More Bedtime Reading

Well, a few posts ago, I foolishly thought that Julia interrupting my bedtime reading to tell me about two moths on her wall was as ridiculous as it gets.

But tonight she proved me wrong.

ME: (reading) "I'm not going to say things about you,' said Emily deliberately.  'I'm just going to think them.'  This was-"
JULIA: (tapping me)
ME: (putting the book down.) Yeeesss?
JULIA: Well....I *am* listening, but...WHY are there these circle WHITE things on everybody's thumbs?



She was pointing to the white area above her cuticle:

That is what she's thinking about as I'm reading "Emily of New Moon."  Her thumbnail.  And apparently the white area was so fascinating to her that she felt the need to interrupt my reading and get an answer RIGHT AWAY.  Unfortunately, I was at a complete loss for an answer, so before I knew it, I was putting the book down to go look up "nail: anatomy" on Wikipedia.  (From which I got the above image.)

I mean, I have always known that my kids have completely random thought patterns, but this kind of took things to a whole new level.  (And in case you're wondering, the answer seems to be that the older nail material becomes more translucent, so you can see the skin through it, while the newer material growing in is more opaque.)

I guess you learn something new every day.  Especially when you have very inquisitive children.


And then there's Madeleine.  After several minutes of her yapping at me while I was giving her bedtime snuggles, I attempted to quiet her down.

ME: I love you, my darling.  No more talking, okay?
MADELEINE: Okay.

(Two seconds of silence)

MADELEINE: Did you say "MORE talking??"


It's no wonder we're all exhausted around here.