Sparkle Girl's Diary XVII

Dear Diary,

One day it was spring and the next day it was summer. There were bugs all over the place. And it was hot and I got sweaty even though I was just standing there.

I said I thought we ought to turn on the air conditioning in the house but Momma said no. She said she didn't mind turning on the air conditioning in the car in May but it just wasn't right to turn it on the house in May.

Kim started to tell me a story about how when he was my age that only rich people had air conditioning and every summer he sweated enough to fill the Grand Canyon.

"Pish posh," I said.

Someday I want to go to the Grand Canyon. But I don't want to stand too close to the edge.

The next day it turned cold and rainy. Mr. Perryman was talking to Mr. Whitfield. "Short summer," he said.

When Kim picked me up at school, I asked him to turn on the heat in the car.

"Can't do it, Sparkle Girl," he said. "It's my job to make sure that you learn to be tough. If I turn on the heat, you will grow up soft and unable to face the harsh realities of life."

"Pish posh," I said.

Signed,
Sparkle Girl

Sparkle Girl's Diary XVI

Dear Diary,

This morning, the first thing that Doobins ate was a Reese's cup. It was one of the little ones, not one of the big ones. It was the first thing that Momma and I ate, too. After that, I fixed a bowl of diamond cereal with milk and Doobins got a vanilla yogurt drink out of the refrigerator.

Vanilla is the only flavor that he likes. I like vanilla and strawberry and blueberry but he just likes vanilla.

After he took his first sip of his yogurt drink, he said it tasted funny. Momma said maybe it tasted funny because he had just eaten a Reese's cup. He said maybe he should eat another Reese's cup and see if the next sip of his yogurt drink tasted funny, too.

Momma said that she didn't think so. I said that my cereal tasted just fine.

After breakfast, I went over to Mimi's house. We decided to put on some plays with her puppets.

We stood behind the bushes by her patio and stuck our arms up over the bushes to do the shows for her Mommie and Daddy.

In one of the plays, I was the Lazy Crocodile. Mimi had two parts. With one hand, she was the tiger. With the other hand, she was the leopard. The tiger and the leopard came down to the river to get a drink of water. When the Lazy Crocodile saw them, he went over to eat them.

They ran away. The Lazy Crocodile chased them. But he didn't go very far because because he was lazy and they were fast. Instead, he ate some of the leaves off the bushes.

"That certainly wasn't very substantial," he said and went back to lie down.

"The end," we said.

Mimi's Mommie and Daddy clapped.

After I went home, I sat down at the kitchen table to draw a picture of the Lazy Crocodile play. In the play, the leopard and tiger ran away. But in the picture, I put them on a hill laughing at the crocodile eating leaves.

Doobins ran into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator.

"Are there any more vanilla yogurt drinks?" he said.

I didn't say anything because he was looking in the refrigerator and I was sitting at the table drawing. So he could tell better than me whether there was a vanilla yogurt drink in the refrigerator.

"Good, there's one more," he said. "If there hadn't been one, I would have had to say, 'Rats!'"

I said that I was glad that he didn't have to say, "Rats!" and went back to my drawing. I decided to put a beach umbrella in the picture because it seemed like something the Lazy Crocodile would have.

Signed,
Sparkle Girl

Sparkle Girl's Diary XV

Dear Diary,

After supper, we like to go for walks. Unless it is raining or cold or dark or we are really tired. Then we don't go for walks.

On walks, we like to play the "What I Like About..." Game.

Usually, we start with me. Momma might say, "What I like about Sparkle Girl is that she does such a beautiful job when she sets the table."

Sometimes I get flowers from the garden and put them in a vase.

Then it's Kim's turn. He might say, "What I like about Sparkle Girl is she is so nice to new people when she meets them."

Then it's Doobins' turn to say something nice about me but he doesn't like to take a turn. So Momma and Kim take more turns.

Sometimes they say things that they said on other walks. I don't mind. I like hearing it again.

After they have said three or four things that they like about me, one of them says, "Time for the Big Finish."

Then each of them says one more thing that they like about me.

