IT'S NOT ME, IT'S YOU

I had two-year-old Jack and two-month-old Joey while Emily was at the gym and I also had a very insistent Ellery. "Watch this, Mom! Push me in the swing! Move Jack!"

I gave Jack a snack of goldfish crackers and he wanted to share with Ellery. "I want my own goldfish crackers," she said bossily.

"You're very demanding," I commented.

"Okay, okay," she said. Then, under her breath, "Let just say it's your fault."

BOSS LADY

Ellery likes to sit at the little coffee table, surrounded by her papers, markers, toys, dishes from snacks, clothes she's changed into and out of and various other bits and pieces. As I was cleaning house, I kept urging her to clean up her little domain. After repeated nagging, Ellery complained, "I don't want to do my job. I don't feel well."

I replied, "I don't feel well either and I still have to do my job."

"Let me guess," she said grumpily, "your job is bossing me."