Words Isabelle can say:

5 months:

9 months:

11 months:

12 months:

13 months:

15 months:

I am now learning to use syntax:
Modifiers: tu(4)-tu(4) is my small stuffed rabbit, da(4)  tu(4)-tu(4) is my big stuffed rabbit,  du(4)-du(4) is my belly in the morning.da(4) du(4)-du(4) is my belly after eating 10 cherry tomatoes, 4 loquats, a bowl of noodles and 8 ounces of milk. Big ball is my biggest red ball.

Imperatives: Daddy si! [Daddy sit there!], Daddy dow! [Daddy put me down!], Daddy back! [holding out glass of water, toothbrush, etc: Daddy put it back! I don't want it any more], Daddy back! [pointing at Daddy: I want to ride on your back!], Daddy back! [in bathtub, holding out a bowl and slapping my back: Daddy pour water on my back!], Daddy guggo! [holding out 3 blocks: Daddy juggle!] Mommy lai(2) [Mommy come!], da(3) ma(3)! [pointing at kitchen counter: hit the ant!]

Subject-verb-object: [Offering my yucky pear while pointing hopefully at Daddy's artichoke] Daddy eat peyo?
[pantomiming grabbing something on the window, while recounting exciting adventure of the afternoon] Nai-Nai da(3) mi-mo. (Granny hit a fly)
 

16 months:

I can now mix all three of my languages in sentences: Niao-niao catch buyaodada (the bird caught a butterfly).  [pointing at relevant anatomy] Baby pi(4)gu(3), baby mei-you(3)tayo,miao-miao tayo (baby has a butt, baby doesn't have a tail, but the cat has a tail). More commonly I mix two: Mommy cut guo-guo (Mommy cut fruit [off the tree]), Daddy pet miao-miao. Nang-Ning-Nu eat brobuli (sticking the nose of my plastic giraffe into my broccoli), Niao-niao sit [on] wire (pointing at telephone wire where birds often sit). When I want to do something by myself without interference from grownups, I say "Baby do!" When I get fed up, I say "Daddy do!" I can answer `how many' by holding up the right number of fingers (up to 4), but I won't say numbers.  When someone reads rhymes to me, I stare at their mouth and lip-synch everything. Stories which don't rhyme don't seem to be worth lip-synching. Letters I can point at and say: A, B, C, I, K,  O, S, T.

17 months:

Pinker's Language Instinct says "Around eighteen months, language takes off. Vocabulary growth jumps to the new word every two hours minimum rate that the child will maintain through adolescence." This switch in my brain connected around noon on July 17, 1999, while I was sitting  in my car seat half-way between LA and San Francisco. I started repeating everything the big people said. Following is the list of new words I used on my own during the subsequent week.  Ones I just repeated are omitted. They are mostly English not because that is all I said, but because Daddy can't remember all the Chinese words.  As of July 27 1999, Daddy is ceasing entries in this dictionary for obvious reasons.
 

Week of July 17-July 25:

