State of the Children

When I was young, I was Wonder Woman.  I don’t mean, “I liked Wonder Woman,” or “I often pretended I was Wonder Woman.”  I mean I was, every minute of every day, Amazon princess and warrior Wonder Woman.  I would only respond to the name Diana Prince (which drove my sister wild).  I wore my costume year-round, contributing, I’m told, to a severe case of laryngitis one cold January. ( I suspect no one really minded.)  And while I don't often have a reason to don my golden bracelets of power these days, Wonder Woman I remain.

The resemblance is uncanny.

My progeny have inherited my superheroism.  Indy is a souped-up version of Lightning McQueen, a flying racecar ready to beat the pudding out of any bad guys that cross her path.  That is, of course, when she isn’t being a  bad guy herself.  Indy often chooses the role of The Bad Witch or similar, and is content to terrorize whatever playfellows she has at the time.  (I approve; villains are often the more interesting characters.  I had far greater sympathy for Darth Vader than Luke Skywalker, and it was many a long year before I could watch Return of the Jedi without crying when Vader became one with the force.)

But imagine my pride when, as I was sitting on the foredeck two days ago, I saw Stylish take a flying leap to dive over the boom to escape her sister.  It was a Wonder Woman move if ever I saw one.

Don't be distracted by my excellent art - it was really quite a dramatic leap.

My pride turned to concern when Stylish started rolling around on deck, gasping out tears and bleeding copiously.

Landing is less fun than flying.

Young Stylish had a gaping wound in her chin.  Erik bundled her off to the hospital and, four stitches, a misaligned first cervical vertebra and a prescription for antibiotics later, she was back.  Somewhat chastened, certainly willing to vow never to leap over the boom again.  Some superhero antics are better left untried.

Tired and injured, but still smiling.

But aside from grave injury, what else has been going on in the World of Children aboard Papillon?

Last week, we took the kids to see Happy Feet 2 in 3-D.  For those of you not familiar with the franchise, animated penguins dance... and that's about it.  So although #2 was en Español, we decided we’d be able to follow along.  Indeed, I can summarize the movie this way:

“We’re stuck in a hole!”

“We’ll get you out of the hole!”

“We’re still stuck in a hole!”

“Still working on it!”

A genius script, as you can see.

When we’re not visiting hospitals and movie theatres, we work on school.  Things are running very smoothly there, and I was delighted to find this week that we have stayed parallel to Stylish’s class back home.  Hooray for keeping on track!  Occasionally we need to block out distractions, but who doesn’t?

Mom's homemade blinders; patent pending.

There is also lots of time for dress-up, making forts and general tomfoolery (see: diving over the boom).  Were Cartagena harbour swimmable we would be in the water, but alas.  And of course, right now the girls and I are battling the forces of dust, paint and epoxy fumes.

Stylish: Young Lady of Mystery

Indy: Young Lady of Mayhem

And, in a nutshell, that is where things stand for the young superheroes of Papillon.