Dinner With The Capulets

Last night my parents are over for dinner.  My 3yr old, Elizabeth, holds her hand up and says, “Everybody listen!  I’m a Capulet, and you have to be quiet, because we’ve having a party.”  She then turns to everybody at the table and says, “You’re a Capulet, and you’re a Capulet, and you’re a Capulet too.” Cue my mother to ask, “What’s a capulet?” I love moments like this.  “That’s from Romeo and Juliet,” I tell her.  “Capulet is Juliet’s last name.  Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love and I’ll no longer be a Capulet.” Elizabeth catches our attention again because of the face she is making.  “You have to do this,” she tells us, and I realize that she has covered her upper lip in grated cheese.  And then I get it.  In the movie we just watched, Sealed With A Kiss, the Capulets are having a party on board a ship.  The Capulets are the white seals, the Montagues are the brown seals.  So the way that Mercutio, Benvolio and Romeo get into the party is to roll themselves around in the white sand until they look like the Capulet seals.  My daughter has figured out how to use the grated cheese to camouflage herself. “Are any of us Montagues?” I ask.  “If there are Capulets, there should be Montagues.” She thinks about this, then turns to her little brother.  “Brendan can be a Montague.” “So is he Romeo?  Do you marry him?” “No, Daddy, I marry you.  You can be Romeo.  The Prince wants to marry me but you come to the party and take me away.”   And so on.  That’s what dinner at my house is like :).