If I Needed More Evidence That I Should Watch What I Say....

I've been trying to make sure that I do what I can around the house, because Hubby has been picking up more of the household work than seems fair, even when you factor the whole "I'm growing another person" argument into the equation. I, for instance, haven't done dishes in weeks. Maybe even in over a month. So I put myself down to cook on Monday and tonight. These were easy dinners- Monday was tortellini (Pumpkin's favorite!) and a red sauce that I make by browning some garlic and dumping a couple of cans of crushed tomatoes on top. Tonight's dinner was one of my reliable Cooking Light quick and easy recipes- a chicken and rice dish that you make in one skillet and that takes even less time than the 30 minutes advertised on the recipe.

When I cook, I also have to come up with ways that Pumpkin can "help", because I'm usually starting dinner before Hubby gets home and Pumpkin is absolutely not interested in entertaining herself while I cook. She pulls a chair over to the counter and I get a bunch of measuring cups and spoons out. And then I try to get creative and come up with things she can do without making too much of a mess or endangering herself while also maintaining the illusion that she is actually helping, not hindering, me. On Monday, I decided to have her help me "measure" the herbs for the red sauce I was making. The amounts don't need to be precise, so I gave her a little liquid measuring cup (it measures up to a few tablespoons) and let her dump herbs into that. When I wanted to add some sugar to my sauce, I asked her to find me the tablespoon, explaining that it was the biggest measuring spoon she had. I was actually pretty impressed when that explanation worked and she handed me the correct spoon. She was pretty proud of herself, too.

Today, she was standing on the same chair, playing with the same spoons and cups. I once again asked her to find me the biggest measuring spoon. She did, and as she handed it to me she said "that's a tablespoon" and gave me a big grin. I'd never tried to tell her what a tablespoon is before Monday. Either they've been teaching about measurements at day care, or I have to be much more careful about what I say when she's around.

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I have to also share another cute Pumpkinism, which I meant to include in Monday's post. When she doesn't tell someone that she has a poopy diaper and the diaper stays dirty a little too long, she tends to get a (fairly mild) diaper rash. We've tried to teach her to tell someone to change her diaper right away, so that she doesn't get an "owie on her bottom". (I realized once that to a stranger listening to us say "Pumpkin, you have to get your diaper changed RIGHT NOW or you'll get an owie on your bottom" might get the wrong idea and think we were going to actually inflect said owie... but by the time I realized this the phrase was too engrained in our family way of talking, and so we still use it, and just hope strangers give us the benefit of the doubt.)

Pumpkin has now started using the phrase, except when she says it, she doesn't have a bottom- she's going to get an owie on her "bobbin". Which really amuses me- I get this image of a little spool of thread where her bottom should be.