Ever helpful...

Cassie: "Dad? Can I color? I'm going to make you an email. For your work."

The kid kind of octopus salad

Cassie: Sperm whales love eating squid!
Bonnie: Me too! Yum!
Cassie: [laughs] No! Squid spray ink. You can't eat them. And octopuses. They spray ink too.
Bonnie: Some people eat squid. If you fry them, they're called calamari.
Nicole: Yep. Yesterday I was at a fish store and they were selling octopus to eat.
Cassie: Mommy?
Nicole: Yes, Cass?
Cassie: After school can you take me to a store to buy some octopus so I can eat it?
Nicole: Hmm. I don't think I can take you today. Maybe some time this weekend. The supermarket has an octopus salad you could try.
Cassie: Okay. But Mom?
Nicole: Yes, Cass?
Cassie: Is it spicy?
Nicole: I'm not sure.
Cassie: Because I don't like things that are very spicy. I like things a little spicy, but if it's very spicy, for grownups, we can go to another store where they have a kid kind that is not spicy and I can try that, okay Mom?
Nicole: OK.
Cassie: Because sometimes if something is very spicy, there's a kid kind that's not spicy, and that's the kind of octopus I want to eat.
Nicole: Okey dokey. Can we put on your socks now?

Help wanted

Cassie: "Daddy, can I help you with your work?"
Me: "Uh, sure sweetheart!"
Cassie: "Daddy, why you always need help with your work?"

A short song about princesses and taxis

Cassie composed and sang this yesterday:

I really like taxis
Princesses ride in taxis
Ariel in a taxi

She paused, then said, "That's a short song!"

Affection

Nicole: "Cassie, I love being your mommy more than anything else in the world." (A list follows of things that are less enjoyable than being Cassie's mother, such as going to work, using the computer, watching TV, etc.)

Cassie, in response: "I like bugs!"

In the car

Cassie: "Dad?"
Me: "Yes?"
Cassie: "Dad?"
Me: "Yes?"
Cassie: "Dad?"
Me: "Yes?"
Cassie: "Dad?"
Me: "Yes?"
Cassie: "Dad?"
Me: "Yes?"
...
This continues until Nicole reaches over and removes Cassie's headphones, at which point she can hear me.

Little girl

Cassie: "That was my favorite book when I was a little girl. (pause) I am a little girl now."

Sharing is hard

Cassie: It's my whole wide world. Not Daniel's!

Snot sucker

Cassie: [holding up bulb aspirator]: What's this?
Nic: A snot sucker.
Cassie: Why?
Nic: For sucking snot.
Cassie: Boogers?
Nic: Yep. Snot is another word for boogers.
(pause)
Cassie: In Spanish?

City Kid

Cassie, on a walk: "Look! I found salad!"
Nicole: "It's called grass."

Food!

Yesterday...

Cassie: "But vegetables make me ANGRY!" (She subsequently sat at the table and ate her vegetables unprompted, which was not surprising given that she actually prefers vegetables to most other foods.)

Today...

Cassie: "I eat salmon. Whales eat salmon."
Josh: "I think some bears eat salmon too."
Cassie: "Three things eat salmon!"

The discussion that followed included observations that bears also eat honey, whales and penguins eat squid, some penguins eat broken purple squid, squid are yucky because they have ink in them, sperm whales are mean because they eat squid, blue whales are nice (unstated but understood: that's because they eat krill), humpback whales and blue whales are nice because they give you a ride on their backs, and Cassie's hat makes her colder.

So eloquent!

Viv: "Uh dadadadadadadada" Yeah!

The vegetable street!

Cassie: "I was with Daniel, and we were on the vegetable street and there was a fire truck, and the fire-truck man said hi!"
(The vegetable street is the block in front of Fairway.)

Nighttime again?

Cassie: "After we have so much fun, is it going to be nighttime again?" Vacation from school this week has been a bit confusing for her...

I hammered her so gently!

Cassie, holding a small plastic hammer from the Don't Break the Ice game, next to Vivian: "I hammered her so gently."

----

Cassie: "What's this in my hair?"
Nicole, removing barrette: "It's a cat playing the guitar."
Cassie, looking closely at it: "No, it's a barrette!"
Nicole: "But what's on it?"
Cassie, looking even more closely: "It's a bear holding a jello!"
(Cassie had learned about the cello in a recent class at school.)

Not bigger enough yet!

Cassie: How old I is?
Daddy: Three and a half
Cassie: I not bigger enough yet
Mommy: For what?
Cassie: To touch the sky

Hanukkah!

Cassie is Jewish. And she assumes every else is as well. This morning, on the walk to school, she pointed to a Best Buy truck and said "Look! Issa dreidel truck!" You can't fault her logic:



Unrelated: this morning, right after Cassie woke up, she said to me: "I was angry yesterday when James took the penguin from the snowy coast." Nicole confirms the account. James and Cassie apparently had a real difference of opinion about the Fisher Price Little People Zoo. Cassie knows where penguins belong, and she's not shy about expressing it.

Twins

Cassie is learning about twins. Imperfectly. "When I was a baby, and Vivian was a baby, we were TWINS!"
Unrelated: Cassie has started calling Vivian "The Viv," which I suspect will become a lasting nickname.

Just how clean is it?

Me, this morning, as I finished washing a spoon for Cassie's lunchbox: "It's clean!"
Cassie, seated on the counter to my left, checking my work: "Is it clean as a whistle?"