Mabel left this group of candidates for tape-clothing when she settled in for her nap on Tuesday after lunch. From 12 to 12:30 we ate the lunch that Daddy fixed (waffles with honey, Ocean Nibbles, carrot sticks, raspberries). From 12:30 to 12:45 we cleaned up. From 12:45 to 1:00 in the rocking chair we read about a litter of small white bunnies repeatedly getting themselves dirty in different ways and then appealing to a big white bear, who found many different ways to wash them. They ended up all going to sleep. At 1:00 Mabel got into bed and I sat on the floor next to her bed and we sang the "Mares Eat Oats" song about fifty consecutive times. I leaned my head on the bed rail, with a stuffed owl as a pillow to cushion the rail and that way Mabel could pat the brushy hair on the top of my head, an old familiar ritual that sent her soundly to sleep by 1:10. That's when I emerged with cautious silence from her little room and went about photographing the toys that had been abandoned when playtime ended.
