oops

So I was chatting with my good friend on the phone tonight when two little bitty, sleepy, chattering girls appeared at the top of the stairs. It was only 8:45 or so, but they had obviously already been asleep. But they sure were chattering.
I hung up the phone.
By the time I sifted through the stuttering & muttering, I realized Ana had a bad dream & her calling for me had awoken Maci, who had found a little hairclip in her bed (unrelated to the dream, I suppose). So I took them potty, with all due respect for Dave, who still has the job of clomping up the stairs in the middle of the night to take little girls potty.
Here's where the story gets good (I know; you were waiting too).
Ana had a dream that spiders were eating people. Actually her bad dreams have a theme. Lions Eating People. Big Dogs Eating People. You get the idea.
But incidentally (coincidentally??) I have been reading Charlotte's Web to the girls at lunch time. Their first chapter book. I know. Adorable. Even though their noses wrinkle when they hear complex descriptions & phrases:

"I didn't mean to be objectionable"

and

"One of his friends had got free and was no longer penned up or tied fast"
(seriously--WHAT is "tied fast"?? How can you be "tied fast")

just for example.

Today we read Chapter 5, entitled "Charlotte". If you recall the story, when Wilbur meets Charlotte he is none too sure about her. She takes a fly, wraps it in silk, poisons it, & drinks its blood. She even says "I love blood!" The chapter ends with Wilbur wondering what kind of friend Charlotte will be, "even though she is pretty and, of course, clever".

The poor darlings. Perhaps I should have waited just a bit longer....