Rachel the Fighter Girl/Let Us All Speak Kind Words. . .

Rachel's been in kind of a funny mood lately. The other day she was feeling particularly dramatic in a violent sort of way, and it led to some interesting conversations.

First thing in the morning, I came upon her standing by herself in the living room, holding her princess wand and closing her eyes, muttering quietly to herself: "I don't want to die. I'm not going to die. This is a magic wand, okay? I'm not going to die. Do you hear me? This is a magic wand." She seemed to be taking herself very seriously, and was acting like maybe she was a very brave beautiful lady in a movie or something.

Then she opened her eyes and saw me watching her and she had to pretend none of that had just happened.

Later on in the morning, she had me tie a belt on her to keep weapons in, because she wanted to be a "fighter girl". She was a very intense fighter girl - she kept coming up to me and then she'd stare me in the eyes and point her sword at me and then say in a really dramatic voice, "I know who you really are!" She kept doing this to me, and it was making me kind of nervous. She never did tell me who she thought I really was - I guess it was kind of a secret.

After that she went back over to the kitchen table to do some artwork (all the art stuff pretty much stays out on the table all day, and the kids draw constantly, just taking small breaks to play. . .or to accuse their mother of being someone else.) Anyway, Rachel can draw all sorts of nice pretty castles and horses, but this particular day she was still in her violent mood, and was drawing a picture of Darth Vader and some storm troopers.

Elizabeth was watching her draw, and Rachel kept giving little commentaries to Lizza about what was going on in her picture. It sounded pretty bad:

Rachel (while coloring): See this? This is a nuclear bomb. . . . You don't want to mess with these dudes. . . . And here's a bomb that can come out of his head and destroy the whole world.

Elizabeth (trying to be helpful): Draw some lava now, Rach!

Rachel (drawing an additional bomb near Darth Vader): You will not believe what this one can do. This one can destroy 100 houses in one shot!

I was making lunch during this time, and was enjoying their conversation, but then they started arguing about something and yelling at each other, and I decided there was a little too much violence going on.

I sang the first line to a song that my mom used to sing to me and my siblings whenever we argued: "Let us all speak kind words to each other. ." I've been trying that one on my kids lately. The only problem is I can't remember the rest of the song, so I am stuck after the first line. So then I reminded Rachel of the song she and the boys have been learning in Primary, "If the Savior Stood Beside Me", and I told her and Lizza that maybe they should pretend Jesus was right by them and that would help them speak kindly to each other. They both thought that was a pretty wild idea, and it started a whole bunch of fun conversations, one of which was about getting resurrected. I had recently reviewed this idea with Rachel, so she took it upon herself to teach the concept to Elizabeth, only she embellished her lesson with lots of extra details that I'm quite sure I never mentioned. Poor Elizabeth is probably so confused.

All of this spiritual talk got Rachel in the mood to compose one of her special songs, which is always a treat. I could tell it was going to be a good one right from the start, so I grabbed a pen and starting writing as she started singing.

Here is just a portion of her song. Picture it being sung very fervently/dramatically by a four-year old, in a tune that is completely made up and doesn't sound like any song you've heard before:

"Speak kind words to each other! And don't fight! Because what does Heavenly Father and Jesus want us to do-oo? Be kind, don't fight, be modest! Because in the end, Jesus will get you a new body! And then if somebody pushes you, you don't have to tell anybody or cry because it won't hurt! Even if you slip on the tile in some water!

I know it will be hard to choose the right. It will be really, really, really haaaaard! So just remember what Jesus asks! And speeee-eeeak kind words! And have good manners!!!!"

It was a very lovely song, and I couldn't believe it was coming from the mouth of the same girl who had been plotting the destruction of the whole world with her nuclear bomb drawings.

And for what it's worth, the girls did get along better after that. Lizza kept coming up to me the rest of the day and saying, "Mom, can we play that one game where we pretend Jesus is here? That's so fun!"

Rachel's first attempt at drawing Darth Vader and Storm Troopers. The guy in the middle looks pretty upset about having a bomb sticking out of his head. And I'm not sure what the deal is with Vader's pink underwear: