irene

Hathor had this comic posted the other day. it's one of those things that totally rings true for me. irene is such a hugely creative young lady, and she has been since she was quite small. she can make anything of anything. i love her ideas. i love her creations. i don't always enjoy the aftermath of such things, but she gets huge joy out of making things. sometimes i'll be looking around trying to find somehting fun and delightful to do with the kids - i'll look online or in one of my many many resource books, and in that time, irene will have created a fairy house or a costume for rhys or her own oven and microwave. it's really a thing of beauty. i wish i were better able to foster it. so many days i feel like she and i are clashing/butting heads on so many things. she doesn't remember how i let her play for hours or how we created some valentines/books/cards/whatever for a reallllly long time that morning. ah well. it's okay.

she and her best friend rose can now do the video iChat occasionally. it is really wonderful and i wish we'd thought of it earlier. sometimes it's not so wonderful as the occasional inappropriateness pops in, but last saturday, they were on ichat for several hours - not just chatting, but both creating. irene made a fairy house w/a cardboard box here in sparks while rose was creating a fairy house in a basket in novato. on the actual chat video, you could just see the tops of their heads - and sometimes not even that. but they were talking to each other and creating and discussing different ideas of what they'd do with their houses. and during that time, i was able to do some things with rhys, fold some clothes, and listen to the chitchat of the girls. it's such a cool thing to help them connect even though they don't see each other live and in touchable distance very often anymore. irene has known rose since rose was born (rose is 6 months younger than irene). in so many ways they are kindred spirits. tanya (rose's mom and one of my very best friends) and i can often say "irene is doing xyz" or "rose is doing zyx" and the other of us will say OH THANK HEAVENS!!! I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST MY DAUGHTER!!

anyway, something else that has been fun to watch and listen to is irene selling her girl scout cookies. she LOVES going door to door (no, she DOES NOT EVER WILL NOT EVER GO BY HERSELF!). she's darling as she says "hello, my name is irene from brownie troop 14, would you like to buy some girl scout cookies?" she practically dances from house to house. it's a delight.

she's a special little girl and i'm so glad she's mine.