A typical twenty minutes with my older daughter

Mallory: What movie did you and Daddy watch last night?

Me: An Education.

Mallory: What was it about?

Me: It was about a girl who falls in love with a bad man.

Mallory: Why was he bad?

Me: He stole things, and he was married to someone else.

Mallory (not necessarily in this order):

What did he steal?
How did she know that he stole those things?
Where was she when she found out that he stole them?
Did his wife know he stole things?
Did his wife know he had a girlfriend?
Did they have kids?
How many kids?
Girls or boys?
What were their names?
Did they know their dad stole things?
Did the girl know that the wife didn't know that he stole things?
How did the girl find out he was married?
What do you mean, she found a letter?
Where was she when she found the letter?
Where was he when she was doing that?
Did she scream?
Did she break up with him right then or did she wait a while?
Did she meet the wife?
Was the wife mad?
Was the wife mean?
Where were the kids?
Why didn't the wife break up with him when she found out he had a girlfriend?
What did the girl do after they broke up?
Did she have any brothers or sisters?
Did he have any brothers or sisters?
What color was the car?
Did you like the movie?
Did you like it or love it?
What was the name of the movie again?
What's an education?
You mean like a lesson?
How is it a lesson when you fall in love with someone bad?
Did you ever fall in love with someone bad?
How old were you?
How old was he?
Did he have any brothers or sisters?

And so on. And on. And on.

Comments

Chris said…

Hmm. That's less questions than usual.

11:44 PM

aimee said…

Ha Ha! That is funny.

9:08 AM

Krista said…

You're right -- I forgot to add "What does that mean?" after every answer.

9:31 AM

Merry Christmas to Joey, too!

Scene: After the Christmas pageant. Me: You did great, Mallory, we're proud of you! Mallory: What was your favorite part? Me: Hmm. I liked the "Whatcha Gonna Call That Baby?" song. Chris: I liked that one too. Me: But I also liked "Joy to the World." Mallory: Joey in the world? What's that? Me: No, joy to the world, the song you just sang. Mallory: Oh yeah. Me: That's one of my favorite songs. Phoebe: A favorite song is a song that's your favorite and you like it and you sing. (Pause) Phoebe: And you dance. Mallory, before the show, in front of our haphazardly decorated Christmas tree. Phoebe declined to be photographed. All I was able to photograph of the event itself: Phoebe, objecting to the camera's flash: Now she closes her eyes before I snap every picture. Sigh. But she's cute anyway! And so is Mallory! And their dresses match! We're thinking Arby's: Okay, that's it! Recently read: The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife . ...

The Golf Course

There was a miniature golf course in my grandparent’s house. There were, in fact, lots of cool-if-kitschy things in my grandparents’ house. There were swinging saloon doors between the kitchen and the master suite. There was a toilet seat made of transparent plastic, with ticket stubs from horse races embedded therein. There was a globe wine bar (pictured!). There was a mounted goat head (the goat was named Bucky) on whose antlers my granddad hung his golf caps. There was a stuffed pheasant whose chest feathers were smooth as silk. There was a kitchen bar of green marbled formica and swively kitchen chairs of red pleather. There was an automatic ice dispenser on the refrigerator, which was a rare and awe-inspiring thing in the 1970’s. There was a mirrored tray holding bejeweled perfume bottles with atomizers in the guest bathroom. There were two huge oil paintings – one of my aunt, with beautifully frosted hair, holding a Pug, one of my older sister as a toddler sitting on a John De...

Little sisters

Mallory was invited for a sleepover tonight; this morning, as she was packing her suitcase, Phoebe came in and said, "Me too!" When Chris found her suitcase, and gently told her that she wasn't invited to the sleepover, she cried for an hour. I think I'll always have a special sort of sympathy for Phoebe, my second child, because I was the second child too*. (And it's odd, because although I have younger siblings as well, I always think of myself as a little sister, or as the younger older sister, if that makes sense. I think that's because Jana, my big sister, was so good at being the oldest, responsible and, uh, authoritarian, and I am, well, fundamentally irresponsible. We all bowed to her! In a good way. I could never live up to that.) I often feel sorry for Phoebe, left behind while Mallory goes to school all day, because I well remember the long, lonely boring days I spent waiting for Jana to come home from school (not counting the days I spent playing i...

Always Remember That

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