I'll Go Get My Ball

My kids have a nifty little feature in their lunch boxes - a message board. It's where we can write each other funny notes or crucial information. Or they can draw on it during lunch time. Whatever. It's very casual.

I find it most ironic when Emma writes me a note asking me to wash off the message board. I know she means that it needs a deep cleaning which cannot be afforded by her handy-dandy erasing cloth. But still, I can't get by the irony.

When Hannah came home from school one day in her uniform and announced that her class had been awarded a "free dress" day, I asked her why. Apparently the assistant principal had done a spot check in her classroom to see if they were all dressed according to the proper uniform standards. I found it immensely amusing that the reward for being in uniform was to not have to be in uniform. I spent an entire five minutes of my life (which I will never get back) unsuccessfully attempting to explain the irony to her. Perhaps the most ironic thing about irony for me is that, for a massive portion of my days, there is nobody around to share in it with me. BUT I DIGRESS.

Back to the lunch boxes. I really look forward to what I'm going to see on Emma's message board. She is a 6-year-old 1st-grader and is doing that thing where she is learning to write by spelling things phonetically. It's so darn cute! And the translation fun is never-ending.

By far, my favorite message so far was a little trailer that came after one of her please-clean-my-board requests. I couldn't quite understand what it said, but it looked like this: "mmmm ol go get my bol."

At this juncture, what you must understand is that 1) we have a DVD player in our van, 2) my children do not tire of watching the same movie repeatedly (EVER), 3) when a movie has a funny quote, we will ALL (yes, I include myself in this) wear it out ad nauseum, and 4) one of the movies in our current circulation is "Bolt."

So when I questioned Emma for a translation of her writing, I do not exaggerate when I say that my husband and I burst out laughing at her response. She mimicked the laugh of Rhino the hamster ("mmmm") and said "I'll go get my ball!"

We never tire of giggling at this line. Frankly, Olivia will repeat it over and over again at the top of her lungs. Oddly enough, in the movie, Rhino almost whispers it. Or is that . . . ironic?


***Since this posting, Olivia has taken our favorite quote to a new level by mixing it up as "I'll go get my costume!" Isn't she clever? My 3-year-old is obviously a genius.