Valerie the Valient

My four year old found a snake in the back yard this morning. She told me it was over there under those rocks. I figured she had found a worm. I told her to leave it alone and went back to reading my book. Then she kept messing with it. and playing over by said rocks. I told her to leave it alone again. She told me it was fine because she killed with that rock. I noticed my dog Thunder kept sniffing at it and pawing at the ground. Weird, I didn't think that a dog would care that much about a worm. Maybe it was one of those little green garden snakes. I decided a responsible parent would go over there and check. Ugh. So I put my book down and went over to check it out

OMFG!!!!! It really was a snake. Not anything huge but about 15 inches long. I picked it up with a stick and brought it up to the deck. Valerie is right behind me the whole way...

"I told you it was a snake. It was trying to bite my sister so I smooshed it with a rock. I did. It was at the zoo and it escaped. It got out of the glass and the cage and flibber flobbered over to our backyard. I think that is weird. But that is what it did all right. yep. It just flipper flobbered over here all the way from the zoo. It is a little weird. But I only ready killed it."

I went in to get my camera and when I come out, there she is swinging it around and picking it up and telling me how cool it is.

Steven came home for lunch and Valerie showed him her kill. He said, "What does that make you? Valerie the snake slayer?"

"No, Daddy I was just called Valerie the Valient"

Note: That is what I call her when she comes into our room in the middle of the night after a bad dream. We talk about Valerie the Valient, a beautiful princess who vanquishes monsters and is soooooooo brave that she can do anything she sets her mind to.

In doing this I may have inadvertantly created my own Monster. One who is afraid of nothing. Gawd I am so glad I didn't have boys. Girls are enough.