Awww (Anna)

I was putting a piece of Ikea furniture together, and I sighed as I tried to get a screw into a hole that wasn't big enough.

Emma: What's the matter, Mumma?
Mumma: I'm frustrated because I can't get the screw in properly.
Emma: (tapping my arm gently) I know Mumma. It's hard sometimes. It'll be ok.

The influence of books (Anna)

Signs that the wee one might be reading "too many" books.

1) She expects to wake up on Christmas morning to a world covered in snow (she did say, "please" after all) and that she will have to tramp through the forest to get to lunch on Christmas Day (which she will share with a clothed mouse who lives in a gingerbread house)

2) She's concerned that we don't have a chimney and a mantelpiece for Father Christmas to come down

3) She tells us in great detail about her family's celebration of her first Hanukkah and the wonderful donuts she ate (not sure which family she's talking about, but it wasn't ours)

4) She thinks that on the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Five Stanley Cups

5) She thinks that all koalas are called "Lou"

Favouratist quote of the year (Anna)

(Emma to Mumma) "I like my friends, but you and Mummy are my favouratist, and I like you bestist of all. I LOVE you Mumma, and I love Mummy. (And you love me, too)!"

Anniversary! (Anna)

Caroline and I are celebrating our anniversary today. Nine years! We've spent it as a family getting ready for Christmas, making (well, ok, eating) a gingerbread house with the wee one, and are now, thanks to wonderful friends, getting ready to go out to dinner, sans wee one.

Not a bad way to celebrate at all.

Lottery

After years of Caroline believing that she would one day win the lottery, it has finally happened (despite, I might point out, my disbelief, which Caroline occasionally tries to use as the explanation for her failure to achieve her destiny.)

We are not quite at the stage of being able to retire, however, so you might want to hold off on knocking on our door asking us to share. Our winnings? $133 (and no, that doesn't have a K on the end).

Upward aspirations

Emma: I want to be a grown-up and go to work!
Mumma: Great! We can swap. I want to stay at home and play with my toys!

clang, clang, clang

Emmy was trying to get me out of bed this morning and I was a little reluctant - I just wanted to doze for another five (or twenty) minutes.

So she found herself a metal-cased pen and banged it against the metal bedside lamp. It made a clanging sound. She announced happily, "Mumma. It's a fire alarm. You have to get out of bed and go downstairs!..."

Making decorations...and biscuits...and plans....(Anna)

Caroline and I were talking on the couch this morning, and we said to Emma, "Come and join us. We're making plans for Christmas."

She replied: "I want to make one too. I'm going to make a little one..."

teddy bears

"Do teddy bears sing?"

How do you answer that without getting into a conversation about the intersection of "fiction" and "reality?"