It all started, as so many MJ-related things do, with dancing.

We had meant to record the show "WordWorld" on PBS when we discovered not a world of words, but a girl of words instead. "WordGirl." The cartoon is about a mild-mannered fifth-grader named Becky Botsford who is actually an alien superhero from the planet Lexicon. She fights crime with her super strength and her gigantic vocabulary. She knows every word in the dictionary, and, as her Web site says, "most hieroglyphics, too."

I know what you're thinking, and you're right: It is awesome.

With words like "scintillating" and "cumbersome," and some more advanced grammar play, we could tell from the start that "WordGirl" was just a little over the head of our 36-inch tall MJ. But our pint-size Elaine Benis can't be denied when a show has a rockin' theme song. And so off she went, all elbows and legs and jumping bean, dancing to lyrics like these:

"Word up, it's WordGirl!

Flying at the speed of sound

Vocabulary that astounds

From the planet Lexicon

Watch out villains ....

Here she comes!"

And that was all it took. "WordGirl! WordGirl! I want to watch WordGirl! More WordGirl, please!" These might have been the only words to come out of her mouth for a full month. Randy and I were only too pleased to encourage this latest obsession: Randy, because of the show's villains, who have names like Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy and Dr. Two-Brains; and me, because ... well, as a former writer turned stay-at-home-mom of two girls, WordGirl is a dream come true. A superhero chick who's both strong and smart and likes words -- and uses them to change the planet for the better? It's like PBS was reading my mind when I wondered, "When will someone make a cartoon that's as funny and witty as Spongebob, but not as obnoxious?"

So when it came time to plan a Halloween outfit, I didn't need two brains to know what MJ would want to be. Or so I thought.

"No," she told me, when I asked her, mid-dance, if she'd like to be WordGirl. "I want to be Tobey."

Tobey is a WordGirl villain, a 10-year-old boy who creates robots. While Tobey secretly has a crush on WordGirl, MJ not-so-secretly has a crush on Tobey. She goes for the geeky types. (Like mother, like daughter.)

"OK," I replied, "but let's do the WordGirl thing instead. What do you say?"

"Nah," she said, "I want to be Tobey."

Foiled! As obscure as WordGirl is (I can already see folks opening their doors on Halloween and saying things like, "Oh look! It's ... Supergirl?"), making a Tobey outfit seem interesting would be even more difficult. What does a geek wear, other than Star Wars T-shirts and cargo pants from Old Navy? Besides, Becky Botsford has a pet monkey named Bob, and when Becky becomes WordGirl, Bob becomes Captain Huggy Face, a loyal sidekick who can't fly, can't talk and wears a beanie with what looks like a doorstop affixed on top. I desperately wanted Little L to be Captain Huggy Face to MJ's WordGirl.

Not that this is about me, of course.

I knew that if I secured just the right pair of red boots to complete a WordGirl outfit, MJ would agree that it was the coolest idea ever. She would be so on board with WordGirl, I would find her reading the dictionary in quiet corners of our home while wearing her costume, brushing up on words like "discombobulated" and "hullabaloo" in preparation for the big night. (And, unwittingly, for the SAT!) Instead of "trick or treat?", when those doors flew open she would say, "ruse or indulgence?"

And oh -- the day the red rainboots/WordGirl boots arrived on our doorstep via Amazon was a marvelous one indeed. She painted in the boots. She sat on the couch and talked to the boots. She ate lunch with the boots -- and by that, I mean that the boots sat in one seat and she sat in another. When "WordGirl" came on later in the day, she danced like she'd never danced before, in her boots. When Randy came home from work, she proudly pointed to her feet and said, "Look Daddy, these are my WordGirl costume."

Just like Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy, I love it when a plan comes together -- even if MJ didn't ask for Merriam-Webster as a bedtime story. In fact, when we checked on her after she'd fallen asleep that night, she proved that she's still very much a 3-year-old girl and not a budding college student. There she was, all tucked in tight, hugging her dolly, a sippy cup of water ... and her WordGirl boots. Because you never know when Tobey might strike.

Beth appears Tuesdays on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Beth at MotherBunker.