Conversations with the kids

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I think this excange took place on Monday evening:
Sophia: It's mine!
Ethan: It's mine!
Sophia: It's mine!
Ethan: It's mine!
Sophia: It's mine!
Ethan: It's mine!

Me: What are you two doing?

Sophia: I don't know! I think we're pulling on this microphone!

And they were indeed fighting over the microphone that came with Ethan's toy keyboard.

This morning on a walk through the neighbourhood Sophia and I had this conversation:
Sophia: Hey mommy look at this! (she shows me a red berry she's just picked from a yew hedge)
Me: Umm. (trying to think of the best way to get her to put the yew berry down without a big fuss)
Sophia: Look another red berry! (she plucks a second yew berry and now has one in each hand)
Me: You know this is a yew bush.
Sophia: Oh. (looking down at the berries in her hands)
Me: Those are yew berries. They aren't safe for eating.
Sophia: Oh. (still looking at the berries in her hands)
Me: They can make you sick. It's not okay to eat them.
Sophia: Oh. (still looking at the berries in her hands)
Me: So drop them on the ground.
Sophia: Huh!? (looks up at me in disbelief)

She really looked at me like dropping those berries was the craziest thing she had ever heard of. I had to reach down and pry the berries out of her hands and throw them back into the hedge myself. I reminded her not to put her hands in her mouth until we got home to wash her hands. I considered telling her about the drug taxol that is derived from yews but decided that that might be a bit much for a three year old. Instead she told me about the stinky butt squirrels and stinky skunks who would like to eat the yew berries as we passed the skunk house on the way home.

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