Piper came home from a birthday party with a craft kit. It was packed full of all the objects I forbid in this house: glitter, pom poms, multi-colored pipe cleaners, glitter glue, sparkly stick-ons, plastic straws, more glitter.
These things terrify me. I don’t get what you’re supposed to do with them. Art projects are beyond me. See Piper’s Star of the Week poster if you don’t believe me. Piper had big plans with her craft kit.
“I’ve been plotting,” she began. “I know what I’m going to do with this stuff.”
“Oh, no,” I said. “What?” I braced myself at the kitchen table for the bad news.
“My plot is to make a glitter family. Of us.”
Sissy interrupted. “I don’t think you’re using the word ‘plot’ correctly.”
“Plot means to plan,” Piper answered. “I’m planning to make a glitter family. Of us. That’s my plot.”
She had us there. Protesting seemed futile. So, I did what parenting a Piper had taught me to do: I rolled up my sleeves and sat down to learn.
And a sort of glitter family indeed emerged from this craft box of foreign objects.
The likeness is uncanny.
“See, Mom,” Piper said, packing up her craft kit. “My plot worked!”
piperism 
Glitter and all other small shiny items impossible to pick up easily are on my taboo list at home. The trail left behind lasts and grows long past the art project. I am happy that daycare seems to fulfill most of Laura’s glitter ambitions.
Kudos to Piper on the successful conclusion of her plot. Her pig tailed self-portrait is stupendous. Was daddy ok with being red nosed?