Then we all say what we like about Doobins. After that, Momma and I say what we like about Kim, and Kim and I say what we like about Momma.

Everybody gets a Big Finish.

It's a good game. It makes me feel good.

Signed,
Sparkle Girl

Sparkle Girl's Diary XIV

Dear Diary,

On Thursday, Momma's back went out. On Friday, she went over to see Scotty and sat down in a chair on Scotty's porch. She couldn't stand up when it was time to go home because it hurt so much.

She called Kim at work. He came over. He and Scotty tried to help Momma out of the chair so that she could go lie down. She thought she would be OK if she could lie down.

When they tried, she told them to stop because it hurt so much. They had to call the ambulance people. When they came, the two ambulance people couldn't get her out either because it hurt so much. They called another ambulance. When it came, all four of the ambulance people picked her up as gently as they could.

It still hurt a lot.

They took her to the hospital where they gave her a shot to make her feel better. I was in school so I didn't see it.

Doobins went to the hospital with Kim. Kim bought Doobins a cup of chocolate ice cream even though he hadn't eaten breakfast yet because he was so good about being at the hospital.

Scotty picked me up at school. I didn't expect to see her but there she was. She told me about the ambulance people.

After we got home, Doobins and Momma and Kim came home. That's when Doobins told me that he was so good that he got to eat a cup of chocolate ice cream even though he hadn't eaten breakfast.

Momma was better than she was when she was stuck in the chair but it still hurt her so much when she got out of the car that her face got all red and she cried.

I cried, too.

I hope she never gets stuck in a chair ever again.

Signed,
Sparkle Girl

Sparkle Girl's Diary XIII

Dear Diary,

Momma is good at making up words. She made up Doobins' nickname all by herself, and she made up a nickname for me, too. Sometimes she calls me Nimeroo.

Doobins is good at making up words, too. There is a Web site where he likes to go with Kim to look at movies of Lego characters acting out scenes from Star Wars.

Doobins has never seen Star Wars because Momma thinks it is too grown up for him.
But it is OK for him to see Lego Star Wars.

He didn't know what the name of the Web site was so he started calling it Frumple. After supper, he would say, "I want to go to Frumple and see Lego Star Wars."

Doobins is good at expressions, too. He and I saw a preview for a movie that has a panda in it. He likes to eat dumplings but he doesn't like to climb stairs.

We watched the preview with Kim 10 times in a row, and it made us laugh every time.

Once, when he stopped laughing, Doobins said, "It makes my cheeks go boing-boing."

Signed,
Sparkle Girl

Sparkle Girl's Diary XII

Dear Diary,

When Kim was done reading us our bedtime story, he gave Doobins a pat on the head and me a goodnight kiss. He would give Doobins a goodnight kiss, too, if Doobins wanted one. But he doesn't.

Sometimes, after Kim turns out the light, I say, "Could we have a music box?"

We have three music boxes. Sometimes, I tell him which one I want him to wind up. Sometimes, I let him pick it out.

This time I said, "Could we have a music box and a bag of peanuts?"

I don't know why I said that exactly but it made Kim laugh so I'm glad that I did.

Signed,
Sparkle Girl

Sparkle Girl's Diary XI

Dear Diary,

I found out last night that sometimes Momma talks in her sleep.

Yesterday, we took a field trip to the Lazy 5 Ranch. I got to touch the giraffe, and the baby lemur was the same size as my fist.

At the snack bar, I used my treat money to buy a bottle of Triple Raspberry Sparkler. It was delicious. But it was a really big bottle, and, even though I went to the bathroom before we left to go back to school, I really, really had to go before we got back to the school.

I had to go so bad that my back hurt.

When I told Momma about it, she said that, as a special treat because I had had such a trying experience, I could come climb into her bed after Doobins went to sleep. If I climbed into her bed before Doobins went to sleep, he would come in, too, and then there would be roughhousing.

After I climbed into her bed, we talked about the giraffe's fur. Momma wanted to know whther it was soft like a horse's or rough like a donkey's. It was kind of in between.

Then, Momma said, "You know fresh broccoli is much better than that frozen stuff in a bag."

