I can smell anything.

(Mommy and Alex are leaving for church, leaving Daddy and Claire at home.)
Alex: Daddy, can you not play anything fun while I’m gone?
Daddy: Okay.
Alex (smiling): Play something boring.


(Daddy and Claire are driving to Starbucks.)

Claire: When I was two, I was a little girl, and I couldn’t poop.
Daddy: That’s right.
Claire: And when I was three, I could poop!

Claire: What’s that brown store called?
Daddy: That’s a restaurant, it’s called Arby’s.
Claire: Oh, with that big A on it?
Daddy: That’s right! Good for you!
Claire: A starts for Alex.

Claire: Yellow car.

Claire: Red car.

Claire: Red car.

Claire: I never sit in Alex’s seat. Alex doesn’t let me.

Claire (talking about the leaves): Why are they moving?
Daddy: Because the wind is moving them.

Claire: Can you say “Why the leaves are moving?”
Daddy: Why are the leaves moving?
Claire: Because the wind is making them move.
Daddy: Oh!

Claire: I smell coffee.

Claire: I can smell anything. I can smell my smelly book… and coffee… and any store… and Daddy… and chocolate… and any food… and anything… that’s all the stuff I can smell!


Claire: I have be in charge of the aphids.

Claire: Three spaces then go again, I like it!

Claire: Now I go again! See, Daddy?

Claire: I got another one!
Daddy: Wow!
Claire: I get three of them! I get three Praying Mantis cards, yay!!

Daddy (sadly): Oh, I don’t have ten aphids. I only have seven.
Claire: Count them.
Daddy (counting): One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
Claire (putting her hands over her face): Seven.

(Claire draws a “6” card, but being silly, holds it upside-down.)
Claire: Look, I have nine. I have nine, yay! Who gave me nine?
Daddy: You didn’t get a nine, silly.
Claire (turning it right-side-up): I, got, six!

Claire: When you turn it this way, it’ll turn into nine, see?

Claire (with her hands over her face): I got eight.

Claire: The aphids are in my hair.

Claire: Some aphids are going in my mouth! They’re in my tummy now!

Claire: Four spaces back and go again. One…nine. Okay, I was here, go four. One… four.

Claire: I’m shuffle them up like you shuffle them up.
Daddy: Okay.
(Claire tries to shuffle the cards.)
Claire: How you shuffle them up? How you shuffle them up, Daddy?

Claire: I won!
Daddy: Yeah!
Claire: Daddy, I won, you didn’t won, I won!

Claire: I don’t know who’s gonna win if we play again. I think I can win if we play again.

Claire :We have none aphids. Who gave us – who gave us – uh, no aphids?
Daddy: I don’t know.
Claire: I didn’t. Hey, I think Mommy did, and Alex. Alex, did you give us no aphids? I tricked you… I gave you no aphids. You closed your eyes, and I gave you no aphids. Did you Mommy? No. [mumbles to self]
Claire: I was talking to Alex?
Daddy: Yeah?
Claire: Uh-huh.
Daddy: But Alex isn’t here.
Claire: Yes he is. See? The puppy is Alex.
Daddy: Oh.

Claire: You need to shuffle ‘em up. You’re not doing anything.
Daddy: Oh, I’m a bad daddy.
Claire: You’re not. You’re not a bad daddy.


(after Annie’s birthday party)

Alex: Zach and Zane are funny. They get in trouble a lot. At school. And at parties.

Alex: After I went to Thomas’s party, you went to get gas.



Alex: Daddy! Time for music class!
Daddy: Music class?
Alex: You have to find something that can make music, and bang it on something.



(Claire shows Daddy the picture she just drew.)
Claire: Daddy?
Daddy: Yes Claire?
Claire: Um, the giant is scary, and, he forgot to draw that part of his yummy cupcake, he forgot to draw that part, and I’m gonna make him draw that part, of the cupcake.

(Alex shows Daddy the picture he just drew.)
Alex: I made a treasure hunt. You see, I start from the sun, and I go all the way to Mars, then I fly to the planet… then I go back to Earth.