Mines instead of mine, and double negatives. I know, I know, dialectical variation and all that, but it still grates to hear! And of course two days after Ana picked them up, Evangeline stole them directly from her. (It's really remarkable how much Evangeline idolizes her big sister.)

Evangeline (today, while "putting on a show"): Connie, ask me if I want a cookie.
Me (thinking that she didn't say please): *silence*
Evangeline: Connie, you didn't say nothing!
Me: On the contrary, I most certainly did say nothing.
Evangeline: Bu- SAY SOMETHING! Please?

You can't trip up these girls about anything, you know :)

~~~~~~~~

Evangeline has a quirk with certain past tenses. I'm trying to work out how this quirk exactly works - every time I notice it I think I should write it down, and then by the time I get where I can and I also remember to do so, I've forgotten the exact situation!

With words like had and got, she tends to go "hadded" and "gotted". This is new. I remember hearing the words, but I seem to remember that there was something interesting about it, not just a case of her trying to both use what she knows is the correct form and ALSO use what she knows is the right way to past-tense a verb. But maybe I'm misremembering. When I see them again (they're up with their grandmother for the week) I'll pay closer attention.

~~~~~~~~

Much later today, when Ana was out at the store fetching eggs for me (man, the ability to send her out the store is so damn freeing. "The spoon for my icee broke, whatever shall I dooooo?" "Go fix it yourself". And when we got the icees? I realized halfway out the door - hey! Ana! You're the kid! I pay, you carry. It was so strange walking with nothing in my hands or over my arm! I go nowhere without a bag or a book or a bag FULL of books! I don't go so much as down to Ana's school to pick her up without bringing something. And sure, when I go big shopping with the kids, I make them each carry something, but something small. But icees, now, that day I could (and did) make Ana carry all of them) I got Evangeline dressed. (See that? Now, if I couldn't send Ana, I would've had to forgo the eggs or else made Evangeline get dressed so we could all trek out. The gift of time, guys.) And she was in a really whiny mood, grumbling that she shouldn't have to sit to put on her shoes.

"I don't care!" she said.

And then she brightened, almost immediately, because she'd remembered something, and she knew she'd gotten it right. "I'll pull down your underwear!"

Me: Hah, I'm not wearing underwear!
Her: I know that. It's just how the rhyme goes!

She often misremembers rhymes, getting the gist but not the words right, and she knows it, so she was very proud and happy that she'd done this JUST RIGHT, and finished getting dressed without a second's fuss.

~~~~~~~~~~

Today, the girls were outside making HUMONGOUS bubbles and the baby next door, Madison, came over to pop them. Madison was having a BLAST toddling around after the "big" girls and grinning like... something... that... grins a lot. And the girls were having fun with her. Evangeline came running up to tell me she came over (because a Connie hath not eyes to see, apparently), and then ran back down so she could "be nice to her".

And I'm looking at this kid, who is only as much younger than Evangeline as Evangeline is than Ana, and they DWARFED her. She looked so TINY, and they both looked so BIG, my little nieces.

But you know what struck me? In comparison to Madison, the two of them looked just about the same height. Evangeline, when I bother to look, I can see that she's barely half a head shorter than her sister, and she's more filled out as well - Ana is a skinny Minnie, really. And the two of them are only one size apart as far as shoes go. The shoes they got recently are the same make, and they've both made mistakes picking which shoes to wear until Ana got the idea to always check the tag first.

In a few years, I'll be surprised if Evangeline isn't the same height as or even taller than her sister. Don't know how Ana will take that....

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, family, language
I'm feeling: calm

http://blog.when.com/2009/06/30/kids-menus-get-tastier-and-healthier/

It's a blurby article (I'm not sure the meaning of blurby will get across, as it's not related to any actual blurb at all, but it's the best I can do. And? Blurb is a fun word to say. Try it!) about how some restaurants have healthier kid's meal choices.

And one of the one they mention is on Staten Island.

This is not a Staten Island publication.

It's freakin' surreal, guys!

Tags: staten island
I'm feeling: geeky

I happened to pass by a sign on the N train the other day. "In observance of the da-da-da-da-da running on a Saturday schedule".

And I thought how funny it was, because, of course, the holiday is on a Saturday. And then I stopped and thought a bit more. The MTA has its problems, of course, but they're not yet so addled that they're putting up pointless signs like that.

Oh. Ah. I see the problem! The part I skimmed over? Says that they'll be running on a Saturday schedule on FRIDAY, July THIRD.

Well, good for them! Because it's not like people have to go to work on a Friday or anything, not like they'll have to fight through herds of tourists to do so anyway.

Tags: rantlings
I'm feeling: annoyed

A cop arrests a suspect 15 minutes after graduating from the academy. That's pretty awesome

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An editorial on how democracy wasn't the only option in 1776. Interesting.

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An editorial on requiring doctors to study geriactrics before they do their internships

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An article on how some states are cutting summer school due to budget cuts

( Read more... )

Tags: articles, education, health, holidays, nyc
I'm feeling: accomplished

As I'd missed the boat, I decided to walk through the park. I caught a few fireflies (who were strangely reluctant to leave my hand!) and noticed that some actors were doing... some play by Shakespeare. At "I am a very foolish fond old man, fourscore and upward, not an hour more..." I went "Oh, it must be King Lear", and then realized that, as I've never read King Lear I was probably wrong.

But I wasn't.

I stayed for the rest of the performance. Sure, I came in at the end, but I knew the story* and it was great fun. Well, for a tragedy, anyway. Instead of changing scenes they moved from location to location within the park, and the whole audience had to follow them. This was especially funny in the big fight scene, with all of us running en masse from Castle Clinton to the WTC Memorial :) (Of course, then everybody died, because it's a tragedy, but there you go.) The mass movement helped relieve some of the mental stress of having to keep focusing on Shakespeare's English.

They're doing another performance Sunday, and another on Monday. I'll be there on time, catch the whole thing.


*Indeed, one of my favorite fairy tales growing up was "As Meat Loves Salt", which is King Lear without all the senseless violence.