I'm still here....

And I'm not always immersed in politics.  I'm also obsessively waiting for a giraffe in Upstate New York to give birth, and on Saturday I took Delaney to the library.

Her household was getting a "new" (secondhand) sectional sofa.  Their living room furniture was beyond trashed thanks to years of hard use by humans and pets, and my son-in-law found a really nice looking large sectional for only $100 bucks.  God bless people who just decide to redecorate and let their perfectly nice former furniture go for cheap. 

Delaney is a smart and sensitive kid, and she got emotional about the idea of the furniture she knew going away. She actually cried when she was told they were getting new furniture. So I got a call on Friday evening that started with, "So, what are you doing tomorrow morning?"  I responded, "I'm guessing I'm watching your kid?"  "You're psychic!"

So Delaney came over while the furniture swap took place, and I made her favorite Pillsbury cinnamon rolls with orange icing for breakfast (I know, not very healthy, but it's a treat) and then we went to the library's Saturday morning kids' program and picked out some books. She made a beeline to the early reader section and picked out books.  She's reading quite a bit, not quite independently yet, but almost there. By the time she starts kindergarten  she'll be reading totally independently.  The Saturday program includes a read out loud session, where a very nice young librarian read out loud and showed the kids the pages, and Delaney announced "That says PLOP!" and that the mark at the end was an exclamation point.  Yeah.  She's learning phonics and punctuation on her own and is bored to death in Pre-K, but at least the year is nearly over.

So the furniture swap was made, and she was taken home to meet the new couch, and....she loved it! All's well that ends well there. 

On Sunday we saw Beauty and the Beast.  I went with my daughter and her BFF and HER daughters, the younger of whom is Delaney's BFF Zoe, and so there were three adults, one young teen, and two five year olds.  We had tickets for the 3:40 show at our bargain price nearby theater and couldn't get seats together, so my daughter called an audible. We talked to the very nice theater manager and swapped our tickets for the 6:30 show, they went back to her house to hang out, I went grocery shopping, then we regrouped at the theater (only 10 minutes from the house) and got there really early and got seats together.  

We all LOVED it. After we got home my daughter texted me and said she wants to see it again in 3D, and my immediate response was ME TOO!!!  Visually gorgeous, the CGI is exquisite, but it also has some bigtime Broadway musical moments, like the big dance scene in Gaston's tavern. It takes the classic parts of the animated version and adds some moments from the Broadway show, and it's just...stunning.  It fills in some backstory about why the Beast became such a beast, and what happened to Belle's mother, and it all makes more sense when you get those bits left out of the animated version.  It's a LONG movie, well over 2 hours, but Delaney didn't need any bathroom breaks. She and Zoe both sat riveted, no fidgeting or fooling around.

My daughter and I may still disagree over the casting of Emma Watson, but I think she was perfect. Belle was a Bluestocking before her time, smart and bookish and independent - turning down a hunky catch like Gaston without a second thought, when every other girl in town was throwing herself at him - and Emma Watson captured that perfectly, as well as her bravery and devotion to her father, and I think that came through better in this version than in the animated version.  Both have their charms and both will be classics.  If you do go see it, spring for the 3D glasses. The Be Our Guest song and their first dance would both be breathtaking.  I'm sorry we went cheap on Sunday, because now I MUST see that in 3D.