Household Sponge

Dear Laney,

NPR did a story last year on a group of child psychologists/researchers who had determined that children who make up stories or tell outright lies are displaying advanced intelligence. Well, move over, Stephen Hawking: there's a new genius on the loose.

Cedar calls her dad "Papa." I was giving you a bath the other night when you started telling me that "Cedar's papa taught me to lasso" and "Cedar's papa taught me to bounce." I have since confirmed with Cedar's papa that these things are false. Anyway, you were splashing away in your Crayola-tinted water telling me all about Cedar's papa, and you ended with this little tidbit:

I decided I could never show this footage to your dad or any of your grandfathers, because it would hurt their feelings to discover they weren't your "favorite guys." But I had to wonder where in the world you had gotten that phrase, and did you even know what you were saying?

Then tonight, I was reading you a book I bought last week called Two At The Zoo, when this page rang a bell:

There is nothing in this house that you don't absorb and repeat.

Speaking of that book, it's a source of great frustration for me. On each page, there's a little rhyme about an animal, and then it asks how many there are in the picture, as in, "Watch me, Lions! I can roar! / Growling, prowling. We count FOUR!" You know that one of the answers is NINE, and so you shout out NINE! on each page, figuring you'll be right at least 10% of the time. Last night, it went like this:

Mom: Okay, let's count the lions first.

Mom & Laney: One...Two...Three...Four!

Mom: So there are four? Holds up four fingers.

Laney: Yeah, four!

Mom: So when we ask how many, the answer is four. Ready?

Laney: Yeah!

Mom (reads): Growling, prowling, we count...?

Laney: NINE!

Mom: But we just talked about it and agreed THERE ARE FOUR!

Laney: Why you screaming?

I realize I make cracks about my mother's Type A behaviors on this blog all the time, and now I'm exhibiting the same behavior. We all become our parents in the end.

Hush.

Love,

Mom