It’s been an exhausting couple of days ’round about the Baby Squared household. Elsa was home sick from school yesterday with “the fever” as she put it, and then last night she was up with a bout of preschool insomnia from around two to three. (And preschool insomnia, as some of you may know, involves telling your parents, every ten minutes, that you can’t sleep. Even and especially when you’re lying between them in their bed.) Then she was up again at around four a.m., having thrown up. Good times!

Meanwhile, I’ve just got w-a-a-a-y too much on my plate right now between my work and my memoir-in-progress and getting ready to launch Eden Lake in less than two months (eep!) and all manner of other life stuff. Taxes, doctor appointments, etc. Alastair’s busy, too, gearing up to record another kids’ album, among other things.

But in the midst of all of this, my daughters continue to crack me up on a regular basis, and do and say things make me want to put them in a pickle jar and keep them four years old forever. And sometimes they just downright surprise me.

Last night, while I was cooking dinner, Clio was goofing around, putting a magnet in her mouth. I told her, being an adult with a pulse, that she shouldn’t put the magnet in her mouth, because she might swallow it, and that would be really bad.

“Yeah,” Elsa said. “Remember I swallowed a ponytail (elastic) once, and I was really sad about it?”

“Yeah,” I said. “And a magnet would be worse than a ponytail.”

“Yeah,” said Elsa, “because you might not pee it out. But I peed out the ponytail.”

“Yes, I know that’s what you think,” I said. (We’ve had this discussion way too many times for it to be worth having again. For some reason she’s convinced that she peed, not pooped, the ponytail holder out. At this point, I’m done arguing about it.)

“No you didn’t,” Clio chimed in. “You pooped it.”

“No I DIDN’T!” said Elsa. Who is very touchy about this whole subject.

And then Clio said …. wait for it. ….

“I’m sorry, girlfriend. You pooped it.”

Ho. ly. crap. Girlfriend?? Where on earth did this come from? Has Clio been watching The View behind my back???

I asked her, laughing, where where she learned about saying “girlfriend” but she wouldn’t tell me. (“From someone at school?” “Nowhere.” “From something on TV?” “Nowhere.” “From the sitters at the gym?” “Nowhere.”)

I honestly have no idea where she picked it up, because Lord knows I don’t say it. I really could not pull “girlfriend” off.

But you know what? Clio can.

Later that same evening, at bedtime, I told girls that they needed to get lots of rest, since Elsa was sick, and so Clio wouldn’t get sick.

“Yeah, because when you’re sick you need to get lots of sleep,” said Elsa.

“Yeah,” I said, “You’ll feel much better if you get some sleep.”

At which point Clio said, “I hear that, girlfriend.”

!!!!

I am totally baffled (not to mention incredibly amused) by this. Repeated inquiries as to how the expression entered her vocabulary have revealed only that she learned it from “her friendly friends.” (Her imaginary friendly bear, dragon and dinosaur, among other friendly animals that occasionally earn mention.)

Damn. Who knew her friendly friends had such ‘tude?

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