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I've been at home this past week celebrating Christmas with the family and catching up with some old friends. It's been wonderful and I'm so glad that my job allows for this much time off at the holidays. I have spent a number of hours with a good friend of mine from high school, Laura, and her family.

Laura's daughter, Claire, has to be one of the sweetest and most adorable kids I know. She is 22 months old, very well behaved and super friendly! I only see her once or twice a year and she acts like she knows me right away when I visit and always has hugs and kisses to give. Really, is there anything better than that?

As many of you know, I tend to get a kick out of kids and the random things they say...Claire has been no exception to this lately. The other day we were sitting in the kitchen and Claire was asking if she could watch a bit of a movie while dinner was cooking. [authors note: I am not around kids of this age on a regular basis and sometimes it takes me a bit to translate what they actually say.] I asked Claire which movie was her favorite and she looked up at me with her big eyes and long lashes and said "f*%k." I smiled to myself and said, "what?" Claire responded "f*%k." I looked to my friend Laura for assistance and asked, "what did she say?" Laura looks at me (with this look on her face as though she couldn't believe I hadn't understood Claire) and said, "Shrek."

I cracked up and said "dang, sure sounded like she was dropping the 'f-bomb' there." Claire continued asking for "f*%k" and for "donkey and f*%k" and I tried SO hard not to laugh. Well, when Laura finally realized (and admitted) how much it really did sound like what I was hearing, I was not successful in holding it back and I was laughing so hard I thought I might wet myself! Claire just looked at mommy like she was ready to ask her "who is this crazy lady?"

I wish I could say that I didn't encourage more conversations about that giant green ogre with Claire during our time together, but I can't. =) Laura has since thanked me (rather sarcastically) for ruining the way she hears her daughter saying "Shrek" and, as a language educator, has committed herself to working more on the "shhh" sound with Claire.

To top it off, I made sure that Claire had a nice new (and noisy) toy before I left town. She is now the proud owner of a pint-sized recorder and, I might add, seems to love it. WHAAAT? It's great for motor skills and hand eye coordination. Ha. Let's be real, I am in so much trouble when I have kids... the paybacks from my friends will be severe.

* I did get to go with Laura and Claire for Claire's first haircut at a salon - so fun! I'll post a picture soon so you can see this little cutie!