Ramona and Beezus do.

I asked who I was marrying, and she told me I was marrying a peacock. (I know I'll have to be firm with him if we want the relationship to flourish.) She handed me a Mardi Gras mask decorated with peacock feathers, and I put it on over my veil.

Right before we were about to march down the aisle, she told me she just had to check the news on her computer before the wedding began. She pulled out a wooden box that once held dishtowels and that opens and shuts on a hinge in the manner of a laptop. She opened it and began typing.

"Because long ago they didn't have radio to listen to the news on," she explained. "So people had to read the news on their computers." She typed a bit more, told me she'd read the news and just had to click on a pumpkin (a picture on the inside of the box), and we'd be good to go.

I asked whether the news was good.

"Yes. The news was that last night there was a deer who escaped from a dog that was chasing it. So that was good."

Then I married the peacock.

***

Edith is now aware of this blog, because every now and then I'll want to share a photo or video with her. As soon as I call up the blog, though, she cries, "Let's see what I'm reading!" and wants to scroll through the book covers at length. Poring over the covers is more compelling than ever getting to the photos or videos.

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On waking up this morning: "I think I know why our house is yellow. Some lumbermen cut down some trees. Then they painted them yellow. Then they built our house with them."

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Yesterday afternoon, after suffering a painful episode in the wee hours the night before: "I have a guess why they call it a 'charley horse.' Just a guess. Maybe a man named Charley was riding a horse and the horse started going really fast on gravel and bumped his leg up and down, and it really hurt."

***

We were reading Fancy Nancy. Nancy has lots of accessories.

"I have lots of accessories, too. But when they're all over the floor, they're acmessories."

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We've recently let Edith have some limited access to the camera. Selections follow from her first collection, "The View from Forty Inches":