A Cheshire Moon

Earlier this evening, I was sitting outside with my 4 1/2 year old Goddaughter Makayla and her younger sister, Olivia.  After a while, Makayla looked up into the sky, pointed and shouted, "The moon looks like a banana!"  I looked up and saw this:

Now, I have always called this a Cheshire Moon, after the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland, so I said, "Oh, the Cheshire Cat is smiling at us!"  Both of the girls looked at me wide-eyed and said, "Who's that?"  I told them that he was a magical cat that could make himself invisible, and that sometimes, he'd only make himself partly invisible so you could only see his smile.

Now, I really had their attention.  So I asked them if they wanted to see some pictures of him.  Well, of course they did!!  I pulled out my phone and googled images of the Cheshire Cat and showed them these:

And finally...

Makayla looked up at me and said, "You know what?!  I don't think that's the moon!  I think it IS the Cheshire Cat!  Do you think I'll be able to see the rest of him if I look out my bedroom window?!"

I tried to explain to her that the Cheshire Cat is kind of like Santa or the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy and we're not really supposed to see him.  But sometimes he likes to be silly and only show us his smile.

Well, long story short... Makayla's mom had to spend about 1/2 hour trying to get her into to bed because she kept trying to see the Cheshire Cat from her bedroom window.  When my friend came downstairs, she reminded me what a vivid imagination children have and told me that Makayla would probably be looking for the Cheshire Cat every night from now on!

Hey, kids are supposed to have vivid imaginations, right?!  And what kind of Godmother would I be if I didn't exercise those imaginations a little bit?  Also, for the record, I WILL be getting Makayla and Olivia their own copy of the original animated Alice in Wonderland DVD!