First, we had her outfit to render all other outfits inferior. Weren't her father and I sucked in with that one, when we discovered, on her "Ta-dahhhh" moment in the kitchen after dressing herself, that she had merely thrown on the same (very most favourite one of all) get-up she had been living in this entire past week.
Dressed by "Ebolie" [ok, so that one's an in-joke, for her dresser's name is actually spelled with an 'n' not an 'l' - my girlfriend sends us boxes of clothes each year, a very humbling, generous and gracious gesture, she is Lolly's style guru now, apparently, which also helps our hip pocket AND keeps a connection between our girls: Lolly just looooves to wear anything that was once "Ebolie's"].
So, we get in to the car, buckle the LGBB in. And Steve has a brain-wave: he'll sit in the back next to her, put the back of the front passenger seat down and rest it there like it's on a table. Good idea, says I.
In gets Steve. In I get. Can you just push the front seat back towards me a little, so I can reach the tray and hold onto it, he requests. Sure! No problem, I say. And I reach for the closest handle on the seat..... which releases the backrest like a catapult, hurling the tray and the top-heavy cake into his lap.
*****BREAK IN TRANSMISSION: TOO MANY EXPLETIVES IN POST******
Oh, it wasn't so bad. Nobody noticed. We only maimed a couple of fairies - maiming by mortar - by impaling their wings into the wall of the toadstool, their pathetic little fairy legs dangling at right angles. Honestly, if I wasn't so shaken (mostly with fury that I had been so dumb) I would have taken you all a photo so you could laugh. I knew you'd care like that. But I couldn't think of anything but where the skewer (which was holding the two bits together) had ended up - if it had pierced Steve in the chest, I hoped to God none of the icing had been stuck to his top. That would have been tragic to bear witness to.
I had to calm my good self down then, for not only was I driving but the dear little LGBB could be heard repeating rather shocked and panic-stricken, "My cake! My cake! My house cake!" As we had been loading her and it into the car, she had been saying joyfully, "I love this house." She was full to bursting about it. And then we tried to slingshot it out the back window but her father had been sitting in the way. He is a good catch, that Steve - of cake, I mean.... mostly - and he saved it. The guy saved the day, I tell you now, because otherwise, my makeup would have run down my neck with the amount of tears I would have cried.
As it was, I did cry. With relief. As we drove along, the tears turned to hysterical laughter. You get that, living with me. I'm a bit volatile with my weather patterns, some days.
"I don't think that I could take it
'cause it took so long to bake it...."
I adore each of her friends and their parents are really lovely people as well, all of them. It makes me feel happy, particularly so that she is so enamoured, individually, with each of her little friends. I pondered occasionally today what it will be like for her, for them all, next year. Which friendships will not be able to remain? Who will she no longer see? I am going to have to keep a watchful eye on the girls and boys who are influential, in a positive way, during these, her formative years. There are already a couple of stand-out, stellar families we have vowed to stay in touch with and it is working so far. It is the girls' connection that endures, despite only seeing these friends a couple of times a year - one of these girls is Lolly's self-professed "best best BEST friend" and their love for each other is gorgeous.
Lolly managed a game of air hockey with her uncle. Only problem with that was, my little bro forgot he was playing a 4 year-old and kept automatically defending his goal space so she couldn't get a look-in and THEN, adding insult to injury, he kept accidentally scoring goals!
A nail-biting 0:0 tie breaker.
Photo evidence: Why you should never let your brother play a game of air hockey with your kid -
Oh! Sorry, Lolly, I forgot you're 30 years my junior
*smacks forehead after puck goes sailing in the goal...again*
A little private smile from my poppet
I'm doing a bit of a 4-year retrospective of Lolly in the next few days on the private blog - a few videos, a few photos from back in the day... So make sure you go check it out! Or email me if you haven't already received an invite and would like to view the new blog.
Tonight, the LGBB has gone to bed with a few of her new friends: a meowing, moving cat (strangely, its name is also Tabby); a Hello Kitty figurine; a dancing ribbon; and an Aussie Rules football. Let the games begin!