It is now possible to have a conversation with me, sort of: `Did you go on the slide in the park with Mommy?' Isabelle: `No. Swing, ticko-ticko ma(3).'  `What is that noise?' [thumping noises in backyard]Isabelle: `Qi(4)che(1)beep beep take gabi can.' (the garbage feeder truck beeps when it reverses down the driveway). I have now mastered the combination of direct and indirect objects: Daddy give baby juice!  Baby wei(4) tu(4)tu(4) luo(2)bo. ([grabbing a carrot out of the refrigerator and racing over to stuffed rabbit:]`Baby feeds bunny carrot').  However I do not use prepositions: Daddy put pen pocket. Daddy take pursh Mommy arm. Baby put cap bottle. I am also practicing more with adjectives. [pointing at items on the table]: Baby spoon, Daddy big spoon.  Baby bowl, Mommy big bowl. [Pointing at vehicles going by]: White qi(4)che(1),white qi(4)che(1), ummmmqi(4)che(1), blue qi(4)che(1), big bus, big qi(4)che(1), ummmqi(4)che(1).  Notice my mastery of the adult `Ummmm' to fill in for colors that I can't remember (like brown, green...). [holding my stuffed rabbit by hind legs] tu(4)tu(4) upsidown. I am also starting to figure out that Chinese and English work better on different people: I tell Laolao to lai (2),shuan(1) kiu(3)kou(4), but tell Daddy to come, close buttons on my shirt. And I tell Daddy that fire hot, but tell Laolao that tang(1) tang(4) (my soup is hot).  And I can even provide helpful translations [Daddy, changing my diaper after I have played in the flower bed ,tells Mommy: `there was an ant in Isabelle's diaper'] when Laolao walks in, I explain `ma(3)yi(3) pa(2) baby pi(4)gu(3)'. I am however having difficulty figuring out what language birds and cats talk, so I try both when talking to them: niao(3)niao(3) lai(2), zuo(4)! Bird, come, sit! The trouble is that unlike people, they don't do what I tell them to do in either language, so I can't figure out which one is better. My parents are mystified about where I learned pineapple. I saw a whole one on a table at a salad bar, pointed, and said very distinctly pineapple. However I have never had any pineapple, certainly not a whole one.  Probably I have been eavesdropping on other people's conversations in the supermarket.

I also seem to be developing the capacity for inference.  I knew from books that yu(2) (fish) live in the water.  I am obsessed with catching things (like birds and insects). When we got to the San Francisco Marina, I saw lots of water and big boats sailing out into the bay (I had not previously seen any boats except the one I play with in the bath tub).   I announced in a loud voice Boats go water, catch yu(2).Baby go. and tried (many, many times) to drag my parents off the dock onto a moored boat. Though impressed with my reasoning skills, these boring people would not let me steal a boat to catch fish without a licence.
 

18 months:

Aug 17 1999: my first metaphor (watching a spider building a web): zhi(1)zhu(1) on web, catchmi-mo, eat dinner. Spider climb up, down, up, down, up, down... After a few moments I grinned, pointed at the shelf where the yo-yo is kept, and said yo-yo! I am also trying out the power of words for self-delusion. In the evenings since I started daycare (which I first called gong(1)yuan(2) =park, a fairly accurate description, but now sometimes call xue(2)=school since that is what granny calls it), I can be heard saying to myself repeatedly: Ming(2)tian(1) babyshang(4)xue(2) [or gong(1)yuan(2)]. Kati bao(4)baby. Baby bu(4) ku(1). ("Tomorrow baby go to school (or park). Kati will hold baby. Baby won't cry.") So far only the first two of the three sentences are accurate predictions, but I am working on it. I'm also starting to count: (when two birds fly over, I point) two niao(3)niao (3); (eating Cheerios): One cheeio, two cheeio, tree cheeio, four cheeio (then I either start over, or look at Daddy to keep further count).  Conversations with me are getting more interesting. Daddy: "Look, the wind is blowing the tree. Do you think the leaves will fall off?"  Isabelle: "No, leaf hold on tight."  Daddy: "Do you want this plum?" Isabelle (pointing first at knife rack and then at refrigerator): "No, Daddy take knife. Daddy cut orange. Baby watch Daddy peel orange. Baby put orange peel in gabican. Baby eat orange." (the 3 word noun phrase, and the use of peel as both verb and noun impressed Daddy, as did the polite ordering of the last two sentences, so I got what I wanted).  Isabelle sitting with stuffed dalmation: "Dodo sit in baby lap. Baby love Dodo. Baby pat Dodo head. Dodo good."

