Subpar student

We certainly are getting our money's worth from Ellie's preschool. Tonight she decided to play "school" with me, and since I'm fighting a wicked case of laryngitis and can't speak above a whisper, I got to be the student while she played the teacher. "Teacher Ellie" asked me for the first letter of the word "accessories" and explained to me that those were things that you can wear, like hats and necklaces and socks. She asked me the first letters of several other words, and finally said, "What's the first letter of the word 'xenophile'?" Being only human, I stammered and said, "What?" She repeated herself, and I shook my head and said, "Well, it's either an 'x' or a 'z' - I really don't know." She gave me a look and said, "It starts with an 'x', Mommy." I had to look it up afterward, and darned if she isn't right - it does start with 'x'! I don't know if she knows what it means, because she got tired of playing school at that point. I'm afraid she felt she was dealing with a subpar student!

No-brainer

A couple of nights ago, Ellie was combing her hair. To be more precise, she was combing her bangs. After she'd finished her own, she moved on to her daddy's hair. He doesn't normally have bangs, but his hair is short, so she enjoyed combing it down onto his forehead. Once she decided that she'd made him look silly enough, she turned to me. The trouble is that my hair is long and curly, not to mention tied back in a pony tail, so she was at a loss. She tried a few different approaches, but kept getting her comb tangled in my hair. Finally she said, "Mommy, you have no brains!"

Once Jason had stopped laughing long enough to catch his breath, he suggested that maybe she meant "bangs" and not "brains." I sure hope so!

A dose of attitude

Both Jason and I have been treated to a dose of almost-four-year-old attitude this week. On Monday, Ellie was chatting away as I was getting her ready for school. I was responding with a lot of "mmm-hmmms", so finally Ellie said in a stern voice, "Mommy, if your mouth is not full, you should not say 'mmm-hmmm.' You should say 'yes'!" I turned to her and said that she shouldn't be quite so bossy with Mommy. Her answer was, "I'm not being bossy. I'm just telling you!"

On Tuesday afternoon, she asked her daddy for a drink of water. He handed her some water in a regular cup, and she asked for a straw cup instead. Jason explained that all of our lidded cups with built-in straws were dirty, since he hadn't done the dishes yet. She said, "Well, you're just going to have to wash one."

When I got home that evening, I found Jason and Ellie watching videos of Ellie's first year with us. Jason explained that he'd brought those out to remind himself of the time when Ellie was sweet and, above all, quiet!