A few days ago Livia told me she wanted to turn her bath water brown. (Yeah, you mamas out there know exactly what I was thinking.) I quickly warned her, “Don’t poop in the tub!” and thought all was well. A few moments later I returned to her side to realize she had dumped out my entire glassful of Diet Dr. Pepper, ice cubes and all, into the tub. Diet Dr. Pepper = brown, and yes, the water was colored momentarily. Good grief.

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Like I’ve said before, Livia is my favorite English Language Learner and I love how she is making sense of our world. Jeremy showed Liv the cave episode from the Planet Earth series and from that exposure, Livia later spoke of the man who jumped into the cave wearing a “pair-of-shoes.” Parachute does sound like pair of shoes, doesn’t it?!

Also, I tend to speak in hyperboles and figures of speech, which causes problems for ELL folks. I told Livia she grew a foot in the past few months—and then watched her seriously exam her socks.

Finally, we got a kick out of Livia’s exaggerated statement today, “Boy, am I parched!” Nope, she didn’t know what the word meant, but she did know she was quoting a character from Madagascar 2. My girl learns quickly, though, and after being taught one time, she remembers the correct meanings of words and phrases. Odd how that skill doesn’t apply to putting things in her mouth or yelling across the house… Hm.