Log-in

I caught this gem yesterday during an uneventful car ride when Ella was having a conversation with some imaginary friends in Alaska and Greenland:

Ella - I'm going to go on Facebook. Oh no, a thief has been. And he has stolen my log off button!

You can't always get what you want

Me - I forgot to bring the gnome you painted.
Ella [joking] - Bad mum! Bad mum!
Me - Oh, I'm not such a bad mum, am I?
Ella - You're a great mum! Because you gave me pancakes and icecream and you give me everything I want!
Me [laughing] - I don't give you everything you want! That would make me a bad mum.

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Underwater world

We were watching a documentary about life in the ocean.

David Attenborough - For a billion years the ocean was the only place on earth where life existed.
Ella - The ocean was the only planet where life existed for a billion years?!

... Watching the images of typical ocean life. ...

Ella - Were there shops there?
Me - Where?
Ella - There, in the ocean.
Me - No, there's no shops there. Why?
Ella - Oh no! That means they can't buy anything to wear. Or to protect theirselves against sharks!
Me - Who?
Ella - The people who lived in the ocean back then.


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How not to flatter your mother

Ella - Mum, were you alive when the dinosaurs were alive?

Just a kid

Me - This is a big lunch. I don't think I'll need dinner tonight.
Ella - You do. Because if you don't eat dinner, you might die!
Me [laughing] - No, I don't think I'll die from skipping dinner once.
Ella - Don't laugh at me. I'm only a kid! If a grown-up would say that, it's ok to laugh. But I'm only a kid and I don't know everything.

Note to Ella

When your mum has just discovered that the paint stains - that you carelessly made on the 5-day old lino in the new rental kitchen, because you did "not hear" her advice about putting some paper under your painting - won't come off with water and soap, "Whose fault is it?" is most definitely the wrong question to ask. "Will I ever get pocket money again?" or even "Will I live to see my 6th birthday?" are probably more apt questions in this situation. Though the wisest option would probably be to stay well clear of your frantically panicking next of kin until her blood pressure has come down considerably.

I wonder if the smell of tea-tree oil - which turned out to be the miracle cleaning aid that saved mum's sanity - will forever make this memory surface for her now?

Training boys

Ella just tells me about this game she plays with "the boys" at school. She sits somewhere up high and pretends she's having a picnic. And all the boys are dogs. And she is their owner. And they're really bad dogs. And they end up knocking over the whole picnic. And then she has to train them. Then she went on to demonstrate how she says "Sit!" and then sits to show them. And then she says "Come!" and runs away and they all run after her.

What a great image!

And better than the stories she tells me about her so-called best female friends who seem to spend most of their time fighting with and excluding eachother.