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Last night, Jason and Lucy made these fruit stoplight sculptures, and I offered to make Lucy fruit salad with the rest of the fruit. As I tried to explain about the really delicious honey, lime and ginger dressing I'd put on it and she said, "Ew, no thanks."

Jason said, "I know, Lu, ask Mom to make some of her very special FRUIT MIX?!"

"Fruit mix?! Yum! Mom, will you make your special fruit mix?" Lucy replied.

"Ah yes, fruit mix," I said, "With honey, lime and ginger."

"Now ask your mom if she works in advertising."

Mean Girls

Today, we had a conference with Lucy's new teacher, Ms. Aycock. Ms. Robinson moved up to the kindergarten classroom, and although we were sad about that, we think Ms. Aycock is sweet. What is not so sweet: the classroom's social dynamic. There are 12 girls and 2 boys in the class, and the result of all that girl power is something pretty ugly. We have discovered over the course of the last month or so that we've basically got a preschool version of Heathers going on.

Lucy has talked about being excluded and ignored, having certain girls say mean things to her. Ms. Aycock confirmed all this, making it clear that Lucy is the victim, not the aggressor (which both relieved and saddened me). Ms. Aycock and school staffers are actively trying to correct this unfortunate queen bee dynamic. Jason didn't seem as disturbed as I was by this situation — clearly he's never been on the receiving end of girly cruelty. My own experience with it in middle school was pretty traumatic, but I came through it a kinder person.

As hard as I try to imagine what the four-year-old version looks like, I can only picture some tiny version of uniform-clad Upper East Side girls, and it isn't pretty:

Strapless

Last night, I was doing stuff around the house, watching the red carpet coverage of the Golden Globes. At some point, I realized Lucy is on the couch watching as well. I wondered if this was a good idea, but thought, are glamour and celebrity a bad thing to expose her to?

As Blake Lively was interviewed on the red carpet, Lucy came into the kitchen and asked, pointing to her boobs, "Mom, when you wear a dress that doesn't have any straps, and it just covers your boobs, how does it stay up so your boobs don't show?"

As for Miss Lively (insert obligatory "golden globe" joke here ), the dress really wasn't staying all that...up. And the extent to which it did stay up was through some marvelous combination of engineering and very young (or possibly fake) boobs.

I said, "Um, you have to make sure you are very careful, and the dress fits very tightly, and you have to pull it up a lot."

"Do you have dresses like that? "

"Yes, a few, but not exactly like that."

"Is that what you do?"

"Yes, pretty much." I decline to explain gravity, foundation garments and my strong preference for more forgiving silhouettes.

"Can I see you wear one?"

"Not tonight, babe."

Maybe We're All Just Pooped

I often listen to the business show "Marketplace" on NPR and always appreciate how they distill complex business and economic issues. Last night I was moved by a brief interview with Charles Handy, founder of the London Business School. After discussing banks and the societal pitfalls of making money from money, he summed up by saying:

We may get back to a saner kind of world...where we don't all sort of spend our life trying to make money, to buy things we don't really need to impress the neighbors, and so on. Where we actually do work — not 60 hours a week, but 40 hours a week. Where we actually do take holidays. Where we actually get to know our kids again. Where it actually becomes smart to have a tiny car, to walk and bicycle and these sorts of things. And we may find we enjoy it actually just as much as the hectic pace that we've seen in recent years. I've often said that capitalism, particularly in America, is a very exhausting business. It tires people out.

Look, Ma, No Cavities!

Jason took Lu to the dentist this morning, and Dr. Thiel informed us that she has two ever-so-slightly loose teeth (the bottom front, which means that by the time she comes for her next visit this summer, they'll be GONE and her adult teeth will not be far behind.

This makes me so sad (for all the reasons that it must make Lu happy). I remember when she first starting getting teeth, how strange she looked to me, how unlike my baby. Adult teeth will change the geometry of her face even more — from the little kid she is to the adult she will become. I don't like it one bit.

With the Promise/Threat of Santa No Longer Hanging Over Her Head...

...we have descended into complete anarchy. Could be the post-Christmas anticlimax, cumulative lack of sleep, too big a break from the routine, but whatever it is, Lu needs an immediate behavior correction.

She was just throwing an epic fit about...I can't even recall now, but the fit peaked with her hitting Jason in the, er, swimsuit area and consequently losing TV and computer for the rest of the day. Which should be interesting for everyone, as Jason and I both have to work today.

Christmastime is Here

You know that Charlie Brown Christmas song, how it's all sweet and calm and magical-sounding? That's how this weekend felt for me. We had a Christmas party, lunch with the cousins, a date for me and Lu at the Nutcracker (we got to go backstage and meet Clara and see the Sugarplum Fairy), plus a whole Sunday of cooking for friends and family.

Given how little Christmas shopping or planning I have done, I should feel like Charlie Brown, who finds himself strangely depressed and disaffected by the holidays (Linus says to him, "Charlie Brown, you're the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem. Of all the Charlie Browns in the world, you are the Charlie Brown-iest.")

I am not even a little Charlie Brown-ie. I am happy it's almost Christmas.


Lucy and Nathan with "Clara" backstage.