Days

Because Emmuska's birthday is approaching we've had a lot of these conversations lately:
'What present do I get to open today?'
'None it's not your birthday yet.'
'Is tomorrow my birthday?'
'No'
'Tomorrow's tomorrow?'
'Yes tomorrow's tomorrow otherwise known as the day after tomorrow is your birthday.'
'Is tomorrow yesterday?'
'No tomorrow is tomorrow.'
'Is today yesterday?'
'No today is today.'
'Is today tomorrow?'
'No today was tomorrow yesterday.'
Yeah try to wrap your head around that. The first time I said it I had to sit there and make sure I said it right. Of course it is now almost like breathing as we have conversations like this a lot. (Minus the birthday bit - that's new we usually just jump right into the Is today yesterday? part.) My almost four year old - helping to keep my brain active.

Articulate

This pretty much sums up Emmuska right now. She loves to communicate (which is a bit of an understatement but it will have to do). Everywhere we go she starts conversations with those around her, including telling the tour guide all about why she has Car shoes right now, our neighbor about how 'annoying' Missouri-kid-Kentucky can be but she likes her anyway, Mycal's classmate all about mosquitoes (including some lore picked up from the Little Einstein's Firebird Rescue) and a random grocery store clerk how everybody has blood and that ticks like to suck to suck it. Throughout this all she has been putting together a fairly impressive vocabulary. Saturday while Mycal was playing around with Liberty because she wouldn't stop crying Emmuska piped up "Daddy stop antagonizing Liberty." and yesterday she explained to me that she wasn't going to open her car door because there was a vehicle next to her. When I asked what a vehicle was she said 'Usually it's a car or truck.' But every now and then real words don't quite do what she has to say justice - so she comes up with her own. Current favorites are 'burridosos' for burritos 'mazert' for dessert and 'boozing' for the action that is blowing really wet raspberries. (I've no idea how that one possibly came about...and my questioning only ever gets the response 'it's boozing - that's just what it is, boozing'). I guess when all else fails to express your actions/feelings make something new up.

Umm...I think not

Emmuska is hilarious. Anytime I ask her a question that has a negative answer she pauses takes a breath in, expelling it in an 'ummm, I think not.' She says it in the way a person sharing their vast knowledge, gently directing a misguided novice would. Like I absolutely believed that she ate her sandwich when I asked and she had the difficult duty to inform me otherwise. I don't know where this child gets her command of English as well as her intonations - (okay I can guess at the use of the language given the environment that surrounds her...)

All Clear

Our laundry facilities are down the hall. Emmuska being the independent person that she is insists that she leads the way every time we leave our door, walk the twenty feet down the hall into the laundry room. (Actually she insists on being the leader everywhere we go - but that's another story.) This afternoon I mentioned we needed to go shuffle laundry and was pulling some things together to do so - in which time she could easily (and usually does) dart out the door, run to the laundry room and back to our apartment before I'm actually to the door to leave. This time she darted out into the hall, came back in and shouted "All Clear!" then darted back out. I managed to follow her out and asked ''all clear' what does that even mean?' to which she respond "There's nobody out here, we are clear to go" in that voice that says "gosh mom you're not too on top of modern terminology sometimes, but that's okay because I'm willing to take the time to explain it too you." Between being completely amused, I couldn't help but wonder where in the world she had picked up the phrase (in proper context no less...) as well as how long she was going to be patient enough to explain everything to me.