Conversations

Last night's bedtime conversation, in which Madeleine assumes I can read her mind.

MADELEINE: Mom?  What can you cut out?
ME: What do you mean?
MADELEINE: Mom!  Can you just TELL me?
ME: Tell you what?
MADELEINE: What can you cut out?
ME: Uh...what can who cut out?
MADELEINE: (growing increasingly frustrated and impatient) No, Mom!  Please can you just TELL me?
ME: Okay.  I'm just not sure what it is you're asking me.  Can you give me more information?
MADELEINE: MOM!  Can you TELL me!?
ME: Can you tell me more about what you're asking?
MADELEINE: What can you cut out?
ME: Um.  What can WHO cut out?
MADELEINE: (on the verge of freaking out) Please Mom can you just TELL ME!
ME: Okay.  Do you mean like how the doctors cut you out of my tummy?
MADELEINE: (thoroughly done with my stupidity) Mooom.  When I was a baby, I thought you could cut out SNOW, but you can't cut out snow.  But you CAN cut out PAPER.

I still don't get it.

Today, Madeleine and I had a conversation of a different sort:

MADELEINE: Mom, you're my DUDE!
ME: I'm you're dude?
MADELEINE: Yeah.  And you have to do TWO points! (holding her fingers like this):

I have no idea where she even got that from.  I even asked Julia, and she claims it didn't come from her.  Who knew my three-year-old was going to be teaching ME surfer dude hand gestures?!?

Finally, we survived No Tv Tosday yesterday, and despite our VERY CLEAR label on the television, Julia was worried that if we didn't take it off, we might think we couldn't watch tv again today.

JULIA: (before heading up to bed) Mama!  Don't you think we better take off our "No tv" label before we go to bed?  Because...what if, like, when we wake up in the morning, we STILL think we can't watch tv?
ME: Julia.  Do you think there's even a remote chance you won't remember you CAN watch tv when you wake up?
JULIA: (sheepishly) Uhh...NO.

Nonetheless, we removed the sign, *just* in case anybody got mixed up and thought that Tosday really means Wednesday.

Madeleine, for her part, stopped wishing for the end of the world, and asked me last night after her bedtime story, "Mom?  When is it gonna be the day that we turn the TV back ON?"

That was a little easier for me to answer with certainty than predicting the end of the world.

All right, gnarly readers, I'm gonna hit the surf.  Later, dudes!

I am SO cool.