Miss Manners (x 2)

A recent dinner conversation at 9 Park Lane:

Margot:   "Mom, this soup smells really good.  I think it is going to be delicious."
Me:  "'Margot, thanks - that's very nice of you to say."
Margot:  "I know.  I'm keeping all of the rude comments inside my head."
Claire (not to be outdone):  "Mom?  I wanted to tell you that the biscuits are my favorite part of this dinner."
Me:  "Thanks, Claire.  I"m glad you like them."
Claire:  "Well, actually they're the only thing that I do like.  Everything else is pretty bad."

The Meaning of Christmas, Part II

Claire was recently reviewing one of her favorite publications, the Drs. Foster & Smith catalog, searching for Christmas gifts for Ollie and Hugo.  She shouted out the options ("Oh, look!  A turkey leg rawhide bone! They would love that.") until she found the perfect choice.

Claire:  "Hey, Margot.  If we put our allowance together, we can get Ollie and Hugo a giant hickory smoked bone for Christmas!!
Margot:  "What?  I don't want to use my allowance for that!"
Claire:  "Why not?  They would love it."
Margot:  "Because.  I want to use it to buy things for myself."
Claire:  "Well, Margot, then I guess you will never really know the meaning of Christmas."

I Knew That

Claire:   "Mom, do you know what 'ch' is?
Me:  "'Ch'?  Like the letters?"
Claire:  "Yes."
Me:  "What?"
Claire:  "A consonant digraph."
Me:  "Of course."

The Power of the President

Jane:  "Mama?  I think I'm going to ask someone to turn me into a baby wolf.
Me:  "Hmmm."
Jane:  "And, I'm going to ask him to turn you into a mama wolf."
Me:  "Really?  Who are you going to ask to do this?"
Jane:  "Barack Obama."

The Meaning of Christmas

Tonight we were discussing the importance of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  Margot's take?  "Christmas really is about giving thanks to Santa."

This, of course, simply confirms her previously-expressed view of Santa as a deity.

Talk Talk Talking . . .

Tonight Margot was asked to go play quietly while Lindsay, our super-nanny, put Jane to bed.  A few minutes later, Margot appeared in the doorway and announced that she could not, in fact, play by herself.   The conversation went something like this:

Margot:  “Lindsay, I can’t play by myself.”
Lindsay:  “Why not?”
Margot:  “It’s just to much work making different voices and pretending to be different people.  I can only be, like, four people at once – but after a few minutes I'm tired of playing those people.  And . . .I can only make about two voices, so even if I pretend to be a ton of people, I know that I’m not, because I hear my voice every time.   Ugh.  It’s sooooo boring!”
[pause]
Margot (turning away):  “Okay, I’m going back to my room.”
Polly Pocket doll:  “Me, too!”
Margot:  “See??  Same voice as mine.  So frustrating.”

Query whether this indicates a weakening of the Chatterbox's talking-based superpower?

Violent Tendencies, Part III

On Sunday afternoon, Don informed Jane that she would be taking a nap once we returned home from the playground.  This news was met with a sort of cold fury, during which Jane informed her father that, should he try to make her nap, she would - and I quote - "send you to Kevin.  With Charlotte."

Ay yi yi.

Lupine Adventures in Etymology

We just finished reading Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban, in which Professor Remus Lupin is discovered to be a werewolf.  This led to a brief discussion of how the word "lupine" means "wolf-like."  Claire, lover of words that she is, was thoroughly impressed.  This morning, Don asked me whether Claire had told me what she'd figured out about Professor Lupin's name.  I reminded him that we'd already talked about it, at which point Claire interrupted by saying, "Not his last name - his first name.  It's Remus, like Remus and Romulus, the twins who were raised by a wolf."

On the off chance that you're not totally up to speed on your Roman mythology, that would be the Remus and Romulus who were twin sons of the god Mars.  You'll no doubt recall that a servant was instructed to murder them but was unable to do so, and instead sent them floating down the River Tiber in a basket.  They were eventually found, and nursed, by a wolf.

For what it's worth, there is, apparently, a theory that the wolf was either a fox-goddess or a courtesan (both words apparently deriving from the Latin Lupa), and not actually a wolf at all. . . but I'm pretty sure Claire doesn't know about that debate.  Probably because she hasn't discovered Wikipedia yet.

Motherly Love

Yesterday Jane told me that she wished she were the mommy, and I were a "kid Jane."  When I asked her why, she said, "Because I love you so much, I wish I was your mommy."

Which makes me feel like maybe I am actually doing something right with this motherhood gig.

Quote of the Day

On the walk to school today, Claire, Margot, and I were discussing how our individual qualities might translate into superpowers.  She made this incredibly accurate observation:  "Margot's superpower would be to talk and talk and talk for an incredibly long time without stopping."  Margot cheerfully agreed that this was, in fact, her superpower.