in the middle

I know, it's been a while since I had to posts in one day.  But after what happened tonight, I couldn't resist. And you'll be glad I didn't.  I wanted to record this moment while it was still fresh in my mind.

Tonight we had our first ever Pizza Picnic.  It was a random idea that popped into my head--getting pizza at our favorite pizza place, spreading a sheet on the living room floor and picnicing together.  It was quite fun.

My first observation of the night was my spastic almost-6-year-old.  I know for a fact Miss Rose is one of the best students in her class.  Not the smartest, that's Jimmy who was reading chapter books when he started Kinder, but the teacher said she's the most responsible and was even given two word lists this week instead of one because she's learning so quickly. 

But asking her to repeat a story, while sitting on the floor eating, was like pulling the tooth of an ant.  I know, ants probably don't have teeth--so I mean this was an impossible task.  Miss Rose loves to talk about her schoolday, right after school.  Beyond that, it seems to disappear from her mind.  So getting her to recount a few things she had told me, to her dad was impossible.  She claimed to forget or not know, or she was just being goofy and her limbs were flying everywhere.  I'm serious. She was the contortionist in the three bean circus tonight.

Several minutes later, the story was still incomplete.  I was prompting Miss Rose once again when Gracie, who was seated between us just yelled out "NIPPLE."

I must digress and tell you that over our Christmas break, Gracie discovered nipples for the first time--or noticed and questioned about them.  It started one morning when the four of us were jockeying for bed space in our bed.  I think she unzipped her jammies at some point being silly and then asked about her nipples--so I told her what they were.  Then she wanted to see Miss Rose's "nibbles."  She went out to the couch, where her auntie was sleeping and said "Mimi, I have nibbles."  Gracie came back to where I was still in bed (pretending I was still asleep), pointed to a mole on my back and asked if it was "nibble" and where the other one was.

So back to tonight.  Gracie yelled out "NIPPLE" (she's obviously learned the correct pronunciation) and we all started dying with laughter.  Once I gained my composure, I made the mistake of asking Miss Rose a question to get her to finish her story once again.  Yeah, you guessed it, Gracie yelled out "nipple" again.  And for about five minutes, anytime someone started to say something, she would say "nipple" with the goofiest look on her face.

Clearly she was needing some attention.  So I asked if she had any stories to share.  Nipple was of course one of the stories.  And when I asked what store we went to today, it was the tootie store.  Another of her favorite words. 

Apparently tootie, booty and nipple are her top words these days.  Oh, I am a proud mom.  And she loves the song "Single Ladies."

Nipple was a popular word in our house tonight.  I have the sneaking suspicion that after the response Gracie garnered tonight, we haven't seen the last of this word.  I can't wait until it comes up in a public place.  Hopefully her Sunday School teachers won't be talking to me about it.

Yes, I did tell her to stop staying it a few times.  But honestly, I'm still laughing out loud just writing this post, so I was not in much control of myself tonight. 

My sweet middle child.  Making sure she gets her dues.  How I love her and look forward to all of these moments!