“I have no idea where she learned that word,” the mother says innocently

At dinner one night, we had potatoes and various vegetables with our meal. Seeing the proximity in color between the potatoes and cauliflower made me remember the time when my husband was heating up some left over mashed potatoes. Much to his chagrin while eating them, he discovered a rogue piece of cauliflower amongst his spuds, masterly disguising itself as a fellow tuber.

When I reminded him of that incident, my eight-year-old daughter said, “And when you found it, did you say,

Uh…. Come again?

“That shirt is too small for you now. Put it in your little sister’s drawer,” I told my oldest daughter. A few hours later, younger sister discovered the “new” shirt and came into the kitchen, literally strutting, hips gliding side to side, and one hand poised delicately on her hip, much to the amusement of her parents. (Where does she learn these things?) Clearly, she was proud to own the shirt, and I am thankful that my children have yet to hear the fallacy that there is something wrong or abhorrent with hand-me-downs.

Sadly, the moment had passed by the time I got the camera ready. You can tell her smile is more forced now, but her original regal countenance was almost too much!

In other news, I said something yesterday about one of the girls hording something–toy princesses most likely. Ever interested in expanding her vocabulary, today my eldest complained that the youngest was

The bird flies at midnight

Post Honey Bunches of Oats with Pecan Bunches (Photo credit: theimpulsivebuy)

We have cold cereal for breakfast almost every morning. The names of the different brands of cereal have gotten lost in toddler translation. One of our three-year-old’s favorites is “Honey Bunches of Oats”, but when we ask her what she’d like to eat she says:

A new book! And a few thank yous….

My mom wrote a book about her father who sailed around the world by himself, as an old man, and his many adventures, including being captured at gunpoint in Panama and having a huge parade at his arrival in Japan. (The mayor was there. Even the school kids got the day off to celebrate him!) It’s at amazon, and it’s very interesting and well-written. If you like travel, please check it out.

Also, I’m not generally very good at the award thing, but now that a few have stacked up, it’s time.

I received the Very Inspiring Blogger Award from makingitthroughmonday, who, it appears, has since deleted her blog. Talk about irony! I hope my lapse in acknowledging her award isn’t what caused her to give it up on Sunday.

The excitement we had at church on Sunday

My husband is so lucky that we only have girls. Whenever we’re out someplace public like the zoo, Legoland, a grocery store, or church, and a child has to go to the bathroom, it’s automatically the female parent who has to take her. Yeah for me.

This especially came in handy (for my husband) at church Sunday when one child announced, never quietly, that she needed to pee. Of course, we always make them go before we leave home, but as she is relatively new to the potty trained world, I wasn’t taking my chances on her sincerity,  ploy to avoid some pew time or not.

When we left the bathroom, she swiftly yanked her arm away from me so she could run to the back of the church, make a U-turn around the end of the row of pews, and stream back down the center aisle to our seats near the front. Awesome.

And of course, I had barely gotten back to my place when

Lord, let me blend in with the wall!

St. Peter’s Basilica at Early Morning (Photo credit: Wikipedia) P.S. This wasn’t the church I was at!

When my youngest was born, she made her first church appearance just a few days later. Being understandably tired, we didn’t make it to our usual Mass, but went to an 11:00 a.m. at a church I’m not as familiar with. The baby slept wonderfully through Mass until just before the end. When she began to cry, I picked her up and looked around for a private hidey-hole in which to discreetly feed her. Then I spotted a folding  chair in a dark corner, far from any people. Perfect!

A minute later, Mass was over and I soon discovered a crucial architectural structure that I had previously overlooked:

As heard in a Kindergarten classroom, part 8

princess (Photo credit: hudsonthego)

One of my students enlisted me one recess to be her “scribe.” “Sit down, and write what I say.” I pretended to pull out a scroll, as the girl gazed off in the distance, pondering the correct wording for the message to her mother. Obviously having been enlightened, she turned to me, pointed a finger at the pretend scroll, motioning for me to write, and said, “Dear Mother,” she began,

You just keep thinking that, kiddo

Princess bed (Photo credit: esc.ape(d))

 

“Mom, kids run faster than grown ups,” my five-year-old daughter announced to me.

 

“I don’t think that’s true,” I replied.

 

“It is true because at bed time, I tell Daddy, ‘Whoever gets to my room first gets to get in my bed,’ and

I think I’ll walk down a different aisle.

I’ll take the stripey ones on bottom, if you don’t mind.

My daughter was helping me shop for a wedding present. The bride had registered at Kohl’s and I had a copy of her registry. I decided to buy a sheet set. When we got to the linen section, I handed the list to my daughter.

“Just read off the first few letters of the merchandise number,” I told her, “so I can find the right sheets.” I started down the sheet aisle. Behind me my daughter called out in a clear, loud voice, over and over,

Where do they come up with this stuff?

I told my oldest to get off the card table for fear she would bend it “out of shape.” Then the five-year-old looked at me quizzically and asked, “You mean, like a circle?”

In the bathtub tonight this same daughter was playing with a toy horse and had this to say about it: “This horse’s name is Rainbow. People don’t ride it, though, because it leaves a