Sage's latest story

Two robots replaced Cleo and T-Bone*. They painted themselves purple and yellow to fool Clifford, but it rained and the paint was washed away. Clifford saw that they were robots and ran away from them. Then the good fairy Sage magicked the bad robots; and they went away and the real Cleo and T-Bone came back. And everybody lived happily ever after, the end.

*Cleo and T-Bone are Clifford's doggy best friends from the cartoon show Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Look, fairies and robots in one story! She's a slipstream writer!

surface level

Dean and Sage were watching The Little Mermaid on DVD, the part where the little mermaid's father yells at her for making contact with humans. "And I never want to hear about you going to the surface again!" yelled King Triton.

"Ariel's daddy is mad at her," Sage confided to her own father.

"Do you know why he's mad?" Dean asked.

"Of course, Dad!" Sage said confidently. "He doesn't want her to ever go to the circus again."

tuned in

With time off from her grueling academic schedule, Sage chills out.

brain child

Yesterday, Sage brought home her brain. Astonishingly, it was the study topic of the day at her uber-advanced pre-school; and she had made a little model out of blue, yellow, and green Play-Doh.

Of course, we chose the school in the first place because it's very cutting-edge in its philosophies and curriculum; it also guarantees a minimum of one teacher for every six students. Despite this, I had honestly figured she wouldn't be doing much more in school than learning to get along with other kids, since she's only in pre-kindergarten. (Which is a level I never even knew existed before, in between nursery and kinder.)

Just this morning, however, she informed me that "full" was her favorite "moon shape", winning out over crescent and half-moon; and that the moon goes around the earth, "which is our planet". She has some trouble remembering the exact terms, but if you prompt her, she now knows that the basic parts of the brain are the thalamus, hypothalamus, cerebrum, and cerebellum.

And by the way, at her age, she should actually be in nursery--but when she went for her interview with the school director, she was immediately accelerated to pre-K. Maybe in a few months she can explain to me just what it is a "thalamus" does.

sage alfar at 3 years and 5 months

If you're all grown up now and reading this old archive, this is how you looked as a little girl - yes, we do this to embarrass you.

But you must know how much your mother and I loved you then and love you now. Your flair for conversation and way with words, spelling out names of people and things; your spinning and dancing and singing and bouncing on the bed; your love for and devotion to your furry friends and all the other pretend creatures so real in our common imagination; your insistence that one day you'd grow up to be a princess (well, you already are one, you know); so many things I can tell you, I hope to tell you.

Today, like every other morning, you rushed after me as I walked down the corridor for work.

"Daddy!" you shouted. "You forgot something!"

And when I came running back, you pulled me down and gave me the sweetest princess kiss.

That made my day - and every other day before and after.