Today's Maeve Moments

1. Last night at dinner, there were sweet potatoes, left over from last fall (frozen, not like in the cabinet). The girls hate sweet potatoes but really wanted dessert. I usually don't hold food over kids' heads, but the lamentations about sweet potatoes get to be too much. There were bargains struck and so forth. Sophia said, "Do we get dessert after bath?" And Mike told her that if she didn't finish the sweet potatoes on her plate, there would be no dessert. This began a list of things that would revoke dessert: being bad in the tub, being bad to one's sister, etc. And Sophia said, "But I'm innocent!"

So Mike added, "Lying about being innocent gets you no dessert either."

Maeve, with a mouthful of sweet potato, dripping slightly out of one corner of her mouth, said soberly, "I'm not innocent." Yup.

2. Questions from today in the car:
Do cats have hearts? Yes.
How do we know cats have hearts? You can feel them if they're sitting still and your hand is on their chests.
Do cats have cheeks? Yes.
But where are they? They're where ours are. By their mouths, in front of their teeth.
Do cats have freckles? Well, my old cat Wiz had splotches on his skin, sort of like different colors. I don't know about the other cats. Bleys has some little spots by his mouth and nose.

3. They Might Be Giants has a collection of kids songs about science called Here Comes Science. And one of them is about the bloodstream. In it, they cover topics like white blood cells fighting infection and hormones telling us when to go to sleep, when to grow, etc. But the white blood cell part is sung like an army song and goes:
The white blood cells are soldiers
That fight infectious germs
They make the antibodies
Their weapons in the fight

Maeve has decided the lyrics go this way:
the white blood cells are soldiers
Who fight infectious jerks
They make the antique bodies
The weapons in the fight

So tonight at dinner the conversation turned to antique bodies. And jerks.

4. Last night: Mom, I want a gurgle max. What's a gurgle max? You wear it in the water to help you breathe and look at fish. I just let this one go.