The anti-giftlist

So the birthday is coming up, and rather than give you a lengthy list of things to send to Zoe, I will present you with a list of things NOT to send, lest her mother be forced to reenact the UT Tower shootings of 1966.

BRATZ
I hate Bratz. This girl is only one of a whole cadre of Bratz, a group of girls who apparently have limitless cash and just enough brain power to make many, many questionable fashion choices. I will not delve into their morals here. So, please no Skankz--er, Bratz. (By the way, this particular doll is named "Meygen." Holy crap.)

Heh. You know what? I was so fired up about letting everybody know that Bratz aren't allowed in my house that I must've conjured up a whole bunch of other stuff to go with them, because I'll be damned if I can think of another thing to add to this list. I really, really loathe Bratz.

Things around here are holding together, and I am pleased to say that I was relatively successful at drawing blood (the official way--with a needle and syringe) from a fairly feisty beagle.

Zoe spent all of today at school and later at Nana's in her purple and gold spangly princess dress and hennin. (Pointy princess hat, for all you non-geeks.) She also pulled out all the stops while at Nana's place, and danced for anybody who cared to watch (which was everybody, pretty much, since it's full up with elderly people.) She also stunned a guy who lives on the other side of our block by calling out, "Hi, Joe!" from her stroller at him. She met him once about 4 or 5 months ago, and hadn't seen him since, and remembered his name. Joe has a toddler of his own, who I think is about a year and a half younger than Zoe, and I suspect that in that moment when Zoe greeted him, he had to come to terms in his head with the sad reality that his son is grossly inferior to the princess in the cul-de-sac behind them. Poor guy. I try not to expose her too much to other mothers--it would just be too cruel. Hah!

So this first photo was taken at Zoe's request. Demand, really. She was jumping on the couch, and said, "Take a picture of me jumping on the couch!" When I hesitated a split second, she added, "Go get your camera!" Here she is in mid-jump.

And this one--well, I made an elephant "mask" yesterday, and just thought it was a cute photo.

And now I need to go. In addition to homework, I have to start making the petticoat that goes with the THREE princess dresses I'm making for her birthday. This is in addition to the pair of butterfly wings, the lab coat, and the ballet bag. Because I can't just BUY stuff. No, I'd rather buy raw materials, then make myself insane with stress trying to put everything together the night before I need it. Every LAST one of you who reads this knows that already, don't you?