19 months:

I am also starting to figure out regular verb conjugation: One car, two car drived into garage, forgeted to close garage door.  When Daddy repeated my sentence with different conjugations, I said drove and forgot rather suspiciously.  I have learned several songs now: one long chinese one, plus Mary Had a Little Lamb, Jack and Jill, and Hickory Dickory Dock. I have also discovered that songs sound much nicer if I accompany myself on the piano while singing them. I do pretty well with rhythm and accents, but the notes do not conform to old-fashioned parental notions of harmony.  [Sept 19] I can say my full name now, sort of: Ibaselle Phinney. I can count  up to ten things (sprinklers and crows are favorites) in both English and Chinese now, though I sometimes forget seven and qi(1) (Daddy  thinks this is because I count in groups of 3, and 10=1 mod 3 so one number doesn't fit, and seven is the one I like to discard). I can also say the whole alphabet, although groups of 5-6 letters are shuffled. I seem to be figuring out that letters go with sounds in words: when Daddy was going through that old "B is for baby,  C is for cat, M is for Mommy" routine I grabbed my foam T and said "T for Taylor" (a neighbor's daughter). I say please and thank you a lot now. I have discovered that please accompanied by fluttering eyelids is even more effective than crying at getting what I want from parents: Thank you Daddy. Daddy open frigerator door again, give Ibaselle more blueberry? Pleease? Ibaselle loves blueberry.

I can tell quite long stories now. Ibaselle hug this cat. Daddy sit, pat other cat. This cat climbed off roof, come down wall, come through hole see me. I see other cat go cross street, hide under bush [near] that bird swimming pool . Dove sit in bath, make splash, wash dove du(4)du(4). Cat jumped catch dove. Dove flied away. My parents are beginning to worry that I am color-blind: I know many color names: white, black, yellow, pink, purple, blue, green, orange, red. But when I apply them to objects (or am asked `which is the blue chair?'), the accuracy is not much higher than would be expected by chance, except for white, which I always get right. However I can translate Chinese to English faster than Mommy: [loud thump upstairs, Granny comes down, talks in Chinese to Mommy]. Daddy asks `What did Granny drop'? Isabelle replies `LaoLao drop scissors make thump bump thud' (Night Rabbits, one of my favorite books, has a lumbering bear which goes `thumping bumping thud,' a phrase which reduces me to helpless giggles).

My parents can no longer have conversations without including me: [Isabelle, seeing a picture of a swing in a book we are reading:] Mommy take Isabelle outside, put Isabelle on Catherine swing. Mommy push swing behind. [Daddy to Mommy] If you take her, I'll vacuum the rugs. [Mommy to Daddy] No, you take her to play, and I'll vacuum. [Isabelle, pointing at closet where vacuum is kept] No! Daddy get vacuum cleaner, clean up all thezha(1)zha(1)s off floor. MOMMY push baby on swing. Bye-bye Daddy.

[Mommy to Daddy] I'll take Isabelle and my mother shopping and you go to work. [Isabelle, waving]Bye-bye Daddy. [runs to foot of stairs, yells up] Nai-Nai, come down! [runs to back door] Mommy, open door! Get in ourqi(4)che(1)!
 

20 Months:

Isabelle, sitting patiently at the head of the stairs waiting for Daddy to get up. Daddy comes out. Isabelle pulls Daddy back to the bedroom door, and points at the bottom of the door "Daddy close door! Isabelle show Daddy. Isabelle saw Daddy's shadow under door, see? Heard Daddy's feet go thump, thump."

Oct 8, 1999: My first purely verbal joke.  Isabelle, looking through the window of a neighbor, who has a 7-year old daughter named Daphne: "Daphne's Daddy cooking." Daddy: "That's right, I think Daphne's Daddy is cooking supper." Isabelle: "Daphne's Daddy cooking Daphne." Daddy: "Really!? I think you meant Daphne's Daddy is cooking supper for Daphne." Isabelle: "No, Daphne's Daddy cook Daphne. Daphne's Daddy put Daphne in pot, cook Daphne. Ha, ha, ha, ha, hiccough, ha, ha, ha, ha, hiccough, ha, ha...." I even told myself this joke a few times  the next day with many giggles. If nothing better turns up, I have a future writing scripts for B movies.
 

