Trickery

Julia is full of little verbal practical jokes lately, like this one:

JULIA: Madeleine, what's under there?
MADELEINE: Under WHERE?
JULIA: Ha ha!  You said underwear!

And she doesn't allow Madeleine the satisfaction at getting back at her.

MADELEINE: Julia?  What's under there?
JULIA: Under WHAT?
MADELEINE: No!  JULIA!  You're supposed to say "UNDER WHERE?"
JULIA: Madeleine, you just said underwear again!


Madeleine is so desperate to be the tricky one that she instead decided to try and stump ME today.

MADELEINE: Mama.  I'm thinking of someone that's a girl. 
ME: Okay.
MADELEINE: And I won't say who it is!
ME: Okay. (silently assuming that Madeleine is thinking of Auntie Shannon's chihuahua, Clara.)
MADELEINE: And Mama.  She's just SO CUTE.  And she has the BIGGEST EYES.  And she's so LITTLE.
ME: Okay.
MADELEINE: And Mama.  I like to scratch her head like THIS (scratching her own head and undoing a chunk of her braid in the process)
ME: Is is it Clara?
MADELEINE: (becoming more and more frantic) Uh, Mama, uh, can you NOT guess CLARA?  Mama, pretend you didn't GUESS Clara!
ME: Okay.
MADELEINE: (smiling with twinkly-eyed glee) Okay, Mama, I'll tell you who it is.  It's CLARA!
ME: (gasp) It is?!?!?

I guess Madeleine has to take her victories where she can get them, right?