A craft store explosion

I just returned late last night from a work trip, and you are still at mamaw's house.  I have a fresh pot of coffee and a desire to organize. Today's the day to smuggle out broken, nearly empty, or unused toys and art supplies.  It looks like a craft store blew up in the dining room and I can't take it anymore.

Of monsters and ghosts

You have take a recent interest in the book series Goosebumps and pretty much anything else scary and involving monsters or ghosts of some kind. I wasn't sure you were quite ready for chapter books, but you adore having me read them to you. We have watched the 2015 Goosebumps movie as well as the 1995 television episodes.  Even when your father and I watched Stranger Things, you impatiently waited for glimpses of the monster.Your imagination has been ignited!

You "write" the names of all the monsters from the books and movies you can think of.

In one scene, a teen boy with silver fillings jumps on a werewolf's back and bites his shoulder to send him running away, and your are positive you can use this strategy to win any fight with any monster.  You tell me in detail how you will fight them and scare them off.

You write and illustrate your own monster books.

Your carry your books--both the R.L. Stine versions and your own handmade ones--to school to show your friends and teachers.

You act out monster scenes with your friends at school.  One day when I dropped you off, I heard your friend ask, "Sophie P., do you want to be the wicked witch?"

You ask me regularly if I believe in monsters; I tell you I believe in ghosts but not monsters. You don't care for this, and spent at least a week trying to convince me that I DO believe in monsters because you are actually a vampire and I know and love you already.  Here is a link to a clip of us discussing the blood sucking bit:

https://youtu.be/trz5YKZtDPA

Some people think it's odd or undesirable for a 4 year-old girl to be so enraptured by such things, but I love seeing your excitement and I feed it every chance I get. How can it be bad for you to bring a book to me multiple times a day, begging me to read another chapter or two?  I don't care what the topic is.

On consent

One day last week I arrive at your school to pick you up and found you fighting against Emmett who was forcefully trying to kiss you.  You held him at arm's length for as long as you could, and when he broke through you roughly pushed him away.

I'm always surprised by these every-day situations that have clear ramifications for the future.

As we headed to the car, I thought about what to say to you. I ended up telling you that no one should kiss you if you don't want them to. I told you it was okay to tell Emmett 'no' and that you did didn't want him to kiss you.

It was very important for me to be clear about that.

But then I went on to suggest that Emmett has been your friend for a long time, and maybe you could use your words more to say, "No, I don't want you to do that" instead of shoving him away.  You didn't say much about it but agreed, "Okay."

Since them I have replayed how I saw him physically MAKE you let him kiss you, and I have replayed  my words to you over and over. He was being so forceful at that point that he might not have paid attention to your words. Maybe he deserved that rude shove, long-time friend or not.  Maybe he needs to get the message loud and clear now while he is still young and malleable.

Am I overreacting to this?  I can't tell.