21 Months:

22 Months:

23 Months:

24 Months:

2 Years, 3 months:

I have never watched TV or a video (except once ice skating at a neighbor's, and Barney at a friend's house), and all my books are politically correct.  On the exterior, I appear to be a very sweet little girl.  My school reports laud my gentleness, sensitivity to other children, and report how for the past 4 months I race to give hugs and stuffed animals to any child who gets hurt.  I even hold them in my lap and tell them that I am pretending to be their Mommy so they shouldn't cry.  But my evil alter-ego has plans which seem likely to lead me either to the state pen, or to be the next Stephen King. [Driving with Mommy and Daddy]: "Daddy, are you going to smash another car?" "No, I hope not, I am trying not to." "Please Daddy, try, just once, smash another car, please Daddy, a big smash?" "No, I will not."  "OK Daddy, how about just one little smash?" "No, then we would have to buy a new car for us and the other person." "I'm going to eat Daddy." "But then who is going to drive you. You tried and your feet don't reach the pedals yet." Mommy will drive me." "Are you going to eat Mommy too?" "Yes, I'm going to eat Mommy. Then Andrew [a neighbor] will drive me. But I am going to eat Andrew too. Then Joanne [Andrew's wife] will run out of the house and cry `where is Andrew, where is Andrew?' And then Andrew will jump out of my mouth. But he will be all broken up because I chewed him, and Joanne will have to take him to the hospital." Remember, I don't watch TV, and I haven't read Sendak stories yet either. "Are you going to play with Alicia [my very best friend and playmate] in the park?" "No, I'm going to grab Alicia and throw her in the garbage can, and the garbage truck will come and take her away." "But won't Alicia be afraid and cry if she is in the garbage?" "No, she won't cry. She might jump out of the garbage can."

2 Years, 4 months:

I like to change the words to songs to accompany actions I am performing. So "Three little monkeys were jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. Momma called the doctor and the doctor said, No more little monkeys jumping on that bed [etc with 2, 1]." morphs into "Two little Isabelles were jumping on the couch. One fell off and bumped her head. Daddy called the doctor and the doctor said, No more little Isabelles jumping on that couch. Daddy, go get the stethoscope and listen to my heart. Now measure my temperature and give me some pink medicine." or into "One little ducky splashing in the tub. One fell down and bumped his head. Momma called the doctor and the doctor said, No more little duckies splashing in that tub."

One of my favorite types of question now is "What's going to happen?" accompanied by a sidelong look of extreme wickedness. For example: "If I stand up on the back of this chair, what's going to happen?" Daddy: "What do you think would happen?" Isabelle: "I think it would tip over and I would hit my head, and cry `Mommy, Mommy' and Mommy would come and I would cry and cry, and then the firetruck would come and take me to the hospital and the doctor would listen to my heart and stick my head back together with tape." Daddy: "I think that is probably right. So are you going to stand up on the back of the chair?" Isabelle: "No, but if I pulled that button off  your shirt and ate it, what's going to happen?" Continue for 15 minutes.

2 Years, 5 months:

I like trains a lot.  So Daddy took me to ride on the LA subway. "Daddy, does this train have gasoline? Where is it?" [last month we went to see the old steam engines at Travel Town, which have tenders.] Daddy: "No, I don't think this train has gasoline. I think it has an electric motor that makes it go." Isabelle, probably remembering what happened the last time Daddy vaccumed around the far side of the table: "But Daddy, the train moves far, won't it pull the wire out of the wall?" Daddy: "No, I think there is a long wire in the middle of the tracks, and the train touches it and gets electricity from it."Isabelle: "But then won't the train get burned and have to go to the hospital?" etc.

My favorite color is blue, alpine lake blue (pastel shades and sky blue are not acceptable). If my parents buy a new car, it should be blue. All other characteristics are unimportant. Car dealers don't have very many bright blue cars.  I looked very hard and found one in just the right color, kind of small  and snazzy looking.  But my parents said some nonsense about it not having any back seat and went off to look at cars in ugly colors with back seats and 4 doors.

