Bedtime

The laughing game.

Just when we thought the girls had finally fallen asleep, Virginia startled us with an enraged scream.  Daniel raced to the girls' room and got the following explanation:

Daniel: What on earth is going on in here?

Ella:  It's nothing.  We were just playing a game.  I asked Virginia if she wanted to play a a game.  She said yes.  I said, "the game is whoever-laughs-first-is-the-winner-hahahahahahahaha."  I laughed first, so I won, and she got mad.  She screamed.

Virginia: No, Ella's not the winner.  Virginia's playing a game and Virginia's the winner.  

Virginia proceeded to suck her thumb.  I can only presume that her game was whoever-sucks-her-thumb-first-is-the-winner.

I wish I were an am-ee-nal.

Some time had passed since the above incident, and so Daniel and I sat down for our weekly 30 Rock date.  As we were watching the show, I glimpsed a flash of color in the doorway.  I called to Virginia (assuming, of course, that it was she who we saw), and she immediately entered the room.  The show was in a commercial break, so I asked Virginia to explain why on earth she was still awake.   

She, downcast, shoulders hunched, with quivering lip, responded:

I, I just, I wish I were an aminal.  I wish I were an aminal so that i didn't have to go to bed.  Or I wish that I were an adult so that I could watch shows.  I wish I weren't a little girl.

So sad.  And so I said to her, "come here you little cutie pie.  You can stay here for a minute."

She was delighted.  She tore the pillow out from under Daniel, plopped it on his head, leaned against it, and snuggled up in the crook of my arm.   Daniel and I were laughing too hard to correct her.  Instead, she sat comfortably, and Daniel surfaced every minute or so for a breath of air.