Out of the Mouths of Preternaturally Precocious Children

(aka, Conversations with E, Age 6)

#1:
E: What are we doing tomorrow, Mommy?
TC: Well, I have to go to my office and work, but Daddy's going to work out at the gym in the morning, so I'll hang out with you guys for a while and we'll find something fun to do. OK?
E: Yeah. That sounds reasonable.

#2:
I picked a huge basket full of lemons--we have two very productive trees in the backyard, and if we don't do something with the lemons soon, they're all going to get overripe. So I set E up with the electric juicer, cut all the lemons in half, and told her to have at it.
TC: Now, Em, if this is too much for you, don't worry about it. Just do as much as you can.
E: Nah. I'm going to do all of it. I need a good challenge in my life right now.

#3:
Baroy picked up E from aftercare the other day. He then sent me the following email:

"Okay - so I'm driving Emmy home from after-school care and as we're heading up the hill towards our house. I pointed out to her how pretty the foothills looked with the sun setting and she says to me, 'It is pretty. It looks like an artist shaded the dark places and made the other places light. Just like that artist...oh, it isn't Matisse. Who is that artist, Daddy?'

Who the hell am I raising?"

[FWIW, she was referring to Georgia O'Keefe. They have this Meet the Masters program at school, and they learned about O'Keefe a few months back, and they did apparently talk about shading and 3-dimensional painting, etc.]

#4: Just so N doesn't get left out of this...

I decided to start N at one of those Little Gym places that just opened up in our neighborhood. He doesn't separate well (actually, he didn't leave my side throughout the entire trial lesson, but we're going to give it another shot), so I tried preparing him ahead of time. I kept telling him about the fun gym we were going to go to, and about all the equipment, and all the children, and the nice teachers. Friday, we were driving home from daycare, and I mentioned it to him again:

TC: Hey, N, are you excited about going to Little Gym with just mommy tomorrow?
N: NO!
TC: You're not excited?
N: No Leelul Gym! I go Big, Big Gym!

And, indeed, that is now what both he and I refer to it as: The Big Big Gym. Actually, it's a better name than Little Gym, if you ask me...