I had lots of fun in Germany and Switzerland.  I had my first experience of 9 hour jet-lag. My description: "I feel funny. I am all confused. I don't know when to sleep." I hate taxis; trolley cars are much better, since they run on steel rails and don't wobble and bounce so much. I rode on lots of trains. Unfortunately, none were the right shade of blue, but they were exciting anyway, especially when I got to ride next to the drivers from Muerren to Lauterbrunnen.  One nice thing about Germany is that all the hotel and shop keepers think I am so cute that they give me chocolates. However green icecream in Germany was a great disappointment; it (green apple instead of the pistachio I am used to) tastes bad. However Daddy convinced me to try orange icecream instead, and that  tasted good.

At the Schwarzwald museum in Triberg, I discovered coin-operated fair organs and toy trains. This inspired my latest invention: a coin-operated mechanical baby rocker for doctors'offices. I converted the radiator in a hotel room to this purpose, using the screw slot in the valve for the coin slot. "Daddy, give me a quarter [1 franc coin]. No it doesn't fit, give me the little one." Daddy: "what are you doing?" Isabelle: "This is the doctor's office. The babies are afraid the doctor is going to give them shots, so they cry, and their mommies have to hold them. But their mommies' arms get tired. So this is a machine to rock the babies in the doctors office. I'm a mommy. When I put the quarter in here, it will rock the baby so he won't cry. When it stops, I have to put another quarter in." Contact me if you would like to licence my soon-to-be-patented invention.

Mommy and Daddy, who have suddenly become Mom and Dad except when I am crying for them,  promised me that I would see cows on this trip. So I asked lots of people on the trains if they had any cows at home. I was worried when they all said no. People on the trains in Germany say funny words I don't understand, but some of them, especially the grownups, understand me and talk back to me in English. They call an apple "apfel" and say "Danke" when I offer to share my food. Finally at the Schwarzwald open-air museum in Gutach I found my first cows. I like the song a neighbor taught me: "Cows in the meadow, eating all the buttercups; thunder, lightning, we all jump up," and had been discussing for days how I was going to feed buttercups to the cows I found. So I picked some buttercups for the baby cow and her mommy. But they did not like them. I tried and tried, but they still would not eat them. They did gobble up all the grass and clover I fed them, but they would not eat buttercups. Something is wrong either with German cows or the song.  In Muerren, I again tried buttercups on many cows, and determined that Swiss cows do not like buttercups much either, though they can sometimes be persuaded to eat one or two. Swiss cows have nice big bells on their necks; Dad bought me a little one one, and I like to wear it and be a baby cow. Swiss cows are also very friendly, and let me ride on their backs; I thought this was lots of fun, but it scared Mom, because the cows are very big and have long sharp horns.

Lucerne is very nice. There is a big lake which has swans and ducks to whom you can feed bread. Swans are funny, and stand on their heads in the water, with only their back ends sticking out. But I like ducks better. I really, really want to pat one. But they run away when I try to get close, even when I bribe them with bread. Also on this lake I finally realised my dream of riding on a little boat (pedalled by parents, steered by me), and also a great big boat. This lattter had two big side paddles that splashed the water to make the boat go, and a big red steam engine with moving cylinders in the middle, which I watched for much of the trip. It was much more interesting than all the scenery Mom kept wanting me and Dad to come look at.
 

2 years, 6 months:

I have theories about everything. I went shopping with Daddy for a sun shade for the car windshield. Daddy: "See, the ones in the size we need are supposed to be on this hook but there aren't any." Isabelle: "I think all the other people needed them too, and they bought them, and that is why there are none left for us. Maybe the store will get some more."

