Madeline’s been coming up with some good ones lately. As her understanding of English grows and her command of nuance, humour and context improves, she’s beginning to say funnier things. Really young kids say funnys thing purely by accident; now she’s starting to say funny things at least partially on purpose.
So the other day we were at Stupid Sister’s celebrating the second birthday of my beautiful, smart, wonderful little neice (or cousin, to Maddy) Sylvia, and it came to pass that Maddy saw the animatronic triceratops. This thing is huge – it’s as big as Maddy, easily. Apparently it terrifies Sylvia, and is there only because it terrified another child whose parents gave it away to Stupid Sister. But Maddy, being older and enamoured of dinosaurs, loved it, so it got lent to us. It’s currently standing in my living room staring hopefully at the TV. The damned thing is huge. It’s not a toy, it’s furniture; I don’t really have a convenient place for it, so there it sits.
Anyway, while walking Madz to school a few days ago we were taling about the dinosaur, and this conversation ensued:
MADDY: I’d like a real triceratops!
ME: But if you had a real triceratops it would poop everywhere! Who would clean it up?
MADDY: You could!
ME: Oh no. It’s your triceratops. You have to clean up the poop.
MADDY: … it’s OUR triceratops.
Come on, that’s funny. That’s just solid wordplay there, a clever change of pronoun. That’s a smart kid. She’s growing up.
Too fast, though.
Something else she’s recently told me when I walk her to school is that she wants to walk to school all-by-herself. Not with me anymore. All-by-herself. Of course there’s an age when that just can’t happen, and for me apparently that age is 39. I can’t hack letting her do that yet, so I compromised; I said I’d follow her at a distance.
In real life she doesn't look this far away, but she feels a mile away.
My little girl is growing up. It’s wonderful, and so sad because you know it will only happen once. Every day is a joy and every day breaks your heart a little more. My princess, always.
It was a sad day for me when my kids fired me from walking to/from school duties
But, once in a while I sneak in a walk, and they seem to like it.