Big Fat Head

Note: There is a Disney trivia question for all of you at the end.

Lucy employs cathartic writing when overwhelmed by emotions, both negative and positive. HJ and I have spoken about it recently and have decided it was a good thing, or at least it should be: we have been trying to teach her to do so for years. I started teaching Lucy to write her feelings for me during a particularly overwhelming period for me when my primary goal each day was not to explode with screaming when Lucy expressed negative feelings by pounding baby EJ and to teach her alternatives. I found the idea in one of the parenting books I was desperately studying. I thought back to the many times I had written to drain intense emotion as a youth and remembered cathartic writing assignments for a creative writing class taught by Louise Plummer in college. Teaching Lucy cathartic writing seemed worth trying.

Now, sometimes when Lucy is super-excited, especially when her excitement exceeds our ability to give her attention, she will appear later with a picture of herself riding her cousin’s horse, a note explaining that there are only “10 days left to gingerbred houses” [she made them at school], or a colorful card wishing Mom a happy birthday. Likewise, after she is overwhelmed with envy directed at EJ (who, by the way, has finally started hitting back—we have been waiting a long time for that, too) or anger directed at me, we will later find papers announcing “I hate Mommy!” or “EJ is a poopee.”

Well, today Lucy was very upset at losing Rock-Paper-Scissors to EJ to determine who would get to take a bath first. She stormed to her room. I was about to put the boys into their bubbles when Lucy came in to the bathroom in tears pleading that she go in the bath first. I declined, and she stormed back to under the covers of her bed. At my request, HJ stopped in Lucy’s room at this point and tried cheering her up with a little tickling. Minutes later, she came out to HJ, who was washing dinner dishes, with a note that she sheepishly sailed to him. Written in curly letters, the folded paper read, “Dear Daddy, I love you. Love, Lucy.” He took that as a thanks for the cheering up.

Later tonight, I found yet another paper on Easton’s bed. I guess this one was written and delivered sometime shortly after her Rock-Paper-Scissors loss. The paper was folded over, and Lucy had written on the outside “To EJ with love from Mommy” and at the bottom, “Do not open till 6 o’clock.” This opened to reveal “EJ is a big fat head” inside.

Hence, here is the trivia question for you: which Disney movie had Lucy been watching earlier in the day and what character would she be playing by delivering this special “package” to EJ?