Dwayne pointed this out to me earlier today. It's a page torn from one of Norah's princess coloring books and it is hanging in her new bedroom (whose walls haven't been painted pink yet).

He said, "Did you notice? Norah's got her first pin up."

I hadn't noticed and honestly, I am not even sure how long I've overlooked this! I find so many things about this hilarious.

First, she chose this picture from the rest and hung this up on her own, like older girls will do with magazine pictures of Zac Efron or something. She has no older sister to model this kind of behavior. I have framed photos of her dad on my bed side table and dresser, but that is the closest thing of this kind that she's ever even seen... besides that scene from The Little Mermaid of Ariel with Eric's statue. That could explain it!

Next, Norah hung this so high up on her wall that when I saw it, I assumed her dad had helped her put it there, at her request, and that is how he knew about it. But, when he said he hadn't, I realized she must have stood on a chair to get it up that high. We usually keep a chair at the end of the hallway for "time out," so she must have dragged that chair all the way into her bedroom, going to all the trouble of standing up and balancing on it to hang this herself.

Also, Norah has no access to scotch tape at all, so she must have gotten a hold of some of mine from our office supplies and taped this to the wall and put the tape back before I even noticed what she was doing. This makes me wonder where I was at the time? What was I doing? I am always with her...

Finally, and this may be the funniest part to me, it is obvious that I've tried to throw it away at least once, since it looks like the page has been crumpled up and/or taped back together. Norah was determined enough to take it out of the trash (or trash pile I make as I am working) and do her best to restore it, knowing that if she made me aware of what she was doing at any point in the process, the picture would probably be gone by now.

I asked Norah, "Why did you hang that picture up in your room?"

I was trying to be all nonchalant about it so she'd give me a straight answer.

She said, "Oh. I just like it cause it reminds me of Eric."

That's when my mouth hit the floor. What?!

Later, at dinner, Norah said out of the blue, "Mom. Ariel isn't real, you know."

I thought about this and said, "Yes... But Eric isn't real either."

To this, she said, "Yes he is!"

So, I realize now she has been listening to the things I've said about Eric being married to Ariel and she's worked out a way to make her (pretend) relationship with him much more appropriate. Since Ariel doesn't really exist, she's free to pursue Eric. Brilliant!

Just when I think Norah has done all she can to amaze me, she never fails to up her game. There is no way I am going to be able to raise this kid without divine intervention.