Ansleyisms

Well I get an "F" in blog updates.  Sorry.

I've been meaning for some time to write down Ansleyisms.  She says some of the funniest stuff that I know I'll forget.  So I'm dedicating this post to her 4 year old brain.  As confused as we who try to understand her are most of the time, I know I will miss it one day.

She is SO literal. I wish I had recorded a conversation we had just before Christmas, when we were discussing what to get Uncle Thomas.  He didn't want any Christmas presents this year, which provided us a great opportunity to talk about contentment.  We sat down with the World Vision catalog to pick out an animal to donate in his honor.  I explained to the kids that some kids didn't have toys or even food or homes, and that we were going to pick out something to send these kids.  We eventually chose ducks, and then Ansley started asking questions:
A: "So where are we going to get the ducks?"
me:  "We're going to order them from the catalog."
A: "Are we going to take the ducks to the kids? Or is Uncle Thomas going to take the ducks?  He goes a lot of places."
me: "Yes, he does go a lot of places, but we are just going to order the ducks, so we won't ever see or hold them.  Someone else will deliver the ducks."
A: "Will a farmer deliver the ducks?"
me: "Yes"
A: "Can we go with the farmer?"
Ok, so you get the idea.  This actually went on for what seemed like a small eternity, but was probably only like 10 minutes.  When we were finished, I was pretty sure that I had explained this every way humanly possible, and that she understood.  Then, at dinner that evening, when they were telling Daddy about their day, she says "Daddy! We're getting Uncle Thomas a kid for Christmas.  Because he doesn't have a kid."

Something like this happens weekly it seems.  Then there are the regular just every day sort of comments, when we are following R. home from somewhere and the kids think it's a race and she'll blurt out "Is Daddy going to beat us or are we going to beat ourselves?"  

But I do need to start writing them all down, because she is growing up way too fast. Russ is always wanting me to read articles and so he had one that I just made him paraphrase for me because I don't have time for that sort of thing normally, and it was about how the teen years start earlier and last longer because kids don't have responsibilities in the family.  This ends up being bad when they get to be adults.  His paraphrase was longer than that, but I just superparaphrased it for you. Anyway, so we do girl things together.  She helps me cook, and as soon as she wakes up she asks if she can help me take care of the babies today.  She wants to help me with everything.  She starts planning her day when she's going to bed the night before.  Most important on the list is "What are we having for breakfast?"  which probably is in large part due to the unfortunate fact that she normally doesn't want to eat her dinner.  At any rate, I love her little mind.  One day, I hope to understand it.