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."

STILL LEARNING THE FINER POINTS OF THE GAME

Maggie called down the stairs to her Hide and Seek playmates, "I'm going to go hide upstairs, in my bed, under the covers."

WHAT MITCHELL SAYS

Mitchell: Hey Nick, you know who's really good at finishing things?

Nick: No. Who?

Mitchell: The Finnish!

* * * * *

Janice (to Ellery): Oh, your hair looks so beautiful!

Mitchell (deliberately misunderstanding): Why thank you.

Janice: Mitchell, I really love your humility.

Mitchell: Don't you think I should get an award for my humility?

NEW MATH

Ellery was playing a game with a balloon, trying to keep it of the ground. At first, she gave herself 10 chances for it to touch the ground. When she had used those chances, she said, "It's okay, I still have ninety-ten chances left."

"I don't think that's a real number," Sarah said doubtfully.

"It is," Ellery assured her. "You just don't hear it very often."