Taking Her Own Little World to a Whole Other Galaxy

While Freya was taking her nap, Matilda and I had leftover spaghetti for lunch and she chatted away about the mermaids that live under my bed and the many children or "darlings" that she has back at her house.

When we were done, I reminded her to clear her place, which she is pretty good about doing. She carried her plate to the trash, opened the lid and set the whole plate, fork and everything down on top of the garbage. Then closed the lid and turned away:

"Matilda," I say, "what are you doing?"

"What?"

"Look in the garbage."

She opens the lid, looks in and turns back around. "What? What did I do?"

"Look in the garbage." She really had no idea.

Then she looks again and sees the plate and we both crack up.

"You really didn't know?" I ask.

She shakes her head, laughing so hard she can't even scrape the noodles off the plate.

"You have to tell Daddy," she says, "you have to tell him what I did."