Why today rocks, if only for pretend

I am very sleepy.  Mostly, since being a non-neglectful Mommy means that today I've mostly been awake since 4:45am.  But sleepiness aside, this morning, I decided to be awesome.  This morning, I was insanely proud of myself.  Stupidly proud, as it turns out.  Backstory time.  Diddeloo diddeloo diddeloo...

A couple weeks ago my daughter discovered a hand fan of mine, one that I purchased in Japan for about a buck.  Despite its low low purchase price, it's the fan I used while I was there, and one of the few souvenirs I brought home.  And let's be honest, it's not the easiest thing to replace.  Daughter decided that the fan made an excellent treasure map for her trip to outer space, and it quickly became her new favorite toy.   The fact that she is the coolest kid alive aside, she didn't exactly display the care for my souvenir that I might have hoped.  So this morning when she noticed it again, I came up with a brilliant plan.

I set aside my cup of coffee and super duper long to do list (Tuesdays are housecleaning days, so far today, I'm doing a TERRIBLE job) to be an awesome Mommy and and draw my daughter a real treasure map.  THis is my treasure map:

See?  I set a path, with obstacles, and an X, where the treasure surely lies.  Yarrrr.  I also folded it up, to mimic her favorite aspect of the fan.  I know it's not exactly a brilliant piece of artwork, but well, bite me.  I was proud of myself for being such a cool mom.

At this point, you may be curious why I'm holding it, instead of my daughter, since it's obviously her new coolest toy ever.  Well, that would be because of this conversation, which occurred when I handed off my brilliant creativity to my duaghter:
"Here ya go Madelyn"
"Ooooh Mommy, did you color on a treasure map?"
"Yep, it's for you!"
"Awww, good coloring Mommy, it's soooo purty!"
"... Thank you."
"Here you go Mommy, you can have it!"

::Sigh::

She's terribly polite, and terribly, TERRIBLY patronizing.  So she gave it back, and I gave her some chalk and her chalkboard so she could express her own self creatively.

UPDATE:  Later, she re-found the map and is now riding on a pillow-boat to cross the river so she and Bunny can board the space ship and head to outer space.  She was intimidated by that river for a while, didn't think she could cross it.  Good thing we found that boat.

Did I mention how much I love having kids?