When you spent the better part of your days with a person who is not yet three feet tall, thinks "eleventeen" is a perfectly acceptable number, and frequently demands that you come into whatever room she's in because "dis da car, and we going to da mew-see-um. You da daddy and I da mommy. Now dwive, dwive, dwive!" conversations can get pretty interesting. Here are some examples:
Last week, I was trying to get Nora to finish breakfast so we could go upstairs to get ready for church.
Me: Nora, let's finish breakfast and go get dressed for church.
Nora: No. I just wear my pajamas to church today.
Me: We can't wear pajamas to church.
Nora: Can you call God and ask him?
Me: Sure...
I pretended to call God, you guys. I really did.
Me: God says it's not pajama day today at church.
Nora: Okay. Let's get dressed.
I can just see it written in the Bible: And God said, Be not afraid; thou shalt not wear pajamas unto church.
A few minutes later, Ryan came into Nora's room to finish helping her get ready so I could shower, and she immediately announced "Daddy! God said we can't wear pajamas to church today!" She knows, 'cause I called him on my iPhone.
Just last night, I was putting Nora to bed. We were reading stories in preparation for the nerve-wracking moment of me trying to leave her room and her to fall asleep without either of us crying. (I know what you're thinking...just lay with her until she falls asleep, you horrible woman. But others who have put this kid to bed understand: she will just keep talking. Forever. You can stay in there for an hour and she.does.not.stop. And then she will wake at 7:12am and begin talking again.) Anyway, as it happened, she had picked out a book from the library about babies. I've been meaning to talk to her about the whole process of breastfeeding since it's about to consume my life in a few short months, just as it did with her. She of course has forgotten about the whole charade, and though she's been around nursing moms and babies, she doesn't really pay much attention.
So I read the page of the book: "All over the world, babies are nursing." And there is a tasteful picture of a nursing mom and baby, and a little picture of a bottle at the bottom of the page that says "Some babies drink their milk from a bottle." So, I attempted to explain breastfeeding to her.
Me: Want to know something that happens when babies are born?
Nora: Yes!
Me: When a mommy has a baby, she can feed the baby with milk from her boobies.
Side note: yes, we call them boobies. Because boobies is a fun word to say, and because Nora thinks I wear a "booby bra" and, well, that's funny.
Nora: Why?
Me: Well, not all babies have bottles to drink from. So God gave mommies a way to feed their babies milk, and that's how it works.
She stared at me with a confused look for a few seconds, and then burst out laughing so hard that her shoulders shook and she couldn't breathe. She kept repeating "babies dwink milk fwom a boobie!" and then cracking up all over again. Of course, I have always been in the school of thought that breastfeeding is, in fact, pretty weird, despite my having done it for a full year, so I started laughing too, and neither of us could stop. Finally I had to say, "it's not nice to laugh when a mommy and baby when they're nursing, though, okay?" and she said "okay," but then we both started laughing all over again, so we'll see if it sinks in. I apologize in advance to anyone she offends.
March Madness is a big deal at our house. We always enter brackets into a family pool. I typically lose, because I'm emotional and if a team has a good sob story, I at least give them a good run. This year we let Nora pick a bracket, too. It took 3 sittings to finish, but listening to her answers was entertaining. It went something like this:
Ryan: Georgia or Michigan St.?
Nora: Georgia sounds like George!
Ryan: So you want Georgia?
Nora: Yes. Like George.
Her Final Four included Butler, Wyoming, Eastern Washington, and Harvard. Sadly, none are left. She is completely oblivious to this fact, and would happily repick another bracket, so maybe we'll let her do that before the Final Four.
So -- life is interesting and busy. She is full of imagination, and we hope she stays that way for a long time.
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