From the Mouths of Babes

Well this was bound to happen - the girls have adopted some Aussie lingo and are very comfortable in the usage of many of these gems. Before I continue with the next anecdote, the following translations will add to the humour of the story:

Stubbie - a beer
Mate - buddy, pal, comrade, friend, acquaintance, anyone really

Anyways, now to the story...the girls were eating dinner last night and Dug and I were puttering in the kitchen when Elise pipes up (completely out of the blue): "Duggie, can you get me a stubbie, mate and pass me the remote". Once Dug and I picked ourselves up off the floor from laughing so hard, we almost did get her one, just because she was so earnest.

Next funny Elise story - she is going to be really mad when she finds out that the entire world can read these stories. The girls are pretty obsessed with making "nature houses". These are plastic tupperware containers that they fill with rocks and dirt and leaves to attract various wild critters to come and live in them. There are currently 5 of them in the back yard. Anyways, back to my story. I was home with Elise this afternoon and she was busy making a nature house out of a sandwich container. This house was intended to hold her pet lizard called "lizzy" - it is important to note that we don't have a lizard named "Lizzy". So Elise was out catching ants for Lizzy and in spite of my insistence, was bringing them inside to put in the nature house. In she comes - ant in each hand - good sized ones clenched tightly between thumb and forefinger...when she starts to yell - "they're biting me - they're biting me!" She starts to cry, very loudly, still yelling that she is being bitten. So here's the scene...Elise is crying and screaming, the dog is going crazy in the commotion, and there are ants now dropping out of the container all over the kitchen floor. It was like "Wild Kingdom" - beasts locked in a battle of survival. Elise was in pain, but determined to keep these ants tightly clenched in her hands. I'm sure they did not appreciate the humour of the situation or maybe had some insight into the fact that if they survived the squeezing, they were going to be fed to a non-existent lizard called "lizzy". Regardless it was funny - Elise was holding on out of pure stubbornness and the ants holding on for dear life. The ants finally won and Elise dropped them and then promptly squished them both.

My time here has taught me to appreciate the small things in life...