Might as well note for the record that this is the week of Trine being in the hospital and everything being a little topsy-turvy in our lives. I’m not gonna blog about that, but there were three Molli Malou and Maddie anecdotes I just feel like recording as I cool down with my evening cocktail and wait for the last load of laundry to finish.
First, when I went to Vibeke & Jørgen’s for dinner this evening, Maddie was crawling around the kitchen floor when I stepped into the apartment (the girls had been down there since about 11). Maddie came padding giddily over to me, then seized my ankles and exclaimed, “Daddy!”
Really! As clear as that! I had witnesses. It was an incredible moment.
Second: in the car on the way home, Molli Malou was being deliberately chatty because, as she explained, she wanted to stay awake so she wouldn’t forget to remind me to go into the garage and look for some light-colored dog (“bright” she’d said at first, and I’d eventually learned that by this she meant tan or light brown rather than black or dark brown like her other dogs) with drooping ears and a bow on one of them that she’d seen herself holding in a picture on Mormor’s computer. As part of her amazing talk, she… well, let me try to put it into dialogue form.
“…also, Daddy, I want to bring my lip gloss to børnehaven tomorrow.”
“I don’t think that’s allowed, honey.”
“No, Daddy, it’s not, you’re not supposed to have lip gloss, but the other kids does, and they say, ‘Want to see my lip gloss?’ and then all the other kids says, ‘yeah,’ and so they take it out of their pocket even though they’re not supposed to take it out of their pocket and the other kids look and then I look and then I wish I had my own lip gloss with me.”
“So you’re saying the other kids break the rules so you think you should be able to break the rules, too.”
“No, Daddy, you don’t understand anything.”
“What do the grownups say when they see the kids with lip gloss?”
“They tell them, ‘put that back in your pocket,’ and the kids say okay, and then when the grownups isn’t there anymore, then they take it out again, and they lie, Daddy, they actually lie, they lie to the grownups, like Signe Marie, when the grownups said, ‘Did you have it out of your pocket?’ She said, ‘No,’ but she did, Daddy, she did take it out of her pocket!”
“Well, skat, just because theyr’e breaking the law doesn’t mean you should. I mean, people go and rob stores all the time, but that doesn’t mean I should go rob a store, does it?”
“Rob, Daddy, that means stealing in English.”
“That’s right, hon. Actually, robbing is English too. Stealing and robbing are kind of the same thing. They’re–“
“Yeah, rob and steal are both English. Daddy, I want to go to New York.”
I swear that’s how the conversation went. Five and a half years old and talk of crime takes her straight to New York. (Further conversation revealed that she wants to go to New York so she can ride on the big kid rides at Disneyland. I didn’t bother with a geography lesson: plenty of time for that.)
Third: this dog was obviously important to her. She kept interrupting our conversation in the car to remind me not to forget. Finally we got home, and she was beside herself, hopping around the house prodding me to go and get the damn dog.
“Not until Maddie’s asleep! Now shh!”
I brought Maddie down to her bedroom, laid her down, and tucked her in. (She was pretty woozy from the ride up, though not asleep.) Eventually I left her room. Molli Malou was waiting in the hallway.
“Now you’ll go get the dog, Daddy? Is it now? Will you go look?”
I shook my head wearily as I trudged down the hall.
“All right already,” I moaned, “I’ll go get your fricking dog.”
“Daddy! He’s not a fricking dog! I told you: he’s bright!”
Sådan!
Just wanted those three things down for the record, and there they are.
Also, for the permanent record, Maddie slept from 7:15pm last night until 7:15am this morning without so much as a peep. Not a cough nor a cry nor a scream. Twelve blessed hours of silence. A new Maddie record.
Hoping for a repeat tonight, but I’m not holding my breath…
Hi! The lip gloss one reminds me of kids with cell phones in my grade. You can tell molli that my friend was always good. She had her cell once, and she got in BIG trouble.
Good Stories. Glad you are keeping a sense of humor. AML Dad