dd9 has been slow to get ready in the morning and we are forever falling behind. I have caught her reading books instead of getting dressed so she was told from now on no tablet, wii or computer time if she is not ready to go by 7:30 in the morning. Well yesterday she wasn't ready so I told her "remember not tablet or computer after school." Of course I forgot to stress the wii and I received a call at work from my husband last night asking me if that was still in the deal. My mini-lawyer caught the goof on my part but I told him, "nope. She knew that was the deal from the beginning for every morning." Then when I got home she asked if she was still awake after midnight could she have her tablet because it was a new day. We told her if she was still up after midnight she would get punished because we know that it was planned just for that purpose.

Who are you and why is my daughter living in your house?

DD6 pipes up from the back seat, out of the blue: "Pardon, est-ce que vous comprenez le Francais?"
After nearly driving off the road, I reply, and ask her the same. "En peu," she says breezily
Then, "Et, est-ce que vous comprenez l'Anglais?"
"Oui, je comprends tres bien," I say, and she doesn't know tres bien, so I explain.
"Ah, merci," she says then quietly practices a couple of other phrases - "S'il vous plait" and "Japonaise" etc - to herself.

Meanwhile I'm calculating that she once overheard me playing a half-hour language tape around three months ago. Later DH suggested she and I learn French together but I say no way! Non! She'll leave me for dust (Okay, maybe we will because she's lovely and will help me, lol)

DW and DD (4 at the time) were at a shop checkout waiting to pay with an immaculately turned out lady ahead of them in line. My DD caught this lady's eye and said 'I like your rings' to which the lady replied with thanks. For the next while DD proceeded to compliment the various things that this lady was wearing much to the lady's amusement.

On the car ride home DW asked 'why didn't you just tell her that you liked her outfit?'.

DD replied 'I didn't like her pants'!

DS2 has begun to use compliments disarmingly over the last few weeks. For example:

DS: *Scraping the carpet with a screwdriver to see what's underneath*

Me: DS, please stop scraping the carpet. It damages it. (Repeats a few times when DS ignores me.)

Me: DS, you're not listening to me, are you?

DS: I like Mummy. I like Mummy's beautiful green eyes. *Smiles expectantly until Mummy's resolve predictably melts 3 seconds later*

So this one is not just about my DD but my entire family at Thanksgiving dinner last night. We were sitting around the living room after eating and just discussing things as my family does (no we don't watch the football games and such) and we covered nearly every topic you could possibly cover. My niece discussed her College Algebra class with my father who is a College Algebra teacher (not her teacher) at the same college, after that we discussed her Chemistry and English Classes which would seem normal. But afterwards we moved on to discussing the different presidents, old graves and the stories that go along with them, and how donor body parts are harvested. I realized just where my daughter gets all this curiosity for odd information when my mother looked at me and said I think we need to make a program for holiday discussions to keep track of all the information. And where was my daughter in all this. She and her cousin were in the other room making origami birds and stars that he'd learned from a youtube channel.
So that was my thanksgiving. For those of you who celebrate, happy belated Thanksgiving. And am I the only one who notices my family has strange discussions at family gatherings?

ha! like he needs more skills in charming women. look out, aquinas!

and mine for the day is...

i just found out more about DD5's imaginary friend - i've been hearing her chattering away to him in her room a lot these days so i asked her to tell me a little about what he's like.

not skipping a beat, she says (deadpan) - "you already know him, mum - of course it's Lucius Malfoy." i asked her what on earth they did together (what with him being a dark wizard, and all!) and she told me that she often reads to him and he sometimes helps her with her school work.

uh, yay?

I think I'd be inclined to find out a little more about that schoolwork....

ha - now i have yet another reason to be grateful we're homeschooling this year!

DS3 is inventing his own 'language', which he will talk in for great stretches of time...he calls it 'Portabra'. (he enjoys ballet, so I think that's where that is coming from...just with a phonetic vs. french spelling). It's mostly a lot of gibberish, though super cute gibberish.

He has written down some of the words and their definitions, but mostly it just devolved into silly time where DH and I have NO idea what he's saying (if anything), and DS laughs like a maniac. He's one silly kid.