I knew that was true but I didn't know what that had to do with giraffe fur.

"What?" I said.

She didn't say anything. She just made a funny noise like she does sometimes when she is asleep.

So, I rubbed her on the hair and told her that she was the best Mommie in the world because she is, and I went back to my bed.

Signed,
Sparkle Girl

Sparkle Girl's Diary X

Dear Diary,

After we went to the Secret Playground, we were going to the library to return some books that were overdue.

It was a good thing that we didn't have any overdue videos because you have to pay for those. Kim said that, when he was little, you had to pay for overdue books and you didn't have to pay for overdue videos because was no such thing.

Momma wasn't in the car because she had a meeting.

I was thinking about how when I grow up to be a Mommie, and I said, "When I have a girl, I'm going to name her Emily."

"What if your husband doesn't like the name Emily?" Kim said.

"Well, I will ask him and see what he thinks," I said. "First I'm going to have a girl and then I'm going to have a boy. Or I might have a boy and then have a girl."

"What about two girls?" said Kim.

"No," I said, "that would be too girlie sometimes."

Because it would be.

I am definitely going to have one girl and one boy.

Signed,
Sparkle Girl

Sparkle Girl's Diary IX

Dear Diary,

Every spring, we go over to Runnymede Road to see the azaleas. When we went to see them this year, we saw them building a really big house.

Kim asked me whether I would like to live in that house. No, I said. I want to live in our house. If I lived in that house, I wouldn't live next door to Ruby Red or Scotty.

And that house is so big that I might go looking for Doobins or Momma and never find them.

Today, we were going to play at a playgound. Doobins and I made up names for all the playgrounds we go to. We said we wanted to go to the Rainbow Playground. Momma and Kim said that was fine with them.

But, when we got there, the ground was all soggy. So we decided to go to the Secret Playground instead.

To get to the Secret Playground from the Rainbow Playground, you drive down Runnymede Road. When we passed the big house that they are building, Kim said, "There's your house, Sparkle Girl."

I knew he was just messing with me.

"Misery," I said. "That's what living in that house would be."

Momma and Kim laughed.

I like it when I make them laugh.

Signed, Sparkle Girl

Sparkle Girl's Diary VIII

Dear Diary,

Sometimes I have to do research on different states for school. Last week, I did New Mexico. I asked Kim why Mexico is called Mexico and New Mexico is called New Mexico. He said that he didn't know.

Sometimes he knows things, and sometimes he doesn't.

Sometimes, he answers my question, and I find out later that he just made up the answer. I asked him why he does that. He says he always tells the truth about things that matter.

Today, I did research on Hawaii. I had to pick out eight Hawaiian things and draw pictures of them.

The state tree seemed like it would be a good thing to draw. I bet Kim a quarter that the state tree of Hawaii is the palm tree. It's a good thing that he didn't bet me a quarter because it isn't. It is the candlenut tree, which, in case you didn't know, is the only state tree that is not native to the state it is the state tree of.

The state mineral seemed like it would be a good thing to draw, too, but it wasn't. The state mineral of Hawaii is the black coral, which is really hard to draw. So we looked up some other things.

The state fish was good to draw but it was hard to write down the name. It's name is Humuhumunukunukuapua'a. If Kim had told me that was its name, I would have thought he was making it up. But that's what it said in the computer.

I found a picture of a Hawaiian shirt with palm trees on it so I got to draw palm trees after all.

Signed, Sparkle Girl

Sparkle Girl's Diary VII

Dear Diary,

Sammy lives down the street. He comes over to our house to play sometimes. He won't be coming over many more times because his family is moving to Georgia. His Daddy is from Georgia so he says they are going home.

They put a "For Sale" sign right by the sidewalk that we walk down when we take a walk around the block after supper. The sign is taller than I am. The part that says "For Sale" hangs from a post and swings when the wind blows.

Sometimes, when we walk past it, Doobins pretends to walk into it by accident. He hits his head on the sign and falls down on his bottom. (We aren't allowed to say "butt.") It doesn't hurt because he lands on the grass. Seeing him fall down on his bottom in the grass makes everyone laugh.

