Chloe's upcoming birthday

I'm sitting here, trying to find a blue bike for Chloe's birthday, and she's listing off all the other things she wants. This includes a gun, a fishing game, and a machine to make her stomach flat. I would be more concerned about the whole body image thing, but I know she's just parroting back a commercial she's seen for a product only available on TV. They told her she needs it, so it must be true. Lately she "wishes" for just about everything she sees. At this moment she's also wishing for the bus from her book, the clothes the character is wearing, the diaper Addie is holding, Playdough, swimming shoes like Curious George . . .

Some other recent gems:

When Chloe says, "Mom?" and I answer, "Yes?" or "What?" I know I'll usually get one of two answers. The first is a dreamy, "I love you." The second is, "I not say nothing!" I know I'm already going crazy. Apparently now I'm hearing things, too.

The other day she went with the first response. "Mom, I love you," appropos of nothing. How sweet. With tears in her eyes, she followed it up with, "But I really, really, really love Dad." Ouch.

Lately, Chloe has been talking a lot about being a mom when she grows up. This makes me feel a little better about the job I'm doing since she thinks its something she would like to do. However it's also turned into a bargaining tool to be used whenever I won't let her help me do something, i.e. anything to do with the bathroom remodel. "But Mom, I'm going to be a mom so I need to learn so I need to help you!"

She got in a heated discussion with her friend Josh the other day because when she said she wanted to be a Mom, he said he wanted to be a Fireman. She kept pleading, "No, Josh, you have to be a Dad!" She brought it up to me a couple days later. "Mom, I don't want Josh to be a Fireman. I want him to be a Dad and I can be a Mom and we can be in love." That would be fine with me.