Conversations with Chloe

I've actually been taking notes, and here are some recent nuggets from Chloe.

She's just picked up the phrase, "Morning, noon and night." As in, "Mom, we need to eat candy morning, noon and night." Chloe is also no longer asking, "Why, Mom, why?" or even giving a knowing, "Oh," after I say the inevitable, "Because!" and then picking right back up with a, "But why, Mom?" Now she answers every request with, "Why not?" but not an agreeable "why not." It's a "why not that really means why and I don't actually want to do it, so I'll throw a negative in there."

She's been very sweet about the baby in my tummy. Every night after prayers, she hugs and kisses the baby, and she loves to talk about how the baby is coming "on my birthday." Lately, though, she's developed a sympathetic pregnancy of her own. She's even illustrated it.
In addition to the belly on Chloe, I would also like to point out that both she and Addie have earrings (the idea of pierced ears has become a recent topic of conversation), Addie has some amazing hair (Though to be fair, her "pillow perm" every morning lately has been incredible. Bracken was actually concerned that there might be something wrong with her hair.), and my belly is above my arms. I know I've always carried high, but . . .

In any case, her baby chicks (there seem to be 3 of them) are also due on her birthday, want lots of extra food, and need hugs and kisses from Daddy every night. I guess she thinks I've got enough going on in my own belly without needing to hug and kiss her gestational mystery.

I think she might be a bit disappointed, though, when my baby appears. She's told me this week that she really wants this baby to be a boy so that she'll have someone to dance with. I've tried to tell her that the baby is a girl, and that's not going to change at this point, but I'm not sure the message is sinking in. She is willing to look for other partners, though. We had a technician working on our phone the other day and Chloe leaned over and said, "Mom, lets feed him some food, and then he can dance with me!" She already knows the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Chloe is generally really good about saying her prayers, but they do get a bit repetitive. Every day before Bracken leaves for work, she prays, "Help Dad to go to work." On Saturday he was leaving to donate blood, and she realized mid-prayer that her normal phrase wasn't going to work and we got, "Help Dad go to w--something."

Bedtime prayers are much the same. The other night they went off on a tangent, though. "Dear Heavenly Father, please help me sleep well. Help Addie go to sleep. And stay in her bed. And not play with her toys. And not make a mess." I'd like to think she's just trying to help her sister out since Addie's only real contribution to prayers right now is an "Amen" and occasional reverence, but I really just think she's enjoying being a bossy older sister.

Here's another bit of Chloe art for you. She was asked to draw a picture for her Primary teacher who is moving.

Instead it turned into a tribute to her Grandpa Geilman, Nana, their very fluffy dog Cassie, and Chloe's great desire for her Grandpa to take her fishing. I don't know how or why she's latched onto this idea, but I think Grandpa should definitely take her up on it.

Finally, this morning, I had hooked up our new digital converter box and was scanning through the new stations we were getting (kind of. I'm not sure I'm a fan). I passed the Spanish PBS kid's station and Chloe requested (demanded) that I return to that channel. I said, "Chloe, that show is in Spanish and you don't speak Spanish, so I don't think you really want to watch it."

"But Mom, I do. See, Spanish." Fine. I let her watch the rest of the show. Then the next program started and she still didn't want me to change the channel. She did, however, ask me what was going on. I said, "I don't know, Chloe, I don't understand Spanish."

"Well, I do." I guess we'll be watching a lot more V-me in the future. I wouldn't want her to lose her language skills.