Category: she said

The eldest mermaid has seemed to bypass many of the malapropisms that commonly accompany anyone learning a language.
Today she proved there are more out there.

While playing Polly Pockets today she described to me that a yellow haired Polly Pocket was indeed Snow White.

She just wants these other clothes on even though she doesn’t have black hair…she just dialed it golden.”

Later, as she often does, Abby was re-enacting parts of a movie with the younger mermaid. This time it was Aquamarine (what else but a mermaid movie.) There is a scene in which the protagonist is told that in order to get the male love interests attention she should make him feel good about himself (fluff his ego) and then leave (retreat). He is SURE to follow after that.

Emma! Just fluff and retreat.
[pause]
Fluff and retreat.
[another shorter pause]
Flufficito and retreat

I wasn’t aware that she was learning Spanish at all.

BopOp showed me many tricks when I was younger.

Two that I remember are word tricks and they go like this.

Say “S-H-O-P” 5 times fast.
S-H-O-P S-H-O-P S-H-O-P S-H-O-P S-H-O-P
Quick! What do you do at a green light?

The answer to this question depends on how closely you are paying attention and also, I think, whether you can spell. 4 year olds (at least in my experience) always say “Go”. They tend not to be tricked in this way.

With no success there, I went to my other standby.

Say ‘joke’ 5 times fast.
joke joke joke joke joke
Quick! What’s the white part of an egg?

I am pretty sure, in fact I KNOW that my 4 year old mermaid isn’t going to answer ‘albumen’ so I figured she would naturally answer ‘yolk’ as any victim might. But she did me one better, without so much as a pause she shouted

SHELL!

…which pretty much means the yolk is on me.

After a fun evening with friends at The Big Picture and some good conversation Angela and I were making the evening rounds. Tucking in and covering up little sleeping girls, who likewise had enjoyed an evening with Monya and BopOp, Angela “turned” a crooked, slept-on arm. Abby reacted to the stimulus by clearly asking,

Do you have another surprise for me?

Then looking at Angela with a big beaming smile, she brushed her hair aside, smiled again and fell back into her pillow, deeply asleep.

A quaint bookend to an enjoyable evening.

Today I have a special guest quote but first Abby’s:

While watching Spider-Man with the cousins the villain had just fallen out of a high window and Abby chimed in from the proverbial P’Nut Gallery with a chuckle;

Heh, bye-bye bad guy.

And that same night, her oldest cousin had a tooth ready to come out but before he bravely extracted the hanger-on he was notably concerned about the details of his bedtime routine;

Do I have to brush the loose tooth?

CORRECTION: Abby’s oldest paternal cousin is referenced here. There are three maternal cousins all of whom older than he-of-the-loose-tooth. In fact, there are TWO oldest cousins. Hmmm, how can that be?

Abby has an itchy part on her leg. Nevermind the obvious observation that she has some form of eczema.
She was in a hot bath and it was tingling painfully.
After quite a few minutes she announced loudly

DADDY!
Yes
My leg is all the way under the water and it doesn’t tingle any more.
Great.
Yeah. Not even one ting.

Let’s play guess the phrase shall we?

These are all things that Abby has said in the past 6 months or so. We are lucky to have kept up with them a little bit.

Some of them have been put in a context that makes them relevant to the game we are playing, but by and large this is how we discovered the meaning of these words and phrases.

Let me first take a small diversion with ‘by and large’. This one, if you think about it is much stranger than much of the following. It turns out, as I found on this site, that ‘by and large’ is originally a nautical term meaning to sail “to the wind and off it”, which meant that if you were sailing ‘by and large’ you were able to sail just as well either way, and so is very non-specific. We have scalawags to thank for many of the most confusing expressions in the English language, I think.

BUT I digress.

So Abby, what is…

…the instrument?
Can you use it in a sentence?
I want to decorate the Christmas tree with ALL the instruments.

…chest?
The game!
How do you play chest?
You move the horseys and the ponds and the towers on the chest board.

…that you are smelling?
The pages.
The pages of the book?
Yeah, I like the smell of books.
So you are just sticking your nose in the book and smelling it huh?
Yeah, like Trusty from Lady and the Tramp.
(And that is no kidding. She looked like a cold, overnight, street bum waking up beneath the warm breeze of a bakery window.)

…a munce ago?
How long ago is ‘a munce ago’?
I don’t know…a munce ago!
(Turns out, it is ‘a [few] minutes ago’)

…the hound?
What do you mean ‘at the hound’?
[holding her puppy up to see] You know, we bought the cute puppy at the hound!

