As you do

I parked the car on the side of the road in Braddon and left Ella and Banjo (the dog) in the car while I quickly ducked into Officeworks. I made sure I closed the windows on the street side, the dog's side, so there was no chance of Banjo jumping out onto the street. There are quite a few cafes in this area and it's usually a fairly busy area.

When I got back in the car, Ella and Banjo were sitting in the same positions I left them in, so I didn't suspect anything. Then Ella said:

Ella - Banjo jumped out of the car.
Me - Really? That must have been a bit scary.
Ella - It was.
Me - Did she jump through your window?
Ella - Yeah.
Me - How did that happen.
Ella - Well, I was on the roof of the car about to do some hula-hooping.
Me - As you do.
Ella - Yeah and then I saw Banjo, about a kilometer away. So I had to climb off the car and get her. And then I had to sit in the car with her so she couldn't jump out again. And people kept telling me to get off the car.
Me - So what did you say to them?
Ella - I said: "I've done this before".

Is it my imagination or is she getting more Pippi-Longstocking-esque each day?

For the sake of OH&S, I will have a chat to her about appropriate and inappropriate places to perform circus act on the car roof.

I missed this performance, but a friend snapped this picture when we were camping at Mystery Bay.

The ancient Egyptians vs the internet generation

We were watching an episode of Horrible Histories. Featuring the usual eclectic appearances of ancient Greeks, medieval English kings and Egyptians.

Me - I don't mind this show. I hope you are learning something from it about history too.
Ella - But they say something is true when it isn't.
Me - But when they say it is true, it actually is. Those things really have happened.
Ella - Ah, but why did they then say it was poo but it was actually jam?
Me - You do realise they are all actors. Because the real Egyptians died thousands of years ago.
Ella - But they could have took a video before they died and planned this all along.

Kaboom! Best punchline I'd heard in a long time.

When she realised that I was not going to take this suggestion seriously - cleverly deducted from my laughter and thigh slapping - she offered another scenario.

Ella - Maybe they made images in their heads and then when they died they cut open their heads and got the images out and then they passed it on and on and on until video was invented and then took a video of it.
Me - That's actually a pretty clever scenario.
Ella - Not really, because you cannot see the images in people's heads.

Told you so

Ella had the girl across the road over for a play. She likes a bit of err... civil disobedience. So together they get up to a bit of mischief at times. Today while I was on the phone, they got undressed, sprayed the trampoline and their discarded clothes with the hose and then came to ask me if I could attach the sprinkler to the hose.

I grumbled about the wet clothes and told them that it wasn't warm enough yet to play under the sprinkler and they'd get cold. But they begged and because they were nude already and I couldn't be bothered arguing I told them I'd give them 5 minutes.

They managed to attach the sprinkler to the hose themselves and I could hear their squeals in the backyard while I was in the kitchen. Then I saw them running past the kitchen window and heard this:


Girl across the road -: I'm cold. We should've listened to your mum.
Ella - C'mon, we won't tell her that we got cold.

I think I managed to not look too smug when they came back in wrapped in towels.

Planning for the future

Ella's best friend wants to share a house with her when they are 18. Only, she doesn't want her family to live with her. Which was a bit of a shock to Ella who still wants to live with me forever. So she's been thinking out loud about this very seriously. Wondering if Katie would be ok with me living there, as I'm not part of her own family.

She showed me a drawing of their future house and garden. When I asked her if she thought she would still love slides as much as she does now when she's 18 she rolled her eyes at me and told me the play equipment was for the kids they were going to have. Which was news to me because up until now she insisted she never wanted to be a mother.

Turns out they plan on having 80 kids. Each. Which made me question if the somewhat smallish looking house would be able to accommodate 160 kids. That earned me another eye roll because naturally they had worked all that out already. They would build a brick shed in the backyard and put beds in it and that's where the kids would sleep. The older ones. The babies would sleep in the house with them. But the toddlers and the older ones would sleep in the shed.

 

Mummy resuscitation

We were watching a scene in Bondi Rescue in which the lifeguards were dealing with a suspected spinal injury.

Ella - Do you know that sometimes they have to break the rib cage so they can get the heart started again?
Me - Really?
Ella - Yes. (Teacher) Celeste has practiced it on a mummy.
Me - Dummy.
Ella - Mummy.
Me - It's dummy.
Ella - No, a mummy, you know, a person wrapped in...err.

I did manage to convince her that first aid skills are not commonly practiced on ancient Egyptian human remains. It does make me ponder on what goes through these kids' heads when they make up their own versions of what the teacher is trying to tell them.

   

The importance of using the right word

First day of school holidays and Ella spent the day at the gymnastics club's holiday program. This will be the first school holidays that I am not taking any leave and she'll be going to holiday care for most of it. And on top of that, I have to get my flex back into positive so they will be longer days than when she is at school.

So when Ella said in the car on the way home:

Ella - Today I had an awful day!

I immediately started throwing arguments at the guilt that threatened to flood my brain: "I have no choice but to send her to care. It'll be good for her in the long run to see that I have other responsibilities and to learn about work ethic and financial independence." And we should probably find an alternative for the gymnastics holiday program next holidays.

Me - Why was it awful?
Ella - No, I didn't mean awful. I meant aws..., awes...
Me - Did you mean 'awesome'?
Ella - Yes, awesome! I had an awesome day!

Huh?

Ella was watching ABC 4 Kids.

Ella - I'm not going to watch Playschool for 45 years.
Me - Huh? Why 45 years?
Ella - Because it's going to be on for 45 years.
Me - You mean it has been on for 45 years.
Ella - I haven't watched it for 45 years.
Me - Indeed not, because you're only 6.
Ella - I already knew that.
Me - This conversation is getting really weird.
Ella - Meh.