My Little Ramona Quimby

 I took this picture last Saturday after Rabbit took her hair out of its fancy updo from her Halloween princess costume, and she had a wild cloud of hair around her head.  When I pulled it into a side ponytail, she started mugging for the camera, and one of the shots that resulted was this one.  The first thing I thought of was that it absolutely captured her personality, and also how much it reminded me of the funny and creative little character of Ramona Quimby in the Beverly Cleary books.

This child, who sings torch songs in the shower, who stubbornly insists on doing things her own way, who imagines whole worlds for her stuffed animals….who named one of her dolls “Soapy” because it smelled like soap. 

The other day, she was reading from a library book, out loud, to her Grandpa.  READING OUT LOUD!!!!  I was so excited.  She painstakingly sounded out each word.  “Lions are the only cats that…”  and she stopped.  “Llllll….iiiiii…..vvvvv……eeee?”  “Live,” grandpa prompted. 

She started over.  “Lions are the only cats that live in……” Grandpa helped her. “G-R makes a grrrr sound.” They growled at each other playfully.  He then explained the “ou” sound as being like “oooooooo, I’m scared of lions.”  They laughed.  “P” was easy to sound out, and then he explained that the “s” at the end of the word (groups was the word) made it a plural.  He was getting way too complex about the letter “s”.  Sure enough, Rabbit smiled and started over to read the entire sentence:

“Lions are the only cats that live in SOUP!”