More Conversations with Madeleine

Some conversations with Madeleine this week:

On the topic of the book she is reading ("Who Was Albert Einstein"):

MADELEINE: Mommy?  In this book, there's a lot about war?  And a lot about people leaving places because of war.
ME: That's right, because World War Two was going on when Einstein was alive, right?
MADELEINE: Uh...it was World War Eye-Eye.

Oh, right.  Not to be confused with the previous war, World War Eye.

Madeleine had more to say on her Albert Einstein book, unrelated to World War Eye-Eye.

MADELEINE: I think Albert Einstein was alive at the time before the DIME was being made.
ME: You do?
MADELEINE: Yeah, because...Albert Einstein lived in America...lived in Massachusetts...lived in America when...uh...it's like, F-E-R or something...when the guy who's on the dime was President.
ME: Franklin Roosevelt?
MADELEINE: Oh, yes!  Franklin D. Roosevelt.  FDR.

Apparently in Madeleine's brain the dime simply didn't exist before the version with FDR on it was minted.  There simply was no coin of ten cent value until the 1940s.


On the topic of driving:

MADELEINE: Mommy?  I *want* to learn to drive a car when I'm a teenager, but...(voice dropping in dismay) I *really* don't wanna go to driving school.  It seems like it would be really BORING, and...it even LOOKS boring.
ME: It's really not boring.  It's pretty exciting, because you get the chance to actually drive, with an instructor sitting right next to you.
MADELEINE: Yeah!  I know.  But...it seems like it's just pretty EASY.  You just press on the GAS.

Yeah!  That's it!  She's ready to drive, folks, at the young age of 7.  She, in her ingenuity, figured out the entire secret to driving a car: you just press on the gas.


On the topic of the most recent performance of a quartet Ethan and I sing in:

ME: Madeleine, do you know which one of us sings the very lowest notes?
MADELEINE: Uh, the guy that looks like Dumbledore or Santa?
ME: Do you know his name?
MADELEINE: Noooo.
ME: Do you know who sings the very highest notes?
MADELEINE: Uh, the ones who look like Grandmas?
ME: No, I sing the high notes!

You can see how much she pays attention, especially since she presumably hears me practice the high stuff at home.  Or maybe she's trying to tell me I'm looking really old lately and I'm one of the Grandmas.

At any rate, here is our quartet, in Madeleine's view:

From the left: Dumbledore or Santa, Mommy, Grandma, and Daddy.  We occasionally have guest performers join us, including the other Grandma, not featured in the above photo.

Man, I'm telling you, with the thoughts that whirl through Madeleine's head: this kid is GOING PLACES.