the pretty marble

Sometimes I don't think I can do these stories justice because you just have to be there for some of these. If you know the girls, you can at least picture their usual facial expressions and get what I'm describing, but for those of you who haven't met them - you're kinda missing out. We'll just arrange a playdate with you and them asap so you get a sense of what I'm talking about.

Here's the latest with Audrey:

I'm sitting in the living room, the three girls are running WILD through the house, outside, back into the house, etc. Then I hear giggling upstairs, whining outside. Audrey comes into the living room, tears streaming down her face, and says in a very small, sad voice, "Gracie and Nina left me outside. They're standing at the window upstairs, making faces at me -- like this (she shows me several faces and hand gestures, while crying). I yelled to them that they're not being nice, but they kept laughing. And I couldn't get back inside and my feet were getting really, really cold."

I replied, "You're right, it isn't nice of your sisters to make faces and tease. But were you really stuck outside? I just saw you walk through the door."

Tears subsiding, but still using the tiny voice, she said, "Well, I thought they'd locked it on me and it just made me really sad...but then I found this pretty marble (and the clouds opened up, Angels started singing), and it isn't mind, but can I have it?"

Suddenly all was right in the world. She won an Oscar for Best Actress, for about 5 minutes. Then she got an award for multiple personalities for changing to a new, happy marble-finding kid, immediately after being devastated by her sisters' behavior.