Back when I only blogged on Live Journal and Mia was a baby and Lili was a toddler, the three of us spent our days together while the big kids were at school much like the twins and I spend our days together now while the girls are at school. I used to keep track of the funny kid things Lili would say to share with Aaron later… and we called them Lili-isms. Once Mia began to talk, she of course had her own Mia-isms to add.
Lately, they’ve been full of them.
Like tonight, Mia tells me I should get another tattoo. I asked her if she had anything specific in mind, and she sure did. She’s decided I need a tattoo on my leg of a heart with ‘a piece of paper’ that says MOM on it. I’ve never heard it described like that, but I knew exactly what she was talking about!
The girls, Feb. 2008
Then the other day, both girls brought home notes from school letting us know they each owe money to the cafeteria. Despite sending lunch with them every single day of the year, they have a bad habit of charging from the school. It drives me NUTS. I’ve told them over and over again that just because they’re able to charge whatever the heck they want to eat, doesn’t mean *I* allow it. The school will let students charge stuff like ice cream to accounts that are empty, and that is my major issue- that is what the girls are buying. You’d think they’d limit it to a proper lunch for those who’ve forgotten their money or lunch at home.
So long story short, they came home saying that we owe $XX for the year between the two of them. I asked them where they thought we would get the money, since we provide them with appropriate lunches every day, and they are buying treats. I am trying to explain that there’s a limit to the amount of money we have, and we have to budget and plan for expenses. I told her how while we use our debit card to take money out and to pay for things, it subtracts from what we have in the bank, and when it’s gone, that’s it.
Lili says to me, Can’t you just write the dollars on one of those slips? and waves her hand towards the checkbook. Then you don’t have to give them real money.
We use checks only maybe a half a dozen times a year, so while she has an understanding of credit/debit cards from us explaining in the past, we’ve never spoken about checks. I had to tell her how it was the same concept as the debit cards.
At least it lead to a conversation about something she needed to learn.
