So last night Brianna came in and asked for a snack. I said, "How 'bout a hard-boiled egg?" because I had just found one in the refrigerator and was already peeling it. She said okay, so I cut it in half and put it on a little paper plate and set it in front of her. She said, "Oh, I was hoping it was one of those blue spotted ones. Because you do know how to do that." I thought, "Well, how hard is that really?" so I said, "Go wash your hands and come back," and while she was gone, I put blue spots around on the white part. She came back in a few minutes and said, "Wow! My egg has blue spots! What a great surprise! Mom, you're the best!" Then she decided those looked like eyes on the plate, so she had to draw on a red mouth and some yellow hair and then a bow. About this time, I reminded her that the plan had been to EAT the egg. So she ate it while coloring eyes onto the plate. Along the way, the face became a cat because most good things do. By the time the egg was eaten, she needed another plate for a mouse. She got the mouse's face all set while I was reading the paper.
Then she brought the two plates over and said, "Wanna see my best puppet show ever?" Well, of course. So she carefully placed herself in front of me and said, "Now, you have to imagine that there is a blanket hanging over a string here and the string is tied to something on each side. " [I particularly love this--that she didn't ask me to imagine a stage with its curtain, but instead just what she would have done if she had a bit more time.]
Then she introduced the two characters: "The cat, you see, has a lovely bow. She must be a princess cat because she is so pretty. Now here is the mouse. You see his face is very sad because he's going to get eaten." [Ah--foreshadowing.]
To sum up the plot, the cat devised a clever trap with cheese to catch the mouse. When the mouse went for the cheese, the cat leaped on him [much flailing of paper plates here] and the mouse began crying out in great pain. At this point Brianna paused and in a stage whisper told me, "Now, you say, oh, that poor little mouse." So I did. "Keep on saying it. " So I did. Meanwhile she grabbed a red pen to make many marks on the mouse puppet as she said, "And there was lots and lots of blood. So much blood." Then the cat disappeared, and the mouse slowly came forward and said, "Now I have to go home to bed." I said, "Wait, isn't he dead?" Brianna replied, "Oh, no. . . .But he will be tomorrow." I said, "Didn't the cat want to eat him?" She shook her head, "Oh, no--he tasted much too bloody!"