my little dormouse

What shal I call
My dear little dormouse?
His eyes are small,
But his tail is e-nor-mouse.

I sometimes call him Terrible John,
"Cos his tail goes on --
And on --
And on,
And I sometimes call him Terrible Jack,
'Cos his tail goes on to the end f his back.
And I sometimes call him Terrible James,
'Cos he says he likes me calling him names...

But I think I shall call him Jim,
'Cos I am so fond of him.

-A. A. Milne

When Z was around 2 1/2 or 3 she loved to hear A. A. Milne's poetry and I read "When We Were Very Young" to her everyday. "Halfway Down", "Happiness", "Twinkletoes", "Politeness", "Rice Pudding" and this one written above, called "The Christening" were some of her favorites.

It has been half a life time, half of Z's lifetime that is, since she first found her love for poetry. It was so strong then I gave her the online nickname of Poetry (do any of you remember that?)

Today I found Milne's second book of poetry "Now We are Six" out on a table in the living room and realized that Z must have found it on the bookshelf and brought it out to read at some point recently. That reminded me of the time she found her own "Little Dormouse."

I am assuming it was when her love for that poem was at it's zenith that we were at the beach (it was just down the street from our home back then) and Z found a grubby half of a worm shaped fishing lure - kind of like a bigger plastic gummy worm. She dug it out of the sand with a stick and named it "Dormouse" and insisted on bringing it home and made a special "bed" for it out of a jewerly box and kept it on her nightstand. Sometimes she would take it out and carry it around. I think I finally got rid of it when I found out that those fishing lures can be poisonous if put in the mouth and I was worried that she might do that.

*heh* I just asked Pere if he remembered Z's "Little Dormouse" and he said "Ewww, yeah, that dirty worm thing?" *grin*

Speaking of Poetry and poetry Z was building Lego's with Pere tonight and told him "I am going to make up a riddle for you" Then she stood still gazing off into space for awhile. (She has been interested in riddles since reading the scene with Bilbo and the Golem in The Hobbit.) No long after she came up with this:

Windy and cold, just like a river
It may entice you to shiver

the answer? A fan.

As a riddle isn't that great but I liked the poetry of it. I especially liked that she tried to incorporate one of her vocabulary words from today into it.

:)