I wanted Lauren very much.

I nursed her.

I was able to be home with her until she was four.

I read her stories. It was a mutual delight. I discovered Winnie the Pooh, and loved it. Lauren loved it too.

Lauren and Carol, a good friend of hers, would act out scenes. They memorized this wonderful passage, and one read the statements and the other the questions. I forget which was which. It was entitled 3 Cheers for Pooh. They often presented theater productions.

3 Cheers for Pooh!
(For who?)
For Pooh -
(Why, what did he do?)
I thought you knew;
He saved his friend from a wetting!
3 Cheers for Bear!
(For where?)
For Bear -
He couldn’t swim,
But he rescued him!
(He rescued who?)
Oh, listen, do!
I am talking of Pooh!
(Of who?)
Of Pooh!
(I’m sorry, I keep forgetting).
Well, Pooh was a Bear of Enormous Brain
(Just say it again!)
Of enormous brain -
(Of enormous what?)
Well, he ate a lot,
And I don’t know if he could swim or not,
But he managed to float
On a sort of boat
(On a sort of what?)
Well, a sort of pot -
So now let’s give three hearty cheers!
(So now let’s give him three hearty whiches?)
And hope he’ll be with us for years and years,
And grow in health and wisdom and riches!
3 Cheers for Pooh!
(For who?)
For Pooh -
3 Cheers for Bear
(For where?)
For Bear -
3 Cheers for the wonderful Winnie-the-Pooh!
(Just tell me, somebody - WHAT DID HE DO?)

Other times, we would also act out Grimm’s Fairy Tales. These were the original unedited stories, not prettied up at all. I read The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Betelheim about the importance of the original fairy tales for children.  The real fairy tales made it possible for children to sublimate deeper emotions. Waldorf School Education which I studied and love wholeheartedly also saw original versions of fairy tales as playing an important part in child development.

There was one Grimm’s fairy tale called The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids. Lauren’s good friend Carol was over our house, and we were going to role-play the fairy tale. I said, “And I’ll be the mother.” And Lauren, in her practical way, said: “Which, in fact, you are.”

Illustration above is from The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids. You can see from the illustration that this was a serious fairy tale just as it originally was created.

Of course, the mother goat saves her baby goats, and we ended with a great victorious chorus of our dancing around, “The wolf is dead! The wolf is dead. The wolf is dead!”

http://www.popularfairytales.com/original-grimm-fairy-tales/the-wolf-and-the-seven-little-kids.html

This book, The Uses of Enchantment, by Bruno Bettelheim had a powerful affect on me.

There are many good memories I have of my daughter’s childhood and what a pleasure it was for me to be her mother. This is enough for now.