ma katy plays yahtzee

if i believed in reincarnation, i'd say that a good portion of ma katy has been reincarnated in simone kathryn-ruth. from about the time she had words, simone has been very intrigued with ma katy. she will ask, "when is ma katy coming back?" "is ma katy still sick?" ""what is ma katy doing today?" she told me once, "ma katy isn't dead". and i said, "where is she?", to which simone pounded on her chest and replied, "in my heart". i think that simone looks like ma katy. i imagine her growing up with dark wavy hair and a narrow mouth with a slight overbite. she reminds me of ma katy in the way she thinks and acts. she is quick to say what she thinks in any given situation. maybe its just because she's three, but after having three other three-year-olds, i am pretty certain it is a characteristic unique to simone. simone is confident, bold, and quirky. she often looks in the mirror and says, "i'm beautiful. i love myself". she states that when she grows up she will "drink beer". now i don't think i ever saw ma katy drinking beer, but i disctinctly remember her telling me that everyone SHOULD drink beer so that they wouldn't be so crabby! i always thought that was funny when she'd tell me that! the clincher happened a few weeks ago. we were walking home from church, and simone was talking about ma katy as she often does. i was asking her questions like
"do you love ma katy?"
"yes."
"is ma barbie going to live in ma katy's house?"
"yes."
what does ma katy like to do?"
"play yahtzee."

her answer to my last question stopped me in my tracks. there is no way in the world simone would have ANY clue that ma katy loved to play yahtzee. where did simone's answer come from? ma katy is the one who TAUGHT me to play yahtzee. i remember beating her and her making me play again so that she'd have another shot at winning. i remember her sending Poppop to the store for more scorecards in the middle of the evening so that we could keep playing. so yes simone, you're right...ma katy DOES like to play yahtzee. now the true test might be when we sit down to play the game with simone in a few years--will she already know how to play?