These are things I fondly associate with aging when I think about all of my great-aunts and grandmother.

A) An afternoon highball
B) Owning a cat
C) Crocheting
D) Always having reading glasses readily available
E) Talking about today’s youth with eye-rolling and shoulder-shrugging
F) Needing a higher toilet seat to prevent knee crunching upon ascension/descention
G) Commenting on the tardiness of the mailman
H) Refusing to wear shoes with anything more than a one half inch wedge
I) Wearing red lipstick that creeps upward into the lines
J) Talking with a voice like Marge Simpson from years of smoking Camels
K) A comfortable housecoat

As I see it, at the ripe old age of forty-four, I am already there. The only thing I need off this list are I, J and K. Oy Vey!

Ellie: I like this book about being thankful.
Me: That is a good one. Do you know what I’m thankful for?
Ellie: What?
Me: I’m thankful for such a fun, smart, beautiful daughter named Ellie!
Ellie: Do you know what I’m thankful for?
Me: (preparing to melt) What?
Ellie: Rainbow sprinkles at FroYo.

You’ve seen the ads for Body Works. The company that skins dead people and poses them in sculpture-like positions for the world to see (at a nominal fee). Well, Ellie has created a song to accompany the show. And to make it a little less dark.

(Sung roughly to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

This is your stomach
These are your lungs
This is your shoulders
These are your arms
Your cheeks don’t have any bones
Your eyes have fulled up of liquid
And your teeth are just only bones
Intestines are for dudes
Kidneys make peeps
Here is a plant and
I see its roots
Look at my kitty princess
I like her kitty meatballs