Kids Think the Darndest Things

The girls are playing out in the backyard this morning. It is strangely quiet inside the house unless Daniel screams (which is his new habit...he does it for his own entertainment and to make me crazy). They have their easel out there and I refilled up their bubble jars. They have a couple of balls and each other for company and it is alllllll good. It is a fairly crisp morning and that helps. Claire hates heat and humidity and bright sun but she will stay outside for hours in this sort of weather (again, the apple does not fall far). They are really giving the yard the once over, sizing up everything in their path.

A little while ago, the door flew open and Claire burst in:

Claire: Mommy, Mommy, come quick!
Me (wondering what Jillian, Our Lady of Head Bonking, has done to herself this time): What's the matter?
Claire (all panicky and out of breath): We. We found. We found a. We found a snail. We found a snail body!

Seriously. That's how she talks when she has something in her brain that she wants to get out quickly. One word at a time, added to the sentence, over and over till I'm ready to burst from the anxiety of it all. I think her brain is just spinning so fast that her tongue can't keep up with it. Anyway...

Me: A snail body?
Claire: Yeah! A snail body! Come quick!
Me (imaging a squished garden snail and preparing to give the "death speech"): Ok. Let's go see.

I go out back in my socks, such was the nature of the emergency, and see Jillian looking frantic and pointing at the sand table. I approach and look for the poor squished critter:

Me: That's a slug.
Claire and Jillian: A slug?
Me: Yeah...a snail without a shell. That's how they look all the time.

It just struck me funny and I wanted to share. All too soon they'll know all about things like slugs and seahorses and how the SkyScreamer at Marineland looks like fun but likely isn't and how Wubbzy isn't real and no we can't go visit Wuzzleburg. So, humour me while I write these things down so I don't forget.