overheard while the girls played outside

Sylvie: I want to pretend to be a dog.  What's my name?

Caroline: You are Amanda the dog.

Sylvie: Yep, I'm Amanda the dog.  What are you?

Caroline: I'm Nicole the fox, and digging is my passion.

junior skeptic

A small business owner's card was on my desk.  Caroline picked it up.

"What's this?" she asked.

I told her it was a business card.

"Carl L. Smith, huh?  Carl L. Smith, PRESIDENT?"

I nodded.

"So he's portraying Barack Obama and thinks anyone will believe him?  Yeah right!"

we'll call it "rose eye"

Mama: Caroline!  How did you get pink eye?
Caroline: It's probably because I pick my nose.
Mama: Whaaat?!
Caroline: Like you didn't know...

...

Caroline: Sylvie, you have to get away from me.
Sylvie: Noooo, I want to be with you!
Caroline: Do you want to catch this disease?  

the voice of experience

One of Sylvie's friends at the preschool has been putting little heart notes into her paper cubby the past couple days.  He is older than Syl, so he is able to write inscriptions and make little envelopes... he puts a lot of effort into them. 

While Caroline was doing her homework, Sylvie was playing with the most recent note from her friend.  Caroline asked what she had, and I said that Sylvie had been getting sweet notes from a little boy in her class.

Caroline sighed and said, "Aaaah.  I can't believe that my little sister is already learning about romance.  They really do grow up so fast these days."

run of the mill snow day play

School is canceled today, so the girls are playing together this morning.  They're playing with stuffed dogs and a change counter.  I overheard Caroline, in the voice of Rosa the weiner dog, say, "Here in Puppyland, our tax rates are very affordable.  Here is 20 cents you may borrow to pay your taxes.  It keeps you legal."

monsanto is already on it, dude

A lovely suppertime discussion...

"Mom, wouldn't it be great if meatloaf grew on plants so that we didn't have to kill all those animals for this delicious dinner?"

only from the butcher's weekly flyer

While turning the pages of a cookbook, she looked up and asked, "Do you suppose dogs get paper cuts?"

the cats are considering a restraining order

Yesterday, Caroline's teacher sent home all the finished pieces from their first grade writing workshop activities thus far.  There were 13 works, some multiple pages, some just a single page.  12 were about cats/our cats.  That last 1?  It was about writer's block.

The best lines:

"PD is soooo hyper.  PD! She runs like a rat... and pounces to the moon."

"One day, Jane scratched me and her hiss flew like sound waves.  Well, I am alive."

"Take a look at the shimmery-eyed cat.  Cute, huh?"

"PD was probably bummed out."

and my very favorite...

"Sylvie and the cats have a growing relationship."

being thankful

At her Marmy's house for Thanksgiving, Caroline decided on her own that we needed decorations for the tables.  So she made little flower shaped papers and wrote things for which we should be thankful, along with illustrations for the illiterate.

They were:

Be thankful for all your toys.  [illustration: Nesty the dog]
Be thankful for the people you meet. [illustration: a friendly "visitor"]
Be thankful for the things you love.  [illustration: numbers]
Be thankful for your pets.  [illustration: pets]
Be thankful for your siblings.  [illustration: herself]

I read them all and was getting carried away on that wave of "awwwww," especially on the siblings tip; and then I heard the sound of two little girls shrieking and Caroline squawking, "Get her away from my stuff before she messes it up!!!!!"

Ah yes, just as the original Thanksgiving went.

truth

Caroline was carrying around her beloved kitten Jane.  They were going down the stairs when I heard Caroline admonish her, "Oh Jane, we do not lick our mothers on the face.  It's not polite.  No face licking.  I know, it's a hard lesson to learn.  I've been there."