Another busy and challenging year. Here are some of the most memorable moments from the girls’ utterances and questions:
Rhea: Sorry mummy.
Lara: That’s weird!
Rhea: I’m bored!
Lara: What what what?
Rhea: Whatever. . .
Lara: Yeah, whatever.
Rhea: Really?
Lara: Seriously?
Rhea: Spotto!
Lara: Pretty please with cheese?
Rhea: Just saying. . .
Lara: Spotto!
Rhea: As if!
Lara: Honestly!
Rhea: Honestly daddy!
Lara: I’m bored!
Rhea: For example. . .
Lara: Eww
Rhea: I’ve so got it!
Lara: Why can’t I have. . .
Rhea: Eww
Lara: Yes!
Rhea: Eek!
Lara: Take the second exit means go straight ahead. Daddy taught me that.
Rhea: I was terrified that. . .
Lara: How dare you throw that out!
Rhea: Can I ask you something? Why does daddy always say to ask you if I ask him something?
Lara, writing Happy Birthday: I get it! It’s birth day. The day you’re born.
Rhea: Come on chop chop.
Lara: I kind of like the taste of blood.
Rhea: Mum you’re so snuggly!
Lara: Mummy got a random lollypop for you.
Rhea: I’ve just had a brilliant idea!
Lara: Do you know what I did at lunch in the library? I sorted the books on the shelves. There were C books on the D shelves and H books in the I row.
Rhea: (after I gave Eleanor the helmut) What if I get a head injury?
Lara: I’m sleepy because it’s six in the morning or something like that.
Rhea: I had a dream that I was in the cross country and I came second. Molly was in it and she came first.
Lara: I’ll have the big photo (from Sovereign Hill) because I think it will suit me better when I’m big.
Rhea: That was like, literally so good!
Lara: What year did you learn the most in?
Rhea: What does Goody Two Shoes mean?
Lara: When did you start not wanting to waste anything?
Rhea, at the Farmer’s Market: Even the boy babies are cute!
Lara: Mum, I really like Maggie, when can we see her again?
Rhea: I wish I was you! Because Grandma was your mum and you’re so lucky!
Lara: What’s a potato made of? Why is the outside of a chip like that?
Rhea: I don’t know what’s got in to me I used to be so good (at ping pong).
Lara: Do you know what this means? (does air quotes). Saul is ‘sick’ means Saul is NOT sick.
Rhea: Did you know your eardrum is thinner than a piece of paper? And a piece of paper is very thin.
Lara: Do you know how long it takes to digest your food? Eight hours.
Rhea: Do you know why you burp? You’ve stuffed too much in your mouth or you’ve drunk something with bubbles.
Lara: I don’t have time for hugs. I need to do a poo.
Rhea: Did you have hair when you were born? How does hair grow?
Lara: Those trees look like a huge slide.
Rhea: I wish I could be a worker. I hate going to school. You’re trapped there all day.
Lara: Do you know how big a kangaroo and koala are when they’re born? They are the size of a jelly bean. Louis told me that. They’re so cute!
Rhea: On Go Jetters they don’t have a fence around their school.
Lara: Do you know the best thing you’re good at out of all the things you’re good at? Cuddling.
Rhea: Did you know you sneeze at more than 100 miles an hour?
Lara: Do you have two hearts? It feels like two.
Rhea: How was the first child born?
Lara: Why aren’t we Indigenous?
Rhea: Mum can I tell you something? Time passes so quickly! It seems like we were just in kindergarten.
Lara: If we were fairies, at what age would we be able to use a wand?
Rhea: Is seasaw a compound word? Sunflower?
Lara: Monkey bar? Pocket money (that’s my favourite). Teaspoon!
Rhea: My favourite compound words are popcorn and bubblegum because they’re so delicious.
Lara: How do babies learn how to talk? How did people explain things before talking? And learn words?
Rhea: I don’t want to go to school. It’s just that Saturdays and Sundays pass so quickly and Mondays pass so slowly.
Lara: It’s not good (re dinner). I’ll give you three reasons. It doesn’t look good. It doesn’t smell good. And it doesn’t sound good.
Rhea: What does ‘sow’ mean?
Lara: How does a butterfly know how to fly when it comes out of the chrysalis?
Rhea: The peel, it smells disgusting! I have to hold my breath or block my nose or both and then I don’t have any hands.
