Words

Words. We are not in shortage of them. Ever. It's so hard for me to  keep up with the things that blow or boggle my mind each day. But, here are a few from the last couple of weeks.

J:

The theme with my first born of late is reminding me that I am the bane of her existence. If I am already hearing some of the following at age 7, I shudder to think of what I will hear at 17...


-"I'm sick of my life! I just want to be a grown up so you don't boss me around!"

-"Mom, you drive me absolutely nuts!"

-"You are ruining my life! You never let me do anything!" This one was said as I politely told her 'we will check with Dad' about going to movie night at school this weekend when she brought it up. My little drama queen promptly and emphatically sighed as she removed her shoes in the mudroom, shouted the above phrases, and threw a shoe AT HER MOTHER. Wanna guess if we are going to that movie night??? You can bet your buttons that we are not.

-After telling Jillian that "no, you cannot lock the playroom door and turn the lights off when there are 4 other kids in there playing with you, she retorted "Is no the only word you know?!?!" I honestly wish I had been witty and quick enough to respond with "No, but it's my favorite word!" Instead, my jaw was on the floor.

-We've been listening to  a CD from a concert she and I attended last weekend. One of the songs is called "Snowstorm" and the gist of it is that sometimes life is hard--when it rains, it pours...and well when you're in a snowstorm that's just even harder. Jillian asked me to play the song as we drove home from basketball practice. About halfway through the song she piped up, "Mom, I feel like my life is a snowstorm. This song just perfectly describes my bad day today." I think it's safe to say she understands metaphors.


A:

My second born is all about speaking her mind in a different way. Sometimes she is so honest and direct that we can't help but laugh.


-The girls are kind of obsessed with "Bean Boozled". These are the little packs of Jelly Bellies that have two flavors for one color--one is gross and the other is good. For example, one green one is lime, and the other is grass. One of the jelly beans happens to be 'booger' flavored. Matt was in the car with the girls as they were chatting and debating which ones they were brave enough to try and Jillian wondered aloud what the booger jelly beans could possibly taste like. Adrienne said, "I eat boogers all the time. They don't taste like anything!"

-One recent Friday night we met Matt downtown for dinner. As the girls and I were driving home, we drove past Hy-Vee. Adrienne noticed all the cars in the parking lot, and was flabbergasted "Mom! What in the world are those cars doing at Hy Vee at  night?" I told her that the people needed groceries, and she scolded the shoppers--"They should really get their shopping done in the morning!"

-On another day where Matt was driving the girls somewhere, Jillian said or did something that exasperated Adrienne (can't recall the details, but they are not important). Matt said he heard Adrienne sigh and quietly mutter, "I am so tired of you, Jillian."

-Driving home from practice we ended up following a white CR-V. Jillian said, "Oh, that must be Dad". Before I could remind her that Matt was at work and so that couldn't be him, Adrienne said "Um no, Jillian. That's not Dad's car. Dad's car has black handles on the door and those are white." And she was right.

-Adrienne is a lover of smells. She comments on scents everywhere we go, she deeply inhales any shampoo or hair product I use on her and sighs with joy. If you take her to a public restroom the very first thing she does after pumping the soap into her hand is to bring her hands to her face and sniff the soap. For the record, she thinks the soap in Newt's bathroom is the best. Anyway, as the girls were getting into the chair to read Harry Potter with Matt, he looked over at Adrienne and noticed her cheeks were shiny and that she was very fragrant. He asked her if she had rubbed soap all over her face, to which she replied "Of course I did!"


And this last little convo was a team effort of notability. As we drove away from the pickup line after school last week, Adrienne noticed the flag at half mast and asked "Mom, why is the flag halfway down?" (We have talked about reasons for this before, so that wasn't an odd question). I told her I really didn't know. Then she said, "I bet they are still killing people." I was kind of dumbfounded and so I asked her what she meant. Jillian got it, and said, "You know, Mom, that thing that happened in France or wherever. They really should be over that by now."

You just can't make this stuff up, folks.