The Sunday Funnies

Dorothy:  Mom, is blood washable?
Sarah:  Yes, usually.
Dorothy:  Great, 'cause this blanket has blood on it.

At the pet store, Dorothy and Willa were trying to count the pink fish in a tank.  "We just need to make them stay still," Dorothy said earnestly.

We have a waffle maker that we keep in its original box and styrofoam packaging; it fits neatly in the cabinet that way.  Dorothy watched Brian open the box; she chided him, "Daddy, we already have a waffle maker!"

Image Search: Rubber Duck

I'm starting a new feature on our blog.  Today I used the image search tool in my Google Photos and input the term "rubber duck".  These images are among the results that Google identified:

Stay tuned for next week's search term:  inflatable

Pelican's Snoballs with Uncle Daniel, Aunt Valerie, & Baby Andrew

Kids at the pet store

I'll take your picture and show you what your hair looks like

Mermaid at the birthday party

The Willa Funnies

Dorothy's friend Willa cracks me up enough that I'm dedicating a Sunday to her:

Willa, Dorothy, Brian and I were taking a neighborhood walk.  We linked hands and Willa announced, "The whole family!"

Willa wore a vintage dress for her school portrait.  I loved it and she told me it was her mom's.  I said, "Do you have a picture of your mom in that dress?  I would love to see it!"  And she responded sassily, "No...I don't have a phone..."

Something we read mentioned a newspaper.  Willa asked, "What's a newspaper?"

Willa has some dental work in her mouth which she refers to as her "jewelry".  Her Jj's come out as adorable Dd's.  Dorothy is unfamiliar with dental work, and takes Willa at her word -- Dorothy refers to Willa's "doolery".

In Willa's world canned carbonated fizzy water is "busy water".

I was eating a carrot; Willa caught sight of the long orange food and chimed in, "I want a popsicle too!"

Willa was playing with some toy animals and I overheard her give the character some dialogue:  "Jesus, please let me be a duck."

Dorothy was taunting Willa over a snack of strawberries.  "My strawberries are the sweetest," Dorothy jeered.  "Miss Sarah!" Willa called, "Dorothy is saying a mean compliment!"

Dorothy mentioned that boys don't wear dresses.  Willa corrected her, "It's up de dem."

Tattoos, matching tshirts, make-up...a fun sleepover with Mary Claire

The kids' table

Before & After

Weekend in Atlanta

We saw the Braves beat the Phillies 15-2, enjoyed the Center for Puppetry Arts & its Jim Henson exhibit, ate at The Varsity, and visited with Cathy, Jamie, Claire, & Jeff

Fit for a princess

The Sunday Funnies

Left and right are such tricky concepts.  I've tried to explain that if you turn around, what's on the left and right change.  Of course, it turns out this only applies to stationary objects.  Dorothy asked me if her thumb was on her right hand or left; I answered that it was her right; then she ran to the back of me and said, "Now it's my left thumb!"

I was trying to explain sarcasm.  "What is a food you really don't like?" I asked.  "Cheeseballs," Dorothy answered.  "Okay," I said, "If it was your birthday and I gave you a big container of cheeseballs as a present, you might say, 'Oh, thank you so much...you know how much I love cheeseballs!'  But what you really mean is that you don't like them at all."  She processed this, then added, "But for real I would burst into tears."

I have a few scented body sprays that Dorothy likes to use.  Her favorite is Sweet Pea, a Bath and Body Works scent.  This morning, she asked if she could use the "green pea spray".

Big Daddy installed a swingset in his backyard.  Dorothy told me, "I'm glad Big Daddy got this swingset.  Are you glad?"  "Yes," I said.  "Why are you glad?" Dorothy asked.  "I'm just glad," I answered.  "Are you glad because now the grown-ups don't have to play with the kids?"

Dorothy watched me typing a password.  "Why are you typing 'dot dot dot dot dot dot?'" she asked.

At the Center for Puppetry Arts with the Morgans

My friend Eloise came to visit and I met her little ones

Swim lessons are going great

Just a girl on her way to a My Little Pony playdate

More from the wedding!

Dean family photo from Mike & Aja's wedding in April

The Sunday Funnies

Dorothy is at that age where she's spelling long sentences to us to find out what they say:  Mom, what does this say?  o-r-i-e-n-t-a-l-t-r-a-d-i-n-g-n-o-b-o-d-y-d-e-l-i-v-e-r-s-m-o-r-e-f-u-n-f-o-r-l-e-s-s-r-e-a-d-y-s-e-t-s-u-m-m-e-r

Dorothy has told me in the past "You ruined my day!"  But recently she has spiced it up and added an upset "You crumbled my day" and "You darkened my day."

We were walking past a yard with a family playing in the sprinkler.  "Wait," Dorothy said.  "That lady has three kids?"  "And a dog," I added.  Dorothy commented, "That's a lot of work."

We had two college students from ND as houseguests.  I read Dorothy a bedtime story, and then she wanted to go "see what the girls were doing".  I told her she could go find them and say goodnight, but if they were in the guest bedroom and the door was closed, do not bother them.  Dorothy went to check on them and returned to say that their door was closed.  "Can I just peek under it?" she asked.

Dorothy picked-up my can of flavored sparkling water, handed it to me, and said, "Mama, here's your beer."

The girls were in the pool and I was sitting on the side with my feet in the water.  We were talking about The Little Mermaid.  "Aren't you gonna get in since you're a mermaid?" Willa asked.  "I already visited Ursula," I said, "and she turned me into a human.  Look, I have legs!"  Dorothy sassed, "Then why are you still talking?"

Big Daddy built a swingset

Eric Carle Day at summer camp

No, ring pops!

Pacifiers?

Flashback to June 4, 2015

Shaving cream cupcakes

The Sunday Funnies

There is a series written for young readers called the Nancy Drew Notebooks that follows the detective at age 8.  We cannot get enough of them!  So far we have read every one at our library, with irresistible titles such as:

The Dollhouse Mystery
Alien in the Classroom
The Snowman Surprise
Not Nice on Ice
The Lost Locket
Dinosaur Alert!
The Soccer Shoe Clue
The Apple Bandit
The Chinese New Year Mystery
The Puppy Problem
The Kitten Caper
The Bunny-Hop Hoax
The Singing Suspects
The Secret Santa
Trouble at Camp Treehouse
The Hidden Treasures
The Black Velvet Mystery
Candy Is Dandy
The Ice Cream Scoop

Nancy has two cousins who appear in every book.  George is a tomboy; Bess likes fashion and shopping and doesn't like to get dirty.  Dorothy commented, "George likes to play soccer because she is sporty, but Bess likes to do fun stuff."

I was tucking Dorothy in bed and she kept coming up with things to tell me.  "I'm playing Nancy Drew," she said.  "My teddy bear is Bess.  My Cinderella doll is George.  This is my blue notebook and I'm writing clues in it."  "Yes, yes," I'm saying as I scoot towards the door.  "And Mama!" she calls out.  "Yes?" I ask.  "I'm Nancy Drew."

In Dinosaur Alert, the lunch lady, a former student at Nancy's elementary school, came dressed as the school's former mascot for a reunion.  She told the story that thirty years prior she had stamped the dinosaur's footprint in wet cement and was scolded and not allowed to be the mascot anymore.  Dorothy asked, "So at the reunion, was the lady who said she cannot be the dinosaur not there anymore?"

Plunking around