Lessons learned

It’s been a while since my last (and only 2nd post) but alas…I have returned to write again.

This past weekend was one in which I learned a few things from my beautiful daughter. She seems to be a constant fountain of knowledge lately but yesterday seemed to be exceptional for some reason.

This may be a rather random thing to notice about your child but I was thoroughly impressed by Molly’s sculpting skills. Yes…I said sculpting…as in clay. She made herself a Cat, her dad an awesome alligator and a blue dog for me, because, as she put it…”you are a fan of dogs!” A FAN??!! That, my friends, is the point at which you realize that you say something a little too often. She also informed me, last week, that she wasn’t “really a fan of celery in her salad!” But back to my point…Molly may have a future in Art. I guess we will have to see. All I can say is that I was thoroughly impressed with her renderings. If she peruses a career in Art I can say without a doubt that she can thank her father. As I have zero artistic ability what so ever!

I came to a second (and much more distressing) realization about Molly. I may have a bit of a sneaky devil on my hands. Here is the story.
It is Sunday afternoon and Molly requests soup for lunch. Not a problem…I make her some soup and myself a sandwich and we have our lunch. After finishing my sandwich, I realize that Molly has only had a few bites of her soup. I remind her that she needs to eat her lunch. (Sometimes Sponge bob becomes a distraction to us during mealtimes) She then gives me the “I-don’t-really-like-this-kind-of-soup”… look. (I am slightly irritated because I asked her to make sure that she wanted this soup before I made it.) I asked her to take a few more bites and then she could be done. She begrudgingly says ok.

I leave the room to clean up a little and go downstairs to do some laundry. As I come upstairs about 10 minutes later she calls me into the kitchen (very excitedly) and says…”look at how much soup I ate Mommy!!!!” I look at her bowl and immediately am suspicious. I realize that unless Molly has begun licking her bowls clean…she did not eat as much as she is claiming to have eaten. But Moby (our loving and very hungry dog), on the other hand, is looking quite satisfied. I look at Molly and say “Wow, are you sure you ate all that soup?” The large smile on her beautiful face fades, as she realizes that her conniving trickery may not have been such a good idea. She gives me a hesitant nod (sticking to her story). So I ask her again…”Molly, are you sure that you ate ALL of that soup??? This time she doesn’t answer at all. She simply looks at me with the guiltiest look I have ever seen on that precious face. (Which is probably appropriate considering the fact that I don’t think she has ever been so blatant about her wrongdoings). She finally admits that she has LIED to me! What actually happened is this…She ate only a small amount of her soup and walked away from her bowl. Since Moby lives to eat what Molly leaves behind…he finished her soup. Molly saw this as an opportunity to take the credit for having eaten her lunch and get the dessert that she REALLY wanted. Guess who was sent to her room for lying to her Mommy??? So…the lesson Molly learned was that sometimes Mommy is a little bit smarter than Molly. The lesson I learned…I almost got outsmarted by my 5 year old!

Later the same day, I am painting in our living room. I accidentally got paint on the carpet and said “shoot…I got some paint on the carpet…we just won’t tell Daddy…” DAMN IT! (as I remember the talk Molly and I had earlier that same day) Molly reminds me that we should never, never lie about anything!!!(even if Daddy will be mad) So…I have to “confess” to Daddy that I got paint on the carpet.
Lesson learned: Kids remember everything! Don’t ever think that they won’t throw your own words back at you.

The final lesson for the day…(this comes directly from Molly) “It is never, ever, ever, OK to say ASS!”