Odds and Ends from the Week

Monday
We often listen to the audiobook Babar while in the car. (My idol Meryl Streep is the narrator...good call, Gigi and PawPaw. A gift that makes Mommy AND the kiddies happy.) Emma loves the story and music, but she always covers her ears during the "scary part" when a hunter kills Babar's mother. Of course, upon first hearing the tale, she asked WHY the hunter kills Babar's mother. I tried to present all the hunter's possible motives as neutrally and thoroughly as possible instead of following my gut and screaming, "Because the hunter is EVIL!" at the top of my lungs. So today, apropo of nothing (as usual), Emma announces that she wants to be a hunter when she grows up. Surprised, I inquire as to why. She explains, "Because if I'm the hunter then I can kill other hunters before they try to kill me." This kid is wayyyyyy too smart for her own good.

Tuesday
Sophie has a crush. Her first boy crush! At the gym nursery, she keeps following around a cute little blond fella named Nicholas. Apparently, she never leaves his side. When I ask Nicholas if he likes having a shadow, he very politely replies, "No, I don't. Please take her away now. Thank you."

Wednesday
Emma is excited to show Sophie and me how far she can climb on the monkey bars, so we stop by a local playground. However, when faced with the actual deed, performance anxiety sets in. Emma pushes off the ladder, dangles from the first bar by both arms for about 4 seconds, and then screams, "Help me, I'm going to fall! Hurry hurry hurry or I'm going to DIE!"

Thursday
Yes, the below photo is a beautific shot of my two precious terrors. But there's another reason I am posting it. Check out the youngest's left leg.
She took quite a spill on the sidewalk earlier in the day and now has ugly scratches all up and down her shin. Sadly, this state of distress is pretty standard for Sophie lately. If you try to carry her, even for a second, she loudly demands, "Down! Walk!" But she doesn't walk. She runs...and falls down approximately 15 times a day. Hence, her knees are taking quite a beating and Neosporin is making a lot of money off the Mathews family.

Friday
When I went to retrieve the girls at the gym nursery after my spinning class, all the teachers started giggling at the sight of me. For no reason. I was perplexed, to say the least. Finally one of them takes me aside, out of earshot of the kids, and tells me that earlier Emma started crying because her bracelet got caught on the hairs of her arm. While a teacher tried to undo the bracelet as gently as possible, Sophie started shouting "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!" over and over again until Emma stopped crying, at which point Sophie patted Emma's arm and said, "All better." The teachers thought this was hilarious. I also thought this was hilarious, although I was blown away by Sophie's language. Where would she get that from? Chris and I are both so careful, and I've never heard her utter anything remotely like that word. The final piece of the puzzle hit me on the way home when Sophie fell down (yet again), skinning her knee and announcing her new boo-boo. She was saying "Ouchie" when Emma hurt herself, and the teachers were right - when she says this word, it DOES sound a lot like "Oh shit." I'm relieved that my daughter doesn't yet have a potty mouth, but I don't think I'll tell the teachers the truth. It brought them such joy to hear Sophie supposedly swearing like a sailor.