November 1, 2012  |  9:00am
"I had this dream that me and [M…] were out in the woods. Then we saw this round thing and we realized it was a fairy dome. We got closer and the fairies shrank us so we could fit inside. And we walked around inside until we went to a fairy store. Actually it’s a place where they grow wings out of your back. They gave us flying classes too. We flew around inside the dome. Then they made us large again and forgot to take back the wings, so we started flying everywhere: to school, the store, everywhere…. But it’s not like they /put/ wings on our backs. It turns out that everyone already has wings inside them. It just takes magic to bring them out."

— Luke, age 8

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August 21, 2012  |  8:56am
Spike Cannon, Part 2
Beth: [age 4] "Remember, I'm Spike Cannon, the superhero!"
Mom: "What does Spike Cannon wear?"
Beth: "She has a cape that is brown and blue, and she has black hair."
Luke: [age 7] "Does she wear anything else besides a cape? Or is she a naked superhero?"
Beth: "She's not naked! But her cape is sparkly. She has a dress with all these fire decorations and power decorations on it. And a hat."
Mom: "What kind of hat?"
Beth: "It's like that hat you wear to the beach..."
Mom: "A sun hat?"
Beth: "Yes! A sun hat. But it has fire decorations and sparkles."
Luke: "Does she wear boots?"
Beth: "She doesn't wear boots. She wears a special kind of shoes that I made up. I can fly with them. They have fire wings this wide." [stretches hands out] "She also wears pants. And socks! I almost forgot socks."
Mom: "You can fly?!"
Beth: "Yes. I'll show you sometime. But not today."
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May 9, 2012  |  8:47am
"Space really does have aliens. But we’ll never meet them. They just fly and fly and fly. Sometimes they fly straight and sometimes they fly in circles. But they don’t know we’re here so they will never come to visit. They’re all green. Their whole bodies are green. Not purple, or white, or orange. Green. Except their eyes. Their eyes are blue… hmmm… I’m not sure. Hmm. That’s the only thing about space I don’t know yet: the color of aliens’ eyes."

— Beth, age 3

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March 18, 2012  |  9:00am
I turned the dog into a girl
Beth: [age 3] "Daddy, look at the dog."
Me: "What about him?"
Beth: "I put sparkles all over."
Me: [looks] "Hmm. I do see a few sparkles on him."
Beth: "Not 'him', Daddy. I turned the dog into a girl."
Me: "Really? How did you do that?"
Beth: "I'm a Life Princess. I can do things like that."
Me: "I don't know if the dog really appreciates being turned into a girl."
Beth: "I made him fly up into the sky too."
Me: "Wow, really? When did you do that?"
Beth: "When I was a Air Princess. I can change what kind of princess I am."
Me: "So you can make the dog fly?"
Beth: "Yes. I just -- whooosh -- made him rise up in the air. And then he put his paws out and flew around. And then -- whoosh -- I made him rise back down."
Me: "'Him'? I thought you turned him into a girl."
Beth: "I just changed him back."
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March 12, 2012  |  9:00am
Meeting robot
Me: "Next week I've got to go to on a trip."
Luke: [age 7] "Where?"
Me: "To a meeting in D.C. I'll be gone for the day."
Luke: "You should just make a robot that looks like you, and send that instead. You could make it act just like you, with remote control voice activation so you can speak into a microphone and make it talk and move."
Me: "I don't know if there is enough time to build that before I go."
Luke: "You'd have to make it really realistic though. Like, what if it gets in an accident and has to go to the doctor's office? You would have to make it so it would trick the doctor too."
Me: "I'm guessing you don't want me to go."
Luke: "No, I don't."
Me: "Maybe I should make that robot and leave it here with you, while I go on my trip."
Luke: "Oh, I would know the difference."
Me: "If it can trick a doctor, it might trick you too."
Luke: "Nah. Besides, the people at the meeting would think it was weird if you were saying things into a microphone to other people who weren't there."
Me: "You've thought of everything, huh?"
Luke: "I always do."
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April 4, 2011  |  1:30pm
A good day to fly a kite
Luke: “Today would be a good day to fly a kite.”
Me: (looking out the window) “Except that there’s no wind, and it’s 18 degrees.”
Luke: “I meant, you could drive really fast down the interstate and I could fly the kite out the window.”
Me: “No.”
Luke: “We would have to watch out for bridges.”
Me: “No.”
Luke: “And power lines.”
Me: “No!”
Luke: “Well /I/ thought it sounded like fun.”
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