The things she says

Me: Let's go out and play. It's nice and sunny so if you don't want to wear socks and shoes, that's okay.
Lucy: But mommy, I have to be modest!
Me: Well, some clothes are for modesty. But some are just to protect our body or keep us warm and it's okay this time to not wear shoes. That's not immodest.
Lucy: Okay, I'll have feet like a bear then. Rawr!

Lucy talking to herself: It's not easy, it's hard. Easy and hard are not the same. Hard means not soft or comfy, not like a pillow so easy is like a pillow, it's soft.

Lucy: Does grandpa love me?
Me:  Yes
Lucy: And you and daddy love me?
Me: Yes
Lucy: So so much? Bunches and bunches?
Me: Yes we do.
Lucy: You know, everyone loves me. Everyone in our family, they just love me so much!

Lucy and I do this thing in the evenings where she asks how much I love her and I tell her in comparisons (as many stars are in the sky, as many drops of water in the ocean, etc). She tries to respond in kind but it doesn't always work out quite right. Some of her examples:
As many as the people in our house
The number of doors in our house
As many books on our bookshelf (getting better :-)

Lucy picked up my copy of The Hidden Art of Homemaking and asked what it was about. I told it was about my job of making a home and how she helps when we work to keep it clean and tidy, and cook good food and making decorations.  She interrupts me to add "and making sure to keep the wild animals out of it so we don't get eaten" Can you tell we've been into fairy tales lately?

Lucy's new phrase when she is upset is "I'm running away and never coming back" but luckily for us, she only means that she is running into another room. And never is a short time for a preschooler. But if it seems to be too long for her, she sometimes follows up her declaration with a request that we join her and help her calm down.

Running away is just one of the many dramas we deal with. There is a lot of drama in our house these days. One cause - Dora. We are not fond of Dora anymore. She and Craig were watching an episode one day when Humpty Dumpty appeared. Now she had read Humpty Dumpty before without issues. She had watched Dora without issues. Maybe it was the combination, I don't know, but apparently it was traumatic. Seeing or hearing anything about either these days will reduce her to tears, often followed by running away and never come back (see above) and sometimes there is even shaking. It was bad for a while but I think the house has throughly been cleared of Dora and Daniel Tiger is a replacement that we can both live with.

Another source of drama - loneliness. She gets "lonely" so easily but sometimes I wonder if she really is lonely. Can you really be "so so lonely" if you are standing in a bathroom on the other side of a shower curtain from your poor desperate mother while she is attempting to have 3 minutes to wash her hair in peace. According to Lucy, you can.