EH?

Maggie (the dog) and Mom were sitting on the couch when Ellery came up and said in a dreamy voice, "I love you two."

"You mean Maggie and me?"

"No!"

"You mean you love me also?"

"No! I mean I love YouTube!"

It reminded me of this.

A COMMENT TOTALLY OUT OF THE BLUE

Ellery: I will never, ever, ever, ever, EVER eat. one. pickle.

WHAT DANE SAYS

Open accessory!

THE OLD SALT SPEAKS

Ellery cast her weather eye on the sky and said ominously, "I don't like the look of those clouds."

TOO MUCH IS JUST RIGHT

Ellery: That Vanilla Pistachio soap smells so good! Sometimes I overdo it. Well...I always overdo it.

THAT'LL SHOW HER

Ellery: I want to show Lizzie how much I love her and not just for her iPad and phone.

Mom: How are you going to do that?

Ellery: I'll wear my special shoes!

A WISH GRANTED ALMOST INSTANTLY

Dane and Maggie were poised at the edge of the Alderwood Mall fountain, ready to receive their wishing pennies.

"What are you going to wish for?" Aunt Monica asked Maggie.

"I'm going to wish for a stuffed animal teddy bear," Maggie said.

"Dane, what are you going to wish for?"

"I'm going to wish for a penny to throw in there," Dane declared.

MY LITTLE GRAMMARIAN

Ellery and Mom were getting ready to go to the zoo.

"Here's your shoes," Mom said as she handed them to Ellery.

"It would sound better to say, 'Here are your shoes.'" Ellery corrected gently.

Ellery had been sick all week. She told me sadly, "I feel a little unconscious in my belly."

***

When she returned to school after missing a whole week, Ellery was very excited to see everyone and to have everyone see her. It happened to be Valentines Day, however, and her classmates were all buzzing about what kind of valentines and party snacks they had brought.

Disappointed at their lack of interest in her, Ellery said tragically, "It's like I don't even exist!"

WHAT DANE SAYS

Dane discovered a cut on his foot. He immediately called Mimi to tell her all about his "short cut."

Dane and Mimi were playing with beads. A little later, Dane asked, "Mimi, could we play with those beetles again?"

Dane: Mimi, could you give me too many crackers?

THERE'S MORE THAN ONE WAY TO SOLVE A MATH PROBLEM

Ellery was working on her homework.

Kim has 7 toy cars. Sam has 6 toy cars. How many toy cars do they have? Show your strategy for solving.

Ellery drew herself with a talk bubble saying, "Mom, what's 7+6?" and Mom with a talk bubble saying, "13."

MOM JUST CAN'T TELL A JOKE

Ellery: How are an elephant and a tree the same?

Mom: They both have trunks?

Ellery: (disappointed) I was supposed to say that and it was supposed to be funny.

IN TRAINING

Mom came into the living room to see Ellery perched on a stool, a towel spread out in front of her and her feet in a little Tupperware container full of water.

"What are you doing?" Mom asked, bewildered.

"I'm practicing getting my feet cold for when I play in the snow."

THANKSGIVING

Mom: I'm thankful I have you for a daughter.

Ellery: Me too. And I'm thankful for good food. And I'm thankful for Henry (the parrot). Are you still thankful for Henry even though he just peed?

BAD DREAMS

Ellery came down in the middle of the night, crying.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I had a bad dream," she whimpered.

"You can get into bed with me," I said.

"Okay. Wait..." she said with the air of someone about to make a serious mistake, "Mom, do you have sharp teeth?"

"No!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I have the same teeth I always have."

"Okay," she conceded, "I hope Jack Frost doesn't chase me and eat me."

LITTLE PIXIE

I gave Ellery a job to organize all my thread spools by color into the new storage containers I bought. She enjoyed that so much that I suggested she organize all her hair ornaments into the leftover containers. She was happily sorting when she called out, "Mom, pretend you don't know who is organizing your stuff. I want it to be like The Elves and the Shoemaker."

THE THINGS WE HOLD DEAR

I was clipping Ellery's fingernails. "Be careful of the pinkie," she cautioned, "it's very special to me.

LOTS TO THINK ABOUT

Ellery was tossing and turning in bed while I was reading in her room. "You need to go to sleep," I told her.

"I just have a lot on my mind," she told me.

"Like what?"

"I was just thinking about if mermaids were real, and if they are, how we could send supplies down for them to build a playground."

CUE THE DRAMATIC MUSIC

Ellery and I were walking through a silent parking garage. "It's quiet," Ellery remarked, then added suspensefully, "...too quiet."

SIMILARITIES

Ellery was showing all the wallpapers she had saved on my Ipad. She has several categories she enjoys, including cute baby animals, Anime girls and pictures of food. She was showing a picture of coffee beans and she said, "I don't know why I saved this one."

Maybe because you thought it was chocolate," Emily suggested. Sometimes coffee beans look like chocolate."

"And so does goat poop. And M&Ms."