Mommy is getting Isabelle ready for bed. Daddy: "Bye-bye Isabelle." Isabelle: "Daddy, please don't go. I want you to stay with me. I will feel sad if you go." Daddy: "But I have to go to write my proposal." Isabelle: "But I want to go with you. I will be lonely if I stay here. I am very sleepy now. I can go with you in the car. You drive and I will sleep. When we get to Santa Barbara I will wake up and push the buttons on the computer and you can sleep. In the morning you can wake up and play with me. OK Daddy? Can I go downstairs with you to get in the car?"

2 years, 7 months:

My drawings are getting much more representational. Recent drawings include: cats with long tails, eyes, mouth and whiskers. Playground swings with vertical and horizontal  supports, ropes for the swings, seats, and people on the seats (consisting of round heads with eyes, mouth, hair, necks, bodies, but no arms or legs). Heads with eyes, ears, noses, mouth, food near the mouth, hair, necks; they sometimes also have legs but no bodies.

My architectural creations with blocks are getting grander: I now construct houses with doors, chimneys and long sidewalks in front.  My great contribution to home security (patent pending) is the idea for alternating flat blocks in the sidewalks with rolling cylindrical ones.  The reason for this is so that if a burglar tries to walk up the sidewalk into the house, he will step on the cylinders and roll off and fall down. Residents will know the cylinders are there and step over them so they won't fall down.

I am not shy about advising people.  There were loud noises coming from next door, so we went to investigate.  A carpenter was cutting wood for the neighbor's new cabinets with an electric table saw. Daddy explained that the saw had an electric motor so the carpenter's arm wouldn't get tired because he had to cut a lot of wood. So when the saw stopped, I walked over to the carpenter and told him "I have a saw too, but I push it with my hand, and my arm gets tired. You should eat more spinach. Then you could use a saw like mine instead of the 'lectric saw.  Do you want me to bring you some spinach?"

I am clearly destined to be involved with the law, though it is unclear on which side of it. I  can think farther ahead than Mommy already. I was eating watermelon, and threw the rind on the floor when I finished a piece. Mommy: "Isabelle, please pick that up and put it in the garbage can." Isabelle: "No." Mommy: "Isabelle, you ate it, so you have to throw it away." Isabelle, considers for a moment, then picks up the rind and looks at it: "Oh look Mommy, there is a little bit of melon left here. Would you like to have it, Mommy Dear?" Mommy [not thinking as fast as Isabelle and biting from the proffered rind]: "Oh thank you Isabelle." Isabelle: "Here, throw it away. You ate it, so now you have to throw it away."
 

2 years, 8 months:

Isabelle: "How do you make candy canes?" Daddy: "I think you melt sugar and add the oil from peppermint plants, and pour the mixture into a mold shaped like a cane. "Next day, Isabelle is overheard asking the next door neighbor: "Joanne, can I go with you to the nursery? I will bring my purse. I need to buy peppermint plants." Joanne is mystified.

Isabelle notices leaves in the (completely enclosed) streetlight across the street. "Daddy, how did the leaves get in there? Is there a tree growing in there? Is there a hole in the top of the glass? How will we get the leaves out?" Daddy [unimaginatively]: "well, we could get a ladder and unscrew the cover, and take them out." Isabelle: "I think we could ask a squirrel to climb up the tree and down the branch, and jump onto the light, and chew off the screws so we can take the light off. Or we could ask that jet airplane to land on the street here, and we can climb up on the wing and take the top off the light and take the leaves out."

2 years, 9 months:

