Time and Conversation Snippets

My dear friend Gwen keeps a blog about her son, which I love to read because of her amazing humor and honesty. I have to be careful to not read her writing at work because I often end up laughing out loud and shooting whatever liquid substance I'm drinking (tea, coffee, water) straight out my nose in my attempts to squelch my laughter.  In one of her recent posts, she turns her readers on to another very funny Mama Blogger, who instantly hooked me.

Their humor and composition made me realize I've been way to freakin' serious lately. Good God, no wonder my daughter keeps asking me why my eyebrows are all scrunched up.

I've been having a lot of fun taking walks with Sig lately.  She's 4 and the world is still full of wonder. Hopefully that will last a long time.  Last night we walked up Mitchell Trail a little ways to get the puppy on walk # 2 of the day.  (We've discovered that if Nuptse doesn't take 2 walks during the day she is like a wild Tasmanian devil swirling around our house in the evening.) We went as far as where two little ephemeral streams come together and a whole bunch of burnt trees have fallen and they make bridges over the stream bed.  Right now there is water since the snow has been melting and the girls love it.

We get to the water and Signe pipes up with her new way of introducing her sentences, "It's too bad..." which is said with serious drama, so she says, "It's too bad we can't stay here." I say, "We can stay here as long as you want." And she suddenly she turns from a mood of presumptive disdain to one of extreme excitement.  You wouldn't know that we'd been there 5 times in the past 6 days. She starts splashing around in the water while the pup climbs over logs and creates general mayhem.

Sig - Mom, are there fish in here?
Me - No.
Sig - Why not?
Me - This water only flows for a few weeks in the spring and a few weeks in the summer--probably there's not enough time for the fishies to grow.
Sig - Oh.  Mom, are there sharks in here?
Me - No.
Sig - Why?
Me - Sharks mostly live in the ocean, except for those ones that are small enough to live in fishtanks, or the ones who live in the aquarium.
Sig - Oh. Mom, are there Fish in here?
Me - No.
Sig - Why?
Me - I think the water dries up before they can be born.
Sig - Oh. Mom, are there Sharks in here?
Me - No.
Sig - Why?

You get the idea of where the conversation went.  It was pretty cute. She also says really funny stuff while we are walking.  Nuptse was sniffing poop near a tree.  Sig says, "Nuptse must really like that tree, she's giving it sniff kisses." Good thing she didn't see the poop.

We've been entering the trail by crossing the street, trespassing walking across our neighbor's empty lot, and climbing up a steep and unconsolidated hill that crests at the old water tank. Last night when we got to the top Sig said, "Wow!  Where is this place?!"  I said, this is the place we've been using to get to the trail.  Sig says, "I know. God  I hate this trail."  I asked why and she said, "because I just don't like water tanks."  "Really," I ask, "what don't you like about water tanks?" "They are just so big and make me feel like a Polly Pocket."  Makes sense, I muse.

I should probably bring a portable tape player just to record her stuff.  It's pretty fun.