7 Quick Takes Friday

1. Daphne: "It's cold out there!"
Me: "Yes, it is."
Daphne: "I was talking to Puddles!"
Me: "Oh."
Daphne: "You said, 'Oh.' You said, 'Oh,' Mama? You said 'Oh.'"
Me: "YES!"
Daphne: "Please stop it saying YES!"
Conversations with Daphne are articulate but monotonous.

2. Tonight is the HSLDA Christmas party, and I get to attend for the first time in three or four years. I bought my dress two and a half months ago, before the advent of Baby. It's a cute black-and-white polka dotted knee-length high-waisted thing (the dress, not Baby). For the past three weeks I've been trying it on periodically to make sure I still fit in it. I do, but I sure do fill it out.

3. Stuart doesn't like doing school. It's boring and he hates it, he says. So when I announce, "School in ten minutes!" Stuart puts on his Defiance Hat. He marches to the school desk, grabs his math book, and does three pages before it's even time to start. So there.

4. We're putting up our Christmas tree tomorrow. Well, Darren and the kids will put it up and decorate it: I'll make cheese straws. My grandma made them every year. She died seven years ago, so now it's special to take out the recipe in her handwriting and make her cheese straws.

5. Last night, Darren and I read through our early-courtship emails together. It's the only time I've ever gotten multiple-page emails from him. At the time we were writing the emails, Darren and I weren't telling many people about our situation. We didn't want the word getting out that Sara and Darren Are Courting! only to have to go back and say that Actually We Decided Not To. Hence the following conversation with my sisters:

Rosemary: "You need to tell Jenna that Darren is coming to visit." [My friend Jenna worked with Darren, and Rosemary was buying a violin from her.]

Sara: "I don't want to tell Jenna yet." [Partly on principle, and partly because I knew Jenna was going to say, 'I TOLD you he was interested in you!']

Rosemary: "I really think you need to tell her. Because then she can give her violin to Darren, and he can bring it down with him. It would save on shipping and besides, it's great timing. Darren's first visit, he wants to make a good impression -- it would look really good if he brought the violin for me."

Lauren: "I think Darren should bring gifts for the whole family."

Sara: "I don't want to tell many people. I don't want the word to get out yet."

Lauren: "Just tell Jenna that if you can trace the news back to her, Rose won't send money for the violin."

I think, in the end, I did tell Jenna and Darren did bring the violin down, and Jenna did say "I TOLD you so!" She also kept the secret.

6. Do you know what's worse than hearing the same kids' Christmas album over and over? Hearing it over and over in two places at once: on the computer in the living room, and the actual CD in Addie's room. PLUS, Addie's CD was one stanza behind the computer.

7. I'm not very good at "quick" takes.

More at Conversion Diary.

-- SJ