Isabelle, the day after she returns from the beaches of Hawaii, where she floated endlessly in the ocean in an inflatable tube: "How do you make floaters?" Daddy: "I think you melt pellets of plastic polymer, and roll them out flat to make a plastic sheet, and then melt the edges together to make a tube, and then you blow air into the space between the sheets." Isabelle: "What are pellets?" Daddy "They are little balls." Isabelle races off, gets a rolling pin and begins rolling the peel of a just-consumed banana out flat on the floor.  "Daddy, help me get some salt to put on these. Salt is pellets, isn't it?" Daddy: "why?" Isabelle "So I can roll them out to make a floater." Isabelle, a while later: "Daddy, here is a knife. Help me cut the banana peel into pieces." Isabelle, putting two pieces on top of each other "Daddy, could  you get the matches on top of the stove for me? I need to melt the edges together now." Daddy: "I don't think salted banana is going to melt. I think it will just burn." [we do the experiment, and confirm this] Isabelle: "Then how do I make the edges stay together? Can I use glue?" Daddy: "No, I don't think the glue we have will stick to banana peel." Isabelle: "Oh, then can you sew them together? Where is the string and the sewing kit?"

2 years, 10 months:

After reading The Little Juggler:  "His Mommy and Daddy died. Your Daddy died. How did he die? Is my Mommy going to die? Are you going to die? If your Mommy dies, how do you get a new Mommy? Can you make one? Is Mary going to be Barnaby's new Mommy and take care of him? I'm going to have a baby and then you will be a grandfather. Then my baby will have a baby and I will be a grandfather too."

2 years, 11 months:

3 years, 6 months:

4 years, 3 months:

Some of my classmates are adopted. "Daddy, do babies like to be adopted?" Daddy: "I think little babies don't even notice they are adopted. They just think whoever takes care of them is their mommy and daddy." Isabelle: "But if they were adopted when they weren't so little that wouldn't work. I would notice if I was adopted. I would run away and come back to you and mommy.  [pause] But if Joanne [favorite next door neighbor] adopted me that would be OK, I wouldn't run away from Joanne."
 

4 years, 4 months:

4 years, 5 months:

4 year, 6 months:

4 year,  8 months:

I found 3 of the 4 clues to the location of the party favors at my friend's birthday party. But a little boy grabbed two of them from me after I found them, and I didn't put up a fuss. Mommy is concerned I am going to grow up to be a pushover (yes, same mommy who two years ago was worried I was antisocial because I screamed murder if another  kid touched, or even looked at one of my toys): "Why did you let T. grab those clues from you? You should defend yourself.'" Isabelle: "Well, I didn't really care, and if I screamed and fought with him it would have made the party unpleasant and everyone wouldn't have had so much fun."

My questions are becoming difficult: "Daddy, why do bad kings start wars? "
Daddy: "Sometimes they want other people's land or money, so they send soldiers to grab them. " Isabelle: "I have a good idea." Daddy: "What?" Isabelle: "We should make our land not pretty, kind of ugly.  Then they won't want to grab it.  Then after all the soldiers die, we can make everything very beautiful, and there won't be any soldiers to take it away from us." Daddy: "Sometimes people also fight wars about ideas, like who has the right ideas about God."

Isabelle: "That is silly, there is no God." Daddy: "Oh, how do you know that?" Isabelle: "God is supposed to be the God of everything right? My teacher S. said he was God of everything.  So he has to be God of all the planets and all the planets around other stars.  So he cannot live on Earth, he has to live far out in space between the stars. But there is no air in space, and you can only live without air for 2 minutes.  People think God talks, so God has to be a person like a king, so he couldn't breathe in space.  So there can't be any God. Anyway, there are too many Gods. The chinese believe in Buddha, that is why they wear little Buddhas around their necks [Lao-Lao gave me one].  But if there is only one God, not everybody can be right about who he is. Probably they are all wrong, and they shouldn't fight about it. That is silly." Daddy: "But you think there is a tooth-fairy, right?" Isabelle: "Yes, she leaves me notes and money." Daddy: "Where does she live?" Isabelle: "I used to think she lived outside, but I think our doors and windows are too tight for a toothfairy who can carry quarters while she flies. She couldn't squeeze under them, and there is a screen in front of our fireplace that is too heavy for her to push.  So I think she lives in our house. Probably she hides behind one of the bookcases [where  my hamster Sunset hid when she escaped from her cage]."

6 years, 5 months:

6 years, 10 months:

7 years, 2 months:

8 years, 6 months: