coughs and doggies

Kaia says all of five words, and one of them is "ruff" repeated twice whenever she sees a dog - in picture or person - or hears a dog or sees just about any animal.

This morning Zoey woke up with a croup-like cough (oh, joy for me).

Every time Zoey coughs Kaia runs to her, points excitedly, and says, "Ruff! Ruff!"

Zoey is not amused by this at all. :-)

pretending, right?

We pretend a LOT in our house. Today, we were pretending that I was Dalene - I know, that's such a stretch! - and Zoey was my neighbor, Mrs. Olson, visiting my house. We were in the kitchen during this conversation:

Dalene: I'm so glad you could visit, Mrs. Olson!

Mrs. Olson: Thank you! So, how are you today?

D: I'm doing well. Busy and tired, but well.

MO: So, where are your daughters?

D: Um, Kaia is right here in the kitchen playing...

MO: Oh, yeah, I see her...

D: ...and Zoey is upstairs getting dressed.

Zoey stopped, looked upstairs, and then whispered to me, "Mommy, we're just pretending, right? I'm right here, right?"

Oh, I couldn't stop laughing.

cupcake confusion

While making cupcakes this morning Zoey came in and asked, "Mommy, can I lick the bladders, please?"

M: You mean the beaters?

Z: No, the bladders!

M: Sweetie, a bladder is inside your body and holds your pee-pee.

Z: Oh, then the beaters, please.

mysterious

These days, most of our really great conversations take place in the car. It seems I've neglected to jot them down the past little while. Today, though...

Z: Mommy, I'm drawing lots and lots of pictures for you.

M: Great! I can't wait to see them all.

Z: Well... I am making them all different and mysterious so you won't know what they are.

M: Where did you learn the word mysterious?

Z: Oh, that one? I just made it up. It's a good one, huh?

just plain hysterical

Zoey, as of late, has been having trouble the the s-m combination, and it comes out as an f sound, instead.  For example, the word smile comes out as file. She tries really hard, but just can't quite get that combination.

So, tonight we were driving home from dinner and Zoey says, "Hey, look! It's the car place where daddy's car is being fixed!"

M: Zoey, you are so stinkin' smart!

Z: I am NOT stinkin' fart! I am just fart!

Poor girl. She had no idea why Brian and I couldn't stop laughing.

word rules

We have a lot of rules in our house, and lately, it seems, a lot of the rules revolve around words we can and cannot say and how we can or cannot say them. For example, we can say fine in a nice tone, such as in, "I am doing fine today!" but we cannot say fine when we are frustrated or exasperated. Zoey likes to remind me when I break the rules, too.

This morning Brian said, "That's weird..." when Zoey immediately cut him off and exclaimed, "You can't say that, Daddy!" He didn't know what he had said wrong, so I jumped in to remind Zoey we can say something is weird but not someone. She accepted my explanation and went on playing.

Hours later Zoey came to tell me something, paused to think, sighed, and walked away saying, "Mommy, all those word rules are confusing..."

Poor girl.

that girl makes me smile

Seconds after posting this:

http://zoeysmiles.blogspot.com/2012/01/its-official.html

Zoey came to me and said, "Mommy, thank you so much for washing Baby Maya Tiger. That was SO nice of you. You're the kindliest mommy in the world."

M: Thank you, Zoey.

Z: You are very welcome, Mommy.

And with that, the world seems right again.