Family Ties

As walking Julia to camp each day has become our routine, Madeleine is beginning to overcome her fear of the tall, tall trees in the wooded path we cut through (even commenting to me today: "Mommy, there's nothing scary in the woods.  It's just berry byooiful!")  While she still refers to the wooded area in an ominous way (for instance, "Are we going to walk through the DEEP, DARK woods?", or "Mommy, is that the opening of a CAVE?"), she generally feels secure enough to trot along next to me and carry on a conversation, rather than clutch me for dear life the whole time.  Yesterday, we discussed our family members:

ME: Madeleine, are you my darling?
MADELEINE: Yes.  Uh... no, I'm your DAUGHTER.
ME: But are you my darling daughter?
MADELEINE: No, I'm just your regular daughter.
ME: That's right, you are my daughter.  Am I your daughter?
MADELEINE: No, you're my MOTHER!
ME: And what is Daddy?
MADELEINE: Uh, he's my... he's my... he's my...
ME: Father.
MADELEINE: Yeah, he's my FATHER.
ME: And do you know who your grandmother is?
MADELEINE: Uh... I don't know who it is.
ME: Well, you have two grandmothers.  One grandmother is Nana, and the other one is Yiayia.
MADELEINE: Yeah, and Gramps!
ME: No, Gramps is your grandFATHER.
MADELEINE: (delightedly) Yeah!   Just like Daddy is my grandfather!
ME: Daddy is your father.
MADELEINE: Oh, yeah.  He's my father.
ME: And who are your aunts?
MADELEINE: Uh, Shannon and Caitlyn.
ME: And who are your uncles?
MADELEINE: Uh, I don't know who that is.
(So much for the days of EVERYONE being Uncle Mike...)
ME: Uncle Mike and Uncle Dave are your uncles.  And who are your cousins?
MADELEINE: Uh, I don't know who it is.
ME: Dashiell and Emily are your cousins.
MADELEINE: Yeah!  And Uncle Mike and Dashiell and Aunt Kathleen don't live at OUR house!
ME: That's right.  They live in California.
MADELEINE: (gleefully) Just like WE go to California.
(No, we don't.  Not since either kid was born, at least.)
ME: And we live in Massachusetts.
MADELEINE: Yeah, we live in Massachusetts.  Uh, no, Mommy, we live in VERMONT.
ME: Nana and Gramps live in Vermont.  And Yiayia lives in Connecticut.
MADELEINE: Yeah!  Just like JULIA lives in Connecticut!

At that point I gave up.