If you scroll down to August 18, just a few entries south, you'll read about the magic trick, the disappearing book trick, as performed by our six year old.

Well, today, as inspired by Calvin and Hobbes, she has created a "Transmodifier" out of a cardboard box. She cut a perfectly lovely arrow out of cardboard, asked me to poke a hole in it so she could insert a brass fastener, the kind we used to make homemade clocks in elementary school math class. She attached the arrow to the top of the box, er, the Transmodifier, that is, and wrote various creatures in a circle. The arrow might land on, say, "tiger," or "parrot." Whatever she puts into the box turns into the item that the arrow pointed at. Using Beanie Babies for her experiment, she placed one inside, spun the arrow, and pulled out the modified creature accordingly. "Look, it's now a parrot! This is tiger, but he's a parrot, see? He's transmodified!" And on it went for much of the afternoon.

Then she came up to me, and this is the second time she's made this wishful comment, "Wouldn't it be neat if I asked Santa to bring me a magic kit for Christmas, and I really could transmodify things?"

"I've told you before, the magic kits show you tricks that look like you've changed things, but you haven't. It's not real magic."

"I know," she says, still smiling. "But if I could, I'd turn myself into a bluebird, so I could fly. And then I'd turn a bunch of pebbles into worms so they'd be right where I need them to eat during the day, on top of the box. Wouldn't that be a good idea?"

An older sister had been listening in. She turned to me, "What would you turn something into, if you could?"

It's an interesting question. What would I want to turn myself into? What would I like to turn something else into, for a day, perhaps, or just a few hours?