Keeping Secrets

Every night, Quinn has one bedtime request: "Daddy, don't tell Mumma that you read to me." (If Evelin does the reading, the request is the same, "Don't tell Daddy that you read to me.") A little bit later, usually when the didn't-do-the-reading-tonight parent goes into her room to remind her that she's supposed to be falling asleep, she announces: "Uhm, Mumma/Daddy? Daddy/Mumma didn't read to me tonight. Can you read me three stories?"

Usually she's tried to play cute and convince us that no reading has occurred. "No, really, he/she didn't." And she gets a little upset, or sometimes giggly, when we remind her that we know the other parent has already read to her.

Tonight, when I told her that I knew Mumma had already read to her because she had told me, Quinn, dropped to her bed and sobbed: "Why do you guys always talk about that!"

Gender-Specific Magazine Blurbs

Celeste: "Daddy? What does 'sexy' mean?"

Me: "Uhm, it's kind of the same as attractive."

Celeste: "Daddy? What does 'gut' mean?"

Me: (Starting to look around at the magazines in the check-out lane to figure out where this is coming from) "Uhm, it's the same as a tummy."

Celeste: "Why do women have tummies and men have guts?"

Me: "What?"

Celeste: "Men's Health says 'Loose Your Gut', but Women's Health 'Sexy Tummy Today'. Why do men want to loose their tummies?"