Thoughts On Cecily

One of the many joys of this trip is getting to know Cecily’s very lively personality better. My conclusions thus far? First, she’d be a terrific monarch. She has a perfectly imperious tone together with an extensive vocabulary of commands. She says things like, “Mommy, after you get out of the bath, you will go downstairs and make me some hot chocolate. And then you will get me an orange.” Or, “Daddy, you’re in my way. You have to move.” Or, with a particularly venemous tone of voice, “That not your business, Mereditf” Second, she’s very impressed with mechanical things – especially when they include possible danger. The graver the threat, the more interesting she finds it. Thus, we cannot wait for a Tube train without her pointing to the tracks below and announcing to everyone in the vicinity: “You can’t go down there, ELSE YOU WILL DIE!” Whenever we’re on a train and another passes us, she explains to everyone that if you stand in front of a train, “It will mash you, AND YOU WILL DIE!” Finally, she doesn’t like silence. If you’re doing something new or annoying, she’ll ask you about it. If she’s run out of questions, she’ll make observations like, “That man is fat” or “That girl has no hair” (Strangely enough, she almost never comments on skin color, which is interesting given the multi-ethnicity of this city.) Once she has exhausted her supply of embarassing observations, she simply sings--loudly. Her tunes usually mix up various songs or add a few unique lyrics. For example, a recent favorite is “When the Saints Go Marching In (And Out and In and Out)” or "Five little ducks went out to play and Mama Duck said come back. Be careful there's witches in the air!" She's partial to “Rule Britannia,” and today she likes "London Bridge" which has a unique set of lyrics involving building it up and tearing it down with gold and straw and sticks and silver and stones and clay. “All Together Kings and Queens of England is her recitation of the monarchs of this green and pleasant land, which is supposed to be sung, "First came William, then a second William. Henry, Richard, then a second Hank," but now is an abbreviated "First came William then a second Hank." The best one yet, however, came today when she marched through Waterloo Station singing, “Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles." Is there a more appropriate place to sing such an anthem than the country which suffered The Blitz? Thanks to our German exchange students who taught her this one. You may have lost the wars but you have been vindicated.