Saturday, May 30, 2009

This Week's Gems

As many faithful readers know, our Elise can be a bit of a smartypants. We continue to have no idea where she gets this. Really. Not a clue! But wow has she delivered some good lines this week. We're starting to feel a bit like the Tappet Brothers around here, what with the non-stop belly laughs. Enjoy!

Situation: Andy wants to fool Elise into coming downstairs, and says something ridiculous to entice her.
Elise: "No way, Dad. I know your tricks!"

Situation: We're out to eat at Quiznos to celebrate Elise's last day of preschool.
Andy: "So, tell me about school."
Elise: "Mmmm...It's delicious!"

Situation: Elise and I head to her new elementary school to drop off some paperwork, and meet the principal in the lobby. (Ms. Martinez is amazing, btw.) No real line here, but our confident five-and-almost-a-half year old struck up a conversation, challenged the principal to count to 100 by tens (she did very well) and gently suggested room for improvement in Ms. Martinez's joke telling skills.

Situation: Two very nice 4th grade boys stopped by the house to do some fundraising for the American Heart Association as part of the school's Jump Rope for Heart event. They were so sweet and funny and just generally the kind of kids I'm proud to call neighbors. I love the way every kid we've met from our school does such a wonderful and respectful job of of engaging Elise in conversation. We all discussed why they were raising money, and the deadly nature of heart disease. Elise has some new-found confidence in her understanding of death, and was eager to share her wisdom.

Elise: "Once someone is dead, they can't ever live again."
Boy #1 (looking stunned by the ignorance of little kids): "Of course they do! When they go up to heaven to be with Jesus."
Boy #2 watches shrewdly
Elise: "Oh now you're just making stuff up! What a silly story!"
Boy #2 watches with growing excitement to see what happens next
Boy #1 & Elise simultaneously decide it's just one of those weird things other kids sometimes say and move on to talk about other stuff.

These young men are so cool. I finally got around to asking about their fundraising goals, and they were so excited to tell me all about what they've raised so far. Only after they spoke proudly of their efforts did they show me the list of thank-you gifts they could earn. Apparently, there is a really cool rocket thing that they aspire to. I hope they make their goal!

With Elise's preschool career officially over, we're getting a lot more relaxed time together. I had no idea 2 days/week could make such a difference in perspective, but they do. It feels like we suddenly have more time to really enjoy one another. These are some of the highlights I could recall from the week, but honestly she's pretty much a nonstop laugh riot. The creativity, the wickedly dry sense of humor, the joy she takes in making others laugh-these are the things that render life golden around our house these days.

2 comments:

The COG said...

Elise sounds like her mother at that age.

Joe said...

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