Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Buffy: A princess!

Me: Why do you want to be a princess?

Buffy: Because I'm a girl. And I have long hair.

Me: What do princesses do?

Buffy: I don't actually know.

Me: What do you want to do when you're a princess?

Buffy: I want to sleep. Because I'm going to be Sleeping Beauty and fall into an enchanted sleep.

Me: Why are you going to be Sleeping Beauty?

Buffy: Because I like sleep*!! And I have the dress. And Daddy doesn't have the dress.

*this is a flat-out lie

Like anyone with a sewing machine (or even just a TV), I love Project Runway. While Heidi Klum sorts her house, I've been watching Project Runway Canada on YouTube. It's fun, it's good. Sunny will obviously win, even though the producers have done their best to drum up drama by overpromoting Jessica. I like Jessica, but Sunny's in a different league. Like Jasper from Project Catwalk (UK). The more I watch of these shows (apparently Project Runway Phillipines is awesome, so that's next on the list), the more I realise that Cristian Siriano is a prodigy. Absolute fashion genius.

I knew he was special at the time, but he made it look so easy, I didn't fully realise his genius.

I felt compelled to say that.

Regan

I just came downstairs to see the girls chatting aimiably at the table over toast that Katie made for them both. She got the bread and remembered to close the fridge door. She toasted the bread and was careful not to burn it. She got Marmite for Buffy, honey for herself, and put the jars away. In short, there was nothing left for me to do. Brilliant!

What were they chatting about? Maths. There's this gameshow we all like called Get 100, where the goal is to get all of your numerical answers to add up to 100 before anyone else. We play it on the long walk to school most everyday. When I came downstairs, I found Katie quizzing Buffy about ducks. Buffy likes duck questions.

Katie asked, "Buffy, if there are three ducks in the pond, and one more flies in, how many ducks are there?"

Buffy counted on Katie's fingers and said, "Four!"

Then Katie said, "What about if there are two ducks in the pond and two more ducks fly in?"

Buffy shouted, "Four!" She continued, "Two plus two is four! And two plus two plus two plus two is eight!"

That's my girl! (Actually, that's Andrew's girl, but I'm glad they're mine, too.)

I'm knee-deep in metaphorical paper. I'm writing a 5,000-worder on effective transition of foreign language teaching from primary to secondary school. Fun, right? I'm almost ready to give it to my Big Picture Guy (Andrew). Once it's a whole paper, he'll read it and tell me where I need to tighten, what I've missed and where I've completely missed the point. Then I go back to my Detail Lady (Gramma), who will give me brilliant tips on grammatical structure and vocabulary. The woman has a thesaurus for a brain. So awesome.

I write, I delete, I write some more. I am hovering right around the requisite 5,000 words, but still I'm not done. I have exactly one week from today to turn this in. That would be hard enough if it weren't for the other two big projects I have to either hand in or have a meeting about next week. It is so hard to be a good parent and a good student. Something's gotta give.

My solution has been playdates with friends, sometimes with the TV or computer. They've been trusty babysitters. The funny thing about friend playdates is that I always think they'll be more work, and they're always less. I wish I could remember one of these key lessons of parenting. It's like a lesson for life: Let people in. Bring them in and let them make your life easier.

Hm, wonder if I can work that into my paper...

Does anyone know how to get a whole bunch of Play-Doh out of the toe of a shoe?

Thanks!

Regan

PS Oh yes, she did.

The girls are officially on Easter holiday now. That's one of the good things about living in England, you can still say "Easter break". Well, whatever it's called, my girls are on it. The last two days of school were really just a bit of fun, but I'm still glad they went. Loads of families left last weekend. Yesterday was an in-school half day, with the afternoon's being dedicated to an all-school Easter egg hunt. Fun! One big girl dressed up as the Easter bunny and helped the little ones find their personal basket of goodies.

On Monday I got to go in and see Buffy's ballet show. I really should say it was Buffy's "ballet" "show", because very little ballet happened and there was no real show, but we did get to watch the nursery girls move around to music. Again, there was movement and music, but they rarely went together. Really good fun.

Best of all, of course, was the helpful little ballerina. Miss Caroline was not well, so her colleague filled in. This lady had never ran this particular class before, but she was very good working with young children. It did mean she had never met Buffy before. She has now. The lady told the girls to stand up tall and hold out their skirts. Buffy, ever helpful and in trousers, said, "Or trousers or dresses."

"Yes. Skirts or trousers or dresses," agreed the teacher. Then the girls skipped (read: ran) around the room.

When the girls came back into the circle, the teacher again told them, "Stand in first position and hold out your skirts."

"Or trousers or dresses," said the Helpful Ballerina.

"Yes. Or trousers or dresses," said the teacher.

Afterwards Buffy's class teacher told me she wondered why the ballet teacher didn't just say it herself. After the second time it was pretty clear that Buffy was going to say "or trousers or dresses" every time. After the third time the parents were giggling along. By the fourth "or trousers or dresses" the whole audience was waiting for it. The fifth, sixth, seventh times just became a farce.

I can tell you that in the ten times the girls were asked to hold out their skirts, the teacher never once mentioned their trousers. Or their dresses. I know, because I counted. I counted each and every helpful, ever patient, never rude little "or trousers or dresses" that came from my unforgettable little ballerina.

That teacher may not have known Buffy at the start of class, but she, like everyone else in that school, certainly does now.