I had the rare opportunity to take Evelynn to dance on Monday without her sisters tagging along. I realized that I don't spend a whole lot of one-on-one time with her, as the days seem to be about keeping up with Caelan or taking care of baby issues with McKenna. It takes roughly 45 minutes to get Evelynn to dance in Lemoyne, PA., give or take 15 minutes. It can be a nightmare getting through rush hour traffic in Harrisburg to get her to dance by 4:45. In that 45 minutes, I found myself in the car with a different child. She talked non-stop. I had come to think that she wasn't my chatter-bug, but she obviously was making up for lost time.
What follows is a shortened version of the knowledge my 4 1/2 year shared with me.
"Mom, I have an idea. Do you want to talk about chickens? We kill chickens and then we eat them. We get eggs from chickens, too. Do you want to talk about cows? We kill cows and get hamburgers. We get milk from cows, too. We kill pigs and get bacon, too. Do you want to talk about trees? We get apples from trees. Apples are very juicy and when you're holding an apple, your hands can get sticky. Do you know that frogs have sticky feet and can live in a tree? You can't eat those frogs. We only eat apples from trees. That's all." I reminded her about eating nuts from trees. "Oh, that's right. Pecans come from trees and we eat them. We don't eat acorns, though. Those are for squirrels to eat. Did you see that squirrel on that line? Why is it on that line? It's running!" A squirrel was indeed running along a power line. "I think I know why it's up there. We could squish him flat if he ran on the road. How about we talk about our party. My friends will be there. Lauren and Parker, Mr. Dave and Ms. Tracy, Ms. Jennifer and Mr. Darren and Mr. Jay. It will be a lot of fun. We're going to eat a lot of food. Are we having hamburgers? Hamburgers are beef and beef is cow." The party is for Thanksgiving and hamburgers are not on the menu. I suppose we will be sitting around the table next Thursday and Evelynn will inform everyone that we are eating a turkey that we killed and it's called a turkey.
