Conversations with my daughter.

[rivka]

Leaving the library:

Alex: I want to read "Ramona and Her Father" in the car on the way home.
Me: No, honey, I need to keep my eyes on the road.
Alex: I could just listen, and you could hand it to me when there was a picture.
Me: But I can't read it because I can't look at the words. I need to watch where I'm driving.
Alex: A chameleon could do it.
Me: (Is nonplussed, until I remember a nonfiction book about chameleons we got a couple of months ago.) Oh, right! Because a chameleon can look one way with one eye, and the other way with the other eye. People can't do that.
Alex: Maybe we should get a chameleon for a pet.
Me: And then the chameleon could drive and read to you at the same time?
Alex: We should get a chameleon that's ninety years old... (I know how Alex's mind works: This is so the chameleon will be old enough to sit in the front seat.)
Me: ...and knows how to read. That might be tricky.
Alex: I think we need an *unusual* chameleon.

Comments

[ailbhe]

Practical problem-solving! I would SO hire her!

[elisem.livejournal.com]

I think you have a (very cool) *unusual* kid!

Love these stories. Thanks for posting them!

[moobabe.livejournal.com]

That's awesome, especially the 90 years old bit. :)

[jenett]

*aw*

I am also reminded of a series of books on tape recordings we had, including one that we made of one of my favorite books around that age. On there, is my mother, who reads, and who then says, very carefully and firmly, "Turn the page" every time I was supposed to turn the page.

(Me, I remember the part about how I didn't really need telling - I was not quite reading yet, but I was certainly following her eye down the page, and the flow of dialogue on the page a bit.)

But it does make me wonder if doing some books-on-CD at home with her for these occaisions might not be fun (and with today's tech, very easy.)

[melebeth]

I want a daughter Just Like That. Awesome.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Heee.

[marici.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's time to start reading up to the exciting part, end ending scheduled reading time and see how far she goes on her own from pure plot-hunger?

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

That's kinda mean, don't you think?

[rivka.livejournal.com]

She really can't read, and we're in no hurry to push her.

[eeyorerin]

The line "I think we need an *unusual* chameleon" just totally cracked me up.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

It kind of has the flavor of "We're going to need a bigger boat," doesn't it?

[eeyorerin]

Oh, yes.

I imagine that if all the animals that Alex has and will imagine could actually exist, you would need a substantially bigger house to contain the menagerie.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a chameleon that was bitten by a radioactive mommy, and gained the proportionate driving, reading, and loving ability...

I should probably stop here before you start living your life in a radiation-hazard suit.

[telerib.livejournal.com]

Can I get dibs on writing "An Unusual Chameleon"? :D

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

damn, you got there first...

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

Too adorable.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

An unusual chameleon... That's great... :-)

Why you can always spot a car that's being driven by an Unusual Chameleon

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Chameleons change colour, that's the way they stay alive
But Unusual Chameleons can drive.
Chameleons are lizards, they can run, and sleep, and feed,
But Unusual Chameleons can read.
Chameleons can look both ways out of their separate eyes,
But Unusual Chameleons are wise.
Chameleons (I looked this up) mostly just live to eight
But Unusual Chameleons can wait...

When they're ninety, very cautiously, they pack up all their books
Then they set off down the highway very fast
And while one eye is reading, then the other eye just looks
At the traffic and the roads they're going past.
Now, the thing that's most Unusual, while driving down the street
Is the thing that gives Chameleons their name
As they're reading and they're speeding, they change colour head to feet
And the car that they are driving does the same!

Re: Why you can always spot a car that's being driven by an Unusual Chameleon

[rivka.livejournal.com]

You are marvelous. Alex and I both love the poem! Thank you!

Re: Why you can always spot a car that's being driven by an Unusual Chameleon

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Oh good! I'm so glad.

Re: Why you can always spot a car that's being driven by an Unusual Chameleon

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Wonderful!

Re: Why you can always spot a car that's being driven by an Unusual Chameleon

[lizardling.livejournal.com]

Hee! *applause*

Chameleons

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"Alex: I think we need an *unusual* chameleon."

They're harder to find, but well worth the effort to seek out.

B

[ozarque.livejournal.com]

That is so very cool; thanks for posting it. Real transcripts of real conversations with real children are rare as green swans.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Really? That surprises me. ...Although I guess it would explain the apparent number of overly cutesy, overly wise "conversations with children" you see out there.

Of course I only post the really notable or funny conversations we have, so they're not really a representative sample, but you can see more transcripts if you click on this post's tag.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

It surprises me, but maybe because I'm surrounded by people who talk about children more like you do.