Letter to Camille: Fifty-Two Months

Happy 52 months my big girl! What fun we've had this last month! I've decided being four during Halloween is pretty grand, and I'm super excited about celebrating Christmas with you this year. But, as you love to scold when you see a "premature" Christmas display, "It is NOT Christmas time yet!" So I'm trying to keep my Christmas excitement in check until Thanksgiving at least. It's not easy.

This year for Halloween, your costume was inspired by the old school Super Friends episodes you love to watch with your Daddy. You decided the two of you should dress up as the Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna. Here's a picture for reference:

There are no child-sized Jayna costumes for sale, but I was actually happy for an excuse to get just a little bit crafty. You loved your Jayna costume, Lee wore a Zan shirt, and together you spent the whole evening activating your Wonder Twin powers with spontaneous fist bumps.

Without any coaching on our part, when posing for pictures you often put your clenched fists on your hips in a traditional superhero pose and made your best menacing face. All I know is this - the evil forces better WATCH OUT.

We were delighted to continue our trick-or-treating tradition with Will (Darth Vader) and Sam (Michael Jackson), two of your dearest friends.

After the usual round of photographs on our front steps, the three of you raced into the neighborhood to take in the bounty. When you got to the first door, you said, "Trick or Treat!" just as we'd rehearsed. But after you got the candy you did something unexpected. Boo had pre-loaded your jack-o-lantern with a few bits of candy, and you pulled a piece out and handed it to the lady at the door.

She looked confused, so you explained, "You can have it for later!" The lady reluctantly took the candy and shot me a quizzical look, which I returned. Apparently, the lesson about sharing has not been lost on you, because you thought Halloween should be a candy exchange at each door. I almost felt bad trying to explain that you weren't supposed to give candy back, but that we'd give out candy at our house later. Sweet, sweet girl.

In October, we also enjoyed a Halloween party at a friend's house and a visit to a pumpkin patch with your Nana. I recapped a few of our Fall/Halloween excursions in this video.



Another highlight of our fall was a trip to Boston to see Aunt Erin, Uncle Dave and Jones. Many of the trees were still ablaze with color, and the northeastern landscape was just beautiful.

When we visited last year in December we had the good fortune to see snow, and apparently that image stuck with you. Our first morning there, we stepped out their front door and you stopped, startled.

"But Mom," you asked, incredulous. "Where is the SNOW?"

Despite the lack of white stuff, we had a great trip. As always, it was fun to watch you play with your cousin, and the two of you loved pulling Boo in on your games.

One of our favorite outings was a trip to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. You walked from room to room, exuberantly shouting out the names of animals you recognized, which were many. You knew all the typical ones, but even rattled off a few that surprised me, like, "A Platypus!"

But the real excitement came when we entered the paleontology room where you were like a mini fossil expert in her element. You enjoyed naming the various dinosaurs based on bone structure. You correctly identified this giant skeleton of a kronosaurus, then added, "but some people call it a pliosaur."

I said something noncommittal, assuming you'd gotten confused about two similar dinosaurs. But when I stepped up to read the plaque, I was astonished to see, "The kronosaurus was among the largest pliosaurs..."

SMARTY PANTS.

Right now, about the only thing you love as much as dinosaurs is art. You can often be found sitting at your craft table, cutting bits of paper, drawing, stamping, coloring and pasting them to a backdrop. You're a big fan of collage, so when we got a note from school about an art competition involving collage we knew you'd enjoy creating a work for submission.

The theme of the competition was "Together We Can," and the work had to incorporate that theme as well as an artist's statement describing the theme's relevance. You submitted this treasure:

Your submission was accompanied by the following artist's statement, which I transcribed for you. "Together we can take care of animals. We can feed them and let them rest. That bird is going to eat that snake! It's migrating!"

That's my sweet, funny, smart girl, and I love her so!