Genevieve alone

With Imogen at school till 3:30, I have afternoons alone with Genevieve, and it's been fun to get to know her better. When Imogen is home, Genevieve willingly lives in her shadow, following her lead, or fighting with her. Genevieve alone is different though.

For one thing, she's very easy to be around. Imogen is the extrovert in the family. Genevieve has her parents' ability to be alone with her thoughts. Whereas Imogen relies on the people around her for conversation and to keep her occupied, Genevieve has a rich fantasy life and I find her having conversations with her toys constantly. Imogen has a mad desire to classify everything around her, to bring all objects and behaviors under the domain of some rule or another so that she can order her life accordingly. This results in more questions than I ever knew existed. Genevieve asks questions like a normal child, which seems very rare compared to her sister. Genevieve isn't curious and is willing to have mysteries in her life, or willing to make up answers to whatever questions might occur to her.

Today I discovered that Genevieve is the perfect shopping companion. For one thing, you almost can't lose her. At her age, Imogen was trying to go home with other people at the park and last year she lined up with other classes at school. She regularly gave her teacher a heart attack thinking she'd been lost for good this time. Genevieve trails along behind me or holds my hand, always aware of where I am.

But also, Genevieve is actually enthusiastic about shopping. We wandered into the lingerie section today. A Mecca of femininity. She helped me pick out bras, fingering the silk and lace and gushing at the bright colors and the pink all around her. She even got excited at the shoe section, pointing out several pairs that she liked.

Speaking of the pink obsession, it's getting worse. Today in the bathroom she was extatic that the soap that I squirted into her hands was pink. "I LOVE pink soap!" she said.