Katy Kelly_Lucy Rose 01 by Lucy Rose: Here's the Thing About Me Page A

Gables. Glamma has hair that is called Strawberry Blond and she dresses like a movie star and she has a golden purse that I love like anything. One time I told Madam that she should dress like Glamma but she said every lady has to pick her own style.

    At the hotel my dad and I went swimming because now that is one of our main hotelactivities that we do together. On Saturday we took the Metro and I told my dad, “This subway is one thing that makes Washington, D.C., a good place for living.”
    I knew he would agree with that but I like to point out the good things just in case knowing them might make him want to move here someday. We rode the Red Line to the Dolls' House Museum. The best thing I saw was a cake that was as small as a penny. It wasn't real.
    On the way home we got off at the Mall which is not the shopping kind of mall but a big park near the Washington Monument. There is a merry-go-round and I got to ride on it and my dad took my picture on a pink horse and when I got off the ticket-taking man used my dad's camera and took a picture of both of us together and I made my movie star smile that shows almost all my teeth at once and the ticket guy said to my dad, “She's the spitting image of you,” which I thought was rude because I am no spitter.
    But my dad said, “That means you look like me.”
    “Except for the mustache,” the man said.
    So that was a pleasing thing after all.
    On Saturday night my dad helped me polish my toenails which is something that he is really not very good at but I acted like he is. Then I had to sit still and wait for them to get dry. I told my dad about the valentines and he said he did not know what to do with a boy like Melonhead.
    So I asked him, “But what if he went to your school? What would you do then?”
    “Probably have a lot of parent-teacher conferences,” my dad said.

March

March 8
    Lately when things that are good happen I have been shouting “Yippee-yi-yo, cowgirl!” Which is exactly what I did yell this morning because our tables got moved again. This is actually a double good thing because now Melonhead is sitting up front where the talkers go and I am over by Jake. I'm so close that when Mr. Welsh is not paying good attention to me, I can poke my finger through the cage and try to get Jake to lick it. And even though Jonique is not at my table she is at the next one so she is pretty near me and also Jake. The other kids at my table are Amir who is an ESL kid, that means English as a Second Language which it is for him because he comes from overseas and is just learning about how we talk in America. Also there is Marian who is nice. She is a nail biter. I think it's because she is nervous. And right across from me is Kathleen and that is a handy thing because she told me that Jake's favorite food is Cheerios. So I made a whole Baggie full and tookthem to school and put them in my desk so if Jake is looking hungry, which he does a lot of the time, I can drop one in his cage. I know he appreciates this because every time I do it he snarfs it right up.

March 12
    I was telling about Jake and the Cheerios today when we were taking a family walk and I was wishing I could figure out a way to get my mom to like small mammals when Pop said, “Maybe, if it is all right with Mr. Welsh, Jake can spend spring break at our house.”
    “That makes good sense,” Madam said to my mom. “Lucy Rose is going to be with us when you're at work and when she's at home she can just walk over and feed him and change the shavings.”
    “That is an inspired plan,” my mom said.
    “And,” Madam said, “it will be nice for Gumbo to have another animal in the house even if it is just temporary.”
    Then Pop said, “Madam will make little guinea pig clothes for him.”
    And I said, “Great plan!” because it is.
    But Madam said Pop was just joking about the clothes.
    And then I said, “Wait one minute, everybody. I still have to get Mr. Welsh to pick me. And so far that