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We don't talk that much about politics with the girls, but it seems to get through anyway.
For example, right after the midterm elections Marley asked if Barack Obama would still get to live in the White House.
A few weeks later, the topic of the First Lady came up and Beth asked Marley if she knew the name of the President's wife.
"Yes," she proudly said. "It's Mrs. Barack Obama!"
The feminist movement still has a way to go, I'm afraid.
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Speaking of politics, I don't know how we did it, but we've somehow raised Hayden into becoming the only Republican on the Upper West Side. (On fiscal policy, that is. She's very kind and charitable with her time and affections.)
Once we walked by a homeless person asking for money and Hayden asked what he would give in exchange for the money.
"Nothing," Beth says. "He's just unfortunate and needs help."
Hayden thought for a second and said, "Well, that doesn't sound like a very good deal for us at all."
In fairness, Hayden is also tough on corporate recipients of money. She's very fascinated with Beth's job, which Beth explains to her as giving money to companies to help them grow and then sometimes getting as much as 2 to 3 times as much money back and sometimes no money at all.
Hayden observed: "Doesn't sound like a very good deal for you, Mommy."
Note to self: don't borrow money from Hayden.
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Marley yells just about everything she says and one day at the diner she yelled out "I need to go to the potty!"
I told her that I would take her, but she yelled back "No! I want Mommy to take me!"
On the way to the bathroom, Marley had the following exchange with Beth:
B: "Did you want me to take you because you wanted to go to the Ladies Room?"
M: "But I'm not a lady!"
B: "Well, you are a young lady."
M: [thinking for a minute] "And you're an old lady!"
So cute, but so cruel sometimes.
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We were watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade (on TV) and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid balloon came on the screen.
"I'll bet that balloon needs to poop all the time," Hayden said.
"Why?" I asked.
"'Cause you know diary, like diarrhea . . ."
She may be onto something there.
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Because our girls are so precocious, we sometimes let them watch programs that, ahem, older children usually watch. For example, we have let them watch Grease a few times.
In addition to Marley cruelly forbidding Beth from singing or dancing along to Greased Lightning, there has been another unpleasant side effect: Marley keeps saying "Eh, fangul!" like Rizzo (Stockard Channing) does during the Sandra Dee song.
I really hope we don't hear from the other preschool parents about this one.
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I'm happy to say that Hayden really appreciates Beth's skills and accomplishments as a do-it-all modern woman.
One time, Hayden was watching Beth folding laundry and asked "Why are you always doing laundry and Daddy never does it?" (There are good reasons that are too detailed to go into here, but I digress.)
Beth answered, "Well, this is something that I do around the house and Daddy does other things."
Hayden shot back, "Like what? Tell funny jokes?"
And just tonight Hayden was lying in bed and called Beth into her room:
H: "What are you doing Mommy?"
B: "I'm writing Paul (Beth's longtime work colleague) an email."
H: "About what?"
B: "He thinks I may have made a mistake in the math I calculated on the computer."
H: "What were you calculating?"
B: "Every few months I see how much money that the companies I give money to are making. I do some of the math on the computer and then I tell Paul about it."
H: [thinking for a moment] "So you do all the work?"
I'm pretty sure Beth is going to hire Hayden to represent her in any future negotiations.
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Finally, the name of Marley's preschool is Morningside Montessori. One day, Marley was feeling sick and had to stay home with our babysitter Sandra. I asked her if she was attending "Sandra school" that day.
"Yep," she answered right away. "Today I'm going to Morningside Monte-sandra!"
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