Matilda's Impending Birthday

On Sunday, April 1, Matilda will turn five years old. This seems a little crazy to me, but what the heck, linear time doesn't lie, right?

I've been thinking about her and how she's so crazy and imaginative and weird and doesn't think that it's weird to be weird. There are two posts on other blogs that have sparked different thoughts for me lately.

One is this post by my friend Annika about homeschooling and unschooling. I think that Matilda will do well in school, at least initially, but I don't want the word weird to become weird for her if that makes sense. I want her to revel in being weird, to embrace it, let it be a positive force for as long as possible. I hope that she can still do that in school. If she can't, Steve and I will have to stop and rethink school and no school and figure something out.

The other is this one on my new favorite blog Breed 'Em And Weep (written by Jenn Mattern, who mysteriously, also lives in Western Mass, is a writer, has two young daughters, and issues with the Disney Princesses - how is it that we've never met?). This story just made me laugh and wonder what would happen if my children and her children ever got together. The end of civilization as we know it maybe? This is the kind of total insane wackiness that I like to encourage in my children, the kind that makes me shake my head and just wonder how they pull these things out of the ether.

For her birthday party Matilda requested "a show" so everyone who comes has been asked to prepare a little performance piece. This is partly die to her own creative impulse, and partly because I let her watch the movie Cabaret with me a few months ago. I think she is planning to do a campy (possible slutty) dance involving a chair as a prop. I have no idea what I am going to do.