In one of the movies that Doobins likes, Puss 'n Boots says, "I shame myself." Sometimes, Doobins walks into the living room and says, "I shame myself" just like the rat. We laugh when he does that, too.

Sammy saw us playing in our front yard today and came over to play with us. After a while, Doobins got mad because he thought that Sammy was playing more with me than with him. He stomped off. He slammed the door when he went into the house. We're not supposed to slam the door but sometimes we do it anyway.

Momma told Sammy that she was sorry that Doobins was mean to him and that she hoped it didn't hurt his feelings.

He said, "Naaaaa, I don't ever really get my feelings hurt."

Momma said, "Really! How do you do that?"

He said, "I don't know exactly. At Sunday school, the teacher told us that you lose when you get mad and that you win if you don't get mad. I learned other things by thinking and thinking and thinking."

"You're very smart," Momma said.

"Yeah, sometimes I am," he said.

Signed, Sparkle Girl

Sparkle Girl's Diary VI

Dear Diary,

We all went to the grocery store. When Momma was getting some blackberry jam for Doobins (his favorite) she noticed the Nutella. In case, you don't know what that is, it is chocolate and hazelnut. You can put it on something or you can eat it right off the spoon.

"Oooh, I haven't had any of that in a while," Momma said.

"You should get some," said Kim.

Momma put it in the cart with the jam and the peach gelatin packs that we were getting for me to take to school for my snack. Doobins was in the cart, too. He still likes to ride in it. He is too big to ride in that part where you stick your legs through so he rides in the big part.

Sometimes, while Momma is picking out fruit, Kim spins the cart around with Doobins in it. That makes him smile.

On the aisle where they keep things in freezers, Doobins said, "I need a treat."

"All right," said Kim.

"You don't need a treat," said Momma.

"What is that Nutella?" Kim said.

"Point taken," Momma said.

Doobins picked out ice cream sandwiches.

Back at the house, I said that maybe I could take a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich to school for my snack one day.

"That sounds like a good combination," said Momma.

Kim said, "What do you think would be another good combination, Sparkle Girl?"

"Peanut butter and mayonaise," I said

I don't really think it would be a good combination. I just said that because I felt like it.

Signed, Sparkle Girl

Sparkle Girl's Diary V

Dear Diary,

Julian had a really bad cough, and, at recess, he went around coughing on all the girls. We told Mrs. Morgan, and she made him stop.

Julian wasn't at school the next day. We heard that he had pneumonia.

"That's just great," Kim said when I told him.

The day after that I didn't feel so good. I didn't feel so good the day after that either. I stayed home both days. After that, it was the weekend.

I felt OK by Monday and went back to school. I sure had a lot of homework to do Monday night to catch up on everything I missed. It was past my bedtime, and I still wasn't finished. When Kim saw how tired I was, he did the math on the last math problem and told me the answer so I wouldn't have to think anymore.

A couple of days later, I started feeling not so good again. After I went to bed, I coughed so hard that I had to run into the bathroom and throw up. When I put my head down on the toilet seat to rest it for just a minute, Momma said not to put my head on the toilet seat.

Then she rubbed her fingers through my hair and told me that she hates it when Baby No. 1 is sick. She doesn't like it when Baby No. 2 is sick either.

The next day, Kim took me to the doctor in the afternoon. The doctor said I had walking pneumonia. After that, Kim asked me if I had had lunch. I said I had. He said, well, he hadn't so we were going to stop at P.B.'s Takeout which was right on the way home.

When we got out of the car, he said that, even though I had already had lunch, I could have some ice tea and French fries if I wanted.

I said maybe ice tea and French fries and a hot dog with just ketchup, too.

He laughed and said OK.

He had two hot dogs with chili, mustard and slaw but no onions. He ate some of my French fries. I ate all the rest except for a few that were burnt.

When I finished my hot dog, I said, "What meal is this?"

Kim said that since he hadn't had lunch yet, this was lunch.

"Well, I already had lunch," I said. "So this is second lunch for me."

Signed, Sparkle Girl