I’m sorry. What did you just say?
Theo: ‘…My bogies are doing damage.’
Alice: ‘Your bogies are doing damage? To what?’
Theo: ‘…The phone…’
Alice: ‘Oh don’t put your bogies on the phone, darling! Get a tissue!’
Theo: ‘…The phone isn’t working…and the bogies are making it worse’.
Alice: ‘Baby! Do not put your bogies on the phone! Get a tissue!
Theo: ‘…I was just getting them out.’
Alice: ‘TISSUE!’
Mabel: ‘Brrring! Brrrring! Hello, Mama?’
I answer my Banana phone.
Alice: ‘Hello, Mama speaking. Hi, Mae! What are you doing?’
Mabel: ‘Shopping and crying! And I am making my toy dog into an aeroplane – he’s a robot! I gotta go! I love you so much! Bye! Beep, beep, beep!’
Shopping and crying? We’ve all been there, sister. (Even though we’ve been home all morning…)
It is 6am.
Mabel: ‘Spaceship! Spaceship? You’re my Spaceship! I want sparkles on my foot nails! You need to close that drawer, Spaceship. Look! Otto’s a circle! His tail is a line! Spaceship? Spaceship? What are you doing? Do you like balls? WAKE UP SPACESHIP!’
Mabel: ‘I did a fart! A two part fart!’
Theo: ‘I fell down last night and hurt my knee on the footpath. I can still go on the trampoline though.’
Mabel: ‘I’ve got a knee! I keep it in my pants!’
Theo: ‘That’s good.’
Theo: ‘What are you doing?’
Alice: ‘I’m just checking my emails.’
Theo: ‘That’s not how you make friends, Mama.’
Theo: ‘Mama…how do you make fire?’
He senses he is about to get a Talking To.
Theo: ‘I mean…how do you make…pretend fire?’
Mabel: ‘MAMA! READ THIS TO ME!’
(It’s the Power Bill.)
It is 5:30am
Mabel: ‘Are you tired, Mama? Be happy! Are you tired? Stop it! Oh, it’s wobbly on you! I am your blanket! Look at me! I am licking you! Don’t say yes! Don’t say no! I’ve turned you into a frog!’
We are lying on my bed, talking about what we will do today, when she up and grabs me by the cheeks.
Mabel: ‘Mama, I love your face!’
And with that, she made me beautiful forever.
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