What a day!

It was a fun day for Madison today. You should have seen her going out to eat after church. She's such a social butterfly - or at least a ladybug. Though she didn't eat that much, she was having the time of her life with everyone around her. Of course, she was the center of attention, and all smiles too.

It is bitter cold outside, but a forecast of snow for Thursday has us all hoping again. Hopefully we'll be able to snap some shots of her in the snow. In the meadow we can build a snowman!

She napped in the car on the way home this afternoon, and was rip-roaring and ready to go as soon as she got home. She got some Ni-Hao Kai-Lan megablocks for Christmas, so pretty soon those were all over the kitchen floor. It was the Chinese Empire, right there in the kitchen. We had dragon boat races from the refrigerator to the sink area, and soon began to invest some time in building a new Great Wall. That project got sidetracked though, when it got time to watch another movie in the bedroom.

Madison knows the drill. She ran into our bedroom squealing, and just waiting for that big bowl of popcorn to come in. Tonight's movie was yet another version of Alice in Wonderland, from 1999.

It was actually pretty good. It held Madison's attention for a while, although having a big bowl of popcorn helps. She just enjoys sitting between us, and in fact when it was time for milk, she wanted to drink it in our bed, rather than the traditional rocking chair.

The movie is well done. It's safe to say that Madison will be familiar with the odd story of Alice in Wonderland now - it's been a fun phase we've been going through (research for our February series). When Daddy was in fourth grade, he went through a similar phase. I don't remember much of it, but I played "Alex" in a school play "Alex in Wonderland." The play actually changed titles when the lead part was played by a girl. It's sort of odd to go through all that with the playbill. They should have just called it "Wonderland" or something. Anyway, I don't remember much, except for my big solo number, "I Give Myself Very Good Advice (but I Very Seldom Follow It)." These words have haunted me all my life!

Back to tonight's movie: Having just read the books, we can see how individual scenes of this movie match the dialogue and actions of both Lewis Carroll books. It is a story that is completely random, at at many times completely weird! Still, it is a fun little journey. This particular version had an all-star cast too. We like Christopher Lloyd, and Martin Short was brilliant as the Mad Hatter. But the choice of Alice was amusing: it was the girl that went on to play Deb from the movie Napoleon Dynamite.

"I like your sleeves. They're real big."