"I want to learn to play the drums, so I need you to get me a drum with a strap that goes behind my head and has lines that go up down up down and two sticks. And I need you to get me a real toy drum not a drum that Benjamin makes me, because Elmo has a real toy drum, not a drum his dad made him and it has lines that go up down up down. Okay mommy?"
"We can add it to the list of things you want."
"And I want drums that go all around me and two cymbals to go here and here for smashing and then I'll drum like this ... <insert extremely well practiced, but still wild, air drum solo here>. Okay, mommy?"
"Wow, you've been working on that. Why the drum? Any particular reason?"
"Oh, I just think they'll be easy to learn. And cool."
"Maybe you'll decide to be a rock star when you grow up."
*giggling* "No, I'm going to be a police officer and arrest robbers who rob people of things. And put them in robber jail. ... No, I'm going to be Robin when I grow up and catch all the baddies."
"But isn't Robin the Boy Wonder?"
"Yeah ... when I grow up to be a teenager, I'll be Robin, and when I grow up all the way, I'll be a police officer."
whispering "Mommy, next time I see Bella, I'm going to ask if it's okay if I fall in love with her."
Having lived my life by the "I'm gonna make you love me" motto, the notion of asking the object of one's affection for permission to fall in love with them seemed both incredibly polite and brilliant. With the potential to save oneself from all the messiness of unreturned love.
When I grow up, I want to be four.
"I'msoexcited!!! Tomorrow is footy day!! Footy day is my favourite day of all."
"Really? Wow. Even more than your birthday?"
"Weeelll, not more than my birthday. My birthday is my number one favourite day and footy day is my number two favourite day. Because it's so AWWWWE-some."
"Even more than Christmas?"
"Yes. Christmas is my number three favourite day. What are you going to wear for footy day tomorrow, mommy?"
"Oh, it's not footy day at Aluminium Industries, only at your day care."
"Yeah, but you could still wear something that's one of the Doggies colours. You could wear what you're wearing now. It's blue and blue is one of the Doggies colours."
"But I wore this to work today."
"Oh that's easy. Just wash it tonight and wear it again tomorrow. I do that all the time."
"Uh, no thanks. I'm not going to do that."
"You could wear your dress with the flowers. That's red and red is one of the Doggies colours. Plllleeeease, mommy, for me?"
"Okay, come on, let's go pick out what I'll wear tomorrow."
"Mommy, yes or no, is Santa Claus real?"
"Uhhh, what do you think?"
"I think he isn't real. He's just a guy with two black boots, a red suit and a red hat that lives at the north pole. And the reindeer can't fly."
"Do you think he travels around the world delivering presents on Christmas Eve?"
"Yes, because the reindeer can swim. He isn't magic. But the Easter Bunny, he's magic. I think he lives in the east, because, you know east ... Easter Bunny. And, he comes early in the morning, with the sun, to give me chocolate and the sun rises in the east."
