1. Genevieve recently told me that she wishes she had a hole in her hand so that when she covers her eyes with her hands, she can still see. 2. A few weeks ago, while we were up at the girls’ grandparents’ house, Vivi was banging out a song on the piano. When I asked her what it was called, she said, “Jesus God Marching on the Train Tracks.” (Except for a lack of moaning, it was indistinguishable from a minor passage in a Keith Jarrett piece.)3. Holding her blanket on her head, Vivi told me, “Daddy, I have a bump on my head and this is my icepack.”
1. Genevieve recently told me that she wishes she had a hole in her hand so that when she covers her eyes with her hands, she can still see.
2. A few weeks ago, while we were up at the girls’ grandparents’ house, Vivi was banging out a song on the piano. When I asked her what it was called, she said, “Jesus God Marching on the Train Tracks.” (Except for a lack of moaning, it was indistinguishable from a minor passage in a Keith Jarrett piece.)
3. Apropos of nothing, Vivi spent thirty minutes the other day walking around while holding her blanket up to her head. When I asked her what she was doing, she said, grinning, ” I have a bump on my head and this is my icepack.”
4. Walking in the Arb in June, Julia saw a shoe-sized rock about twenty feet down the path. She stopped, pointed, and said with awe in her voice, “Daddy! Look at that giant snail!” I assured her that it was actually a rock, not a snail, but she was doubtful right up to the point when we actually walked up to the rock and she said, “Yeah, I guess it is a rock. I thought it was a snail.” She was rather disappointed.
5. On Friday night, during one of our frequent discussions of what various animals like to eat, I almost convinced Julia that while lions are willing to eat wildebeests, they actually prefer to eat the much more tender “tamedebeests.” She thought for a moment, then asked, “Is that for real?”
6. Out for a post-dinner walk with the girls earlier this week, they started skipping madly and shriek-chanting, “Bacteria! Bacteria!”
7. Discussing the various attributes of paper while enjoying breakfast on Friday morning, Julia wondered aloud how papers get their colors. She guessed that most paper was naturally “whitish-brownish,” and further, that construction paper must come from colored trees, but then wondered why she’s never seen red or yellow trees.
8. Ever since reading a kid’s book called Fancy Nancy a few weeks ago, Julia has insisted on sleeping with a dress-up tiara perched on her headboard and pillow. Remarkably, it never falls off the bed or onto her.
9. The girls have invented a new dish called “kia” (which Julia tells me is actually spellled with a picture of a key and the sound “uh”). So far as I can tell (since the “recipe” changes each time they make it a the toy kitchen), you can prepare kia by mashing a whole lemon, then adding a quarter cup of additional lemon juice, a whole chopped onion, and some chopped up potatoes. You mix all this up, then spread it in a square baking pan. Bake it for 3 minutes and “enjoy”!
Re: #2. Will used to have an entire imaginary band called “Chunky Beat Saturn.” Wait. Have I told you this before? The members were: Chunky Beat Saturn, Jim Prickles, and Picture Eyebrow. Their big hit, which Will used to play on his invisible CD player, was called, “Throw Out Your Troubles and Let Your Love Shine Through.” (He was about three.)
“Picture Eyebrow” kills me. Hilarious! Did Will even then sing these songs?
I so wish I’d kept a better record of all the wonderful things my kids have said. I have a few, but most are gone forever. I do have a record of Phoebe commenting on my having done something like put unmatching socks on her, concluding, “That’s a problem with you.”