I love your argues

Recently Lydia and I were teasingly arguing.  I was being mock-frustrated with her and she was giving it right back to me.  Anne was standing there, looking back and forth between us as we did this.  We looked over at her and she giggled with a big huge grin on her face. "I love your argues," she said.

I asked her "Why?" - she said, "It's because you love each other."

I replied, "Right - and we enjoy teasing each other - you know we're playing, right?"

Anne responded, "Yeah."

Things overheard while cleaning

Overheard yesterday while Anne was cleaning the bathroom

and I unbutton my jeans while doing my school
I’m sittin’ at my desk and I’m so comfortable

you should get a car that has seat belts
they will keep you safe
oh yes, ham and avacado will keep you safe
oh yes it’s so good

now she’s switched to singing the same spanish word
over
and over
and over

nueva

oh yes I like it
oh yes I like it
oh yes I like it
and you better too
or else I’ll flick ya in the eye

Where does she get her violent streak? (I'm blaming Lydia)

Conspiratorial Glances

This has been happening for at least a year now, but whenever her brother, cousins, extended family, friends, and even complete and total strangers do things, say things, or are dressed oddly or inappropriately, we get

The Glance

Where Lydia and I would just glance at each other, Anne gives us

The Glance

Sometimes it is is accompanied with a mouth click. "Tsk" - Glance

There are many different glances that are all categorized under this title.
There's the "my brother is doing something really funny but naughty at the same time so I'm not going to laugh out loud, but I want my mom and dad to know that I know that it's funny - glance." This one is sometimes preceded by the quiet "Dad|Mom, look at me." We look, we see "The Glance"

There is the "Look at the way that kid is behaving" glance. Which is a completely serious look that says, "No way would I get away with acting like that"

There is the "That person is wearing a (short|skimpy|tight|immodest|gross) outfit" glance. Lydia has a near 100% success rate at predicting this glance. She notices the outfit and looks at Anne right as Anne turns her eyes from the offending outfit to Lydia to make sure that she can execute "The Glance" - this one is accompanied by a slightly raised eyebrow.

The glances we see on a daily basis are as varied and diverse as life itself. You can make your own. Just add a kid, with a sense of morality, humor, irony, and a whole lot of legalism and out comes "The Glance"

Once removed from the situation, "The Glance" is resolved either through a group laugh, an explanation, or a reprimand to be more understanding/forgiving of the way other people live.

I've been a-salted with a question

We were at Whole Foods Market yesterday. Anne and Lydia were in the seasonings aisle - Lydia was looking for salt.

Sea Salt.

Celtic Sea Salt
$5.99 a pound Celtic Sea Salt (health benefits and all...)

Lydia, being the fantastic home school mom was telling Anne all about sea salt.

Anne asked, "Does all salt come from the sea?" She paused, then in typical kid fashion, asked another question before waiting for the first to be answered, "Does the sea make pepper too?"

Lydia told her, "No." and before she could answer those two questions, Anne began "peppering" her with more questions about the origins of all spices in the aisle.

"Does the sea make anything else?"
"Like... are all the things on this shelf from the sea?"

First grade will be fun. No, seriously.

Two highway patrol cars: Double the ticketing fun

So we were on the highway the other day, coming home from Grandpa's birthday party when we saw two patrol cars in the median of the highway. They were facing different directions - driver's door to driver's door.

We were coming up on a speed zone and I told Lydia to make sure she watched her speed and pointed the patrol cars out to her.

Anne, ever curious Annie, said, "Huh... There's two of 'em. What are they doin?"

Lydia said, "I don't know, probably talking."

Anne agreed, "Yeah, they're probably giving each other tickets."

Then followed many giggles from the back seat as she enjoyed her own funny little joke.
Or maybe it was because Lydia and I were laughing...
Or maybe it was because the idea of two policemen writing each other tickets tickled her funny bone.

There was a reference to "pulling you down" - her way of describing being pulled over, or being stopped for a ticket.

What to do in case of fire

Talking about what to do if the house were on fire... we just got a new alarm system with fire and smoke detectors...

"I would look both ways and then go to suzy's house and use their phone - 'cause I know Nanna's number."

"If you were to die I would grab your cell phones and the cordless so at least we wouldn't waste phones."

She's such a Wii addict that if she were to take the cell phones, she would probably call her aunt and uncle so she could play video games the rest of her life. Wii boxing and bowling!!! Yeah!!!

She has told us that's where she wants to go if we die (yes we do discuss it, but rarely).

"Jumping out a window would be a really good idea... I would just find something to bash it with."