…bornd?
And she’s bornd?
No! [with much diction now] WHEN EMMA WAS FIRST BORNED!

…this finger?
This is the pinky, this is the ring finger, this is the middle finger, this is the…Momma!
Yes?
What do you call this finger?
[looking over] Which one honey?
[Showing Momma by pointing and then quickly] The earwax finger!?

Hey it all works, and in many cases more sensible than a scalawag.

Apologies for the wait, just haven’t made the time.

So, to kick things off again let me share a phrase I didn’t think a 4 year old knew, but she is film-wise, fancy free, and 4 years old going on 14.
The other night while putting her to bed, her enthusiasm for thwarting my attempts to get her into her pajamas was evident.

She giggled, moved her foot around, evaded, giggled again.
Pretty soon it was a laugh, but my patience was thin.

Abby?! C’mon now (I wasn’t very convincing)
(giggle, evade, shuffle, giggle)
ABBY! Stop. — (she relents in the face of The Stern) Thank you.

I feel a small pang of remorse at squelching childhood enthusiasm for The Tease, but that dissolved into laughter when, twirling her hair, she shot back,

Ahh, old killjoy.

–Cinderella, 1950

Abby and I talked about what she might say if someone asked her about her birthday, it turned into a good old fashioned interview.

L: What is your name?
A: Abigail.
L: Your whole name?
A: Abigail Elaine Zimmerman, my full name actually.

L: How old are you?
A: Uhhh, Four

L: What is your favorite movie?
A: Dorothy actually.

L: What is your favorite color?
A: Green, Most of all Red, but…and green.

L: Do you like to sing?
A: Yes
L: What?
A: Somewhere Over the Rainbow…sometimes.

L: Do you like to dance?
A: Yes
L: What do you like to dance? What is your favorite?
A: Lullabye League mostly. And, uhhh, Annies movie and Dorothy and Annies tap dance too.

L: Do you have any good friends?
A: Lexis…Lexi and Bella

L: Are you going to have a birthday party?
A: Yes, after I’m four.

L: When are you going to be four?
A: Ahhh, after we sleep!

L: Anything else you want to tell me about yourself?
A: I like pony coloring, the pony stuff at least. Halloween and Snow White dress, and the bugcatcher cage and the crickets.

L: The crickets? What crickets?
A: Mandragora and Carrot that I let go.
L: This summer?
A: No, next…ah…I don’t know when we let them go….and they poop! Ewwwww

L: Ok. 🙂 How tall are you now?
A: [Stands up and shows me]

A: Ask me what favorite clothes?
L: OK, Do you have any favorite clothes?
A: My Snow White dress is mostly it, but my Dorothy dress mostly, Bella’s jacket, Bella’s outfit, Bella’s smell. You know, everything that I get from…I won’t let my Mom wash it because it smells like Bella. I have a pink one.

L: Okay, so tomorrow you are going to be four. Is there anything that you would like to tell three before we stop?
A: My favorite puzzle and my favorite friend is Pooh Bear. And my best laptop is the flower one over there, and I have a purse that matches that too.

L: Thanks honey.
A: OK, you’re welcome.

While laying together falling asleep last night Angela was at the brink with Abby. [It was a long weekend]. After many minutes of arranging Mommy just how she wanted, her last request was a little dictatorial.

NO, Tickle my back here!
Hey, don’t be so bossy.
[raising her head and flicking Angela lightly on the chin with her finger]
YOU don’t be so cranky!

The look she got back can’t be written, it can only be witnessed. Many of you have seen THAT look.
What she then said was…

Do you think that was a good thing or NOT so good thing to do?
[Nobody has accused Abby of being less than observant]
Not so good thing. Sorry Mommy, Sorry.

Shortly thereafter, when it was my turn Abby instructed me that she would like me to lay on my back so we could snuggle. Never one to turn down a good snuggle, I obliged. Whereupon she said:

Momma…ah…Daddy?
Yeah.
You are more comfy than Momma.
[This is news to me, Mommy has ALWAYS been the preferred snuggle]
I am? Why?
Cause your bones aren’t so hard.

So, some small measure of consolation for one previously flicked on the chin.

About 2 weeks ago we were in downtown (near Qwest field) and Abby shouts,

A FLYING POCK!

If any of you have seen the north end of the stadium and the HUGE image of a brown raptor head you will have been witness to the flying pock.