A little wisdom from the 4 year old...

Molly's new vocabulary word is ominous. She learned it while watching “Martha Speaks” on PBS one morning. Ominous is defined as “suggesting or indicated that something bad is going to happen or be revealed.” Apparently Martha, the talking dog, did not define it this way. She made things simpler for the preschool set and used it in terms of clouds during a storm. So we spent a couple of weeks talking about the difference between regular clouds (white, puffy, cumulonimbus clouds…yes, she knows that word too), storm clouds and ominous storm clouds. When I tried to say that ominous could be used in other ways, she let me know that was NOT what Martha said.

Monday we dropped Colin off at tennis camp. As we got back into the car, I heard a little voice say from the back seat “oh dear, look at those ominous clouds. We should warn everyone that a storm is coming. With ominous clouds like that the storm should be bad. Those kids need to get to a safe place.” She was right! The clouds were very ominous (green in color) and so we did warn the tennis class to head for cover. On our way home she continued to talk about the approaching clouds, using the word ominous no less than 12 times in 5 minutes. I think she has that word down now, at least as far as it refers to clouds.

Then today I had a stellar mom moment on the way home from tennis when I threatened to put my kids in daycare for the rest of the summer so I don't have to listen to them fight anymore. Molly waited until I cooled off and approached me about the subject. With her saddest puppy dog eyes and a bit of a pouted lip, she said “you aren’t going to send ME to daycare, are you Mommy? I don’t like it there.” If that wasn’t enough, she put her hand on her hip and stuck out one foot in a gesture I know to mean she is going to share world knowledge with me next. She continued to say “You know, you don’t have much more time at home with JUST me and I think you shouldn’t get so stressed out about cleaning and stuff and just spend your time playing with me. It won’t be long and I will be grown up like the brothers are.” She kept talking, but I have no idea what she said next. All I could think was how did I get so “lucky” to have three smart (additional adjective possible here) kids? God help me!