Lara: I got an A (in my report). That’s because I LOVE reading.
Rhea: Can moths read? Because if they can they won’t go into that container for pantry moths.
Lara, after I got out of the shower: Oh good, I can hug you now.
Rhea: I managed to keep my head above the wave.
Lara: Mum can I tell you something? Joseph is in love with Sophie.
Rhea: If I have a baby when I’m grown up I’d look after him or her four days a week and one day a week I’d work at Questacon.
Lara (to Rhea’s silence): I’ll take that as a yes.
Rhea: Can I ask you something? Can I not do art or chess next term?
Lara, to Maggie: How come your house is bigger but you can’t fit everything in from your old house?
Rhea: I’ve got very bad news Lara. We can’t have a sleepover at Grandma’s.
Lara: Wait what did you say again?
Rhea: Boo! I finally surprised you!
Lara: Where are those toasted (i.e. boiled) lollies?
Rhea: The girls are identical except for their clothes.
Lara: Do mint lollies grow on mint bushes?
Rhea: If a Maccas is open we could have chicken nuggets. It has chicken in it.
Lara: Can you draw a picture of the swing for daddy so he understands, I don’t think he did. I wouldn’t if I was him.
Rhea: I woke at 5.57. Lara made a big bang when she fell out of bed.
Lara, after a colleague told her that her boys used to only take five minutes to get ready for school: I wouldn’t be able to get ready for school in five minutes because I take 2 minutes to brush my teeth so I’d only have 3 minutes to get dressed and have my breakfast.
Rhea: I know what I’m going to look like when I grow up. I’ll have lighter hair.
Lara, talking about someone I work with: What does he look like? Is he fat like daddy?
Rhea: What’s a refugee? What does ‘free the refugees’ mean?
Lara: Mrs Taylor called me Rhea twice. She said ‘you poor thing, you’re in different classes and I’m still mixing you up.’
Rhea: I’m playing don’t step on the cracks.
Lara (to me after Steve had shouted at her): I don’t know why you’re always nice and daddy isn’t.
Rhea: Shasmeen is my new best friend.
Lara: Why do the birds always tweet in the mornings? It’s always boring.
Rhea: Aisha is so lucky. She got to ride a camel at the Safari desert in the holidays.
Lara, to Kirsten: Why are you wearing slippers? And where are Will and Ellie and Noah? Who is looking after them?
Rhea: Were we cutest when we were babies or when we were little?
Lara: Daddy’s much nicer he cuddles me for five minutes.
Rhea: Watch out this string is at risk of falling out of the bag.
Lara: Can I live with you when I grow up?
Rhea: I haven’t known Grandma when she was young.
Lara: What’s a COB?
Rhea: What does ASAP mean?
Lara, on the plane to Melbourne after she’d been served cheese and biscuits: When’s the food coming? I’m starving!
Rhea: We could really do with a hand here.
Lara, looking at a movie of us: That’s me! That’s so me!
Rhea: I don’t like honey. It always gets in my hair even if I don’t touch it. I don’t know how it happens.
Lara: Why does hot water get cold? Why doesn’t it when it comes out of the tap?
Rhea: Why don’t people like it if you say they look older than they are? (after I asked her not to say that about someone we know).
Lara: When did you tell us what our names were? When did your mum tell you?
Rhea: You can’t just rely on someone else to find your shoes.
Lara: No I don’t want to ring the Government (as my boss suggested when I brought the girls in to work). Would you if you were a child?
Rhea: I’d like to see the patti fields in China.
Lara: When a baby is born are they at the right temperature?
Rhea: Do you know where coffee comes from? Cherry trees. They look like cherry trees and the cherries have coffee in them.
Lara: It smells delicious because mummy looked for ‘the best macaroni cheese in the world.’
Rhea: Were you literally that close (to the wild animals in the national park in Africa)?
Lara: I saw a glimpse of a bird’s nest.
Rhea: Is it the correct amount?
Lara: Why are there so many Macca’s ads (during the football), they come up all the time.
Rhea: Yikes I hope our lesson isn’t on that mountain tomorrow!
Lara: Rhea let’s make a big pile of cushions and take turns jumping on them like we did last year.
Rhea: Come on mummy!
Lara: The toilets are in the restrooms.
Rhea: Are you OK Lara? You can have one of my stocks.
Lara: He said that I either have tissue paper or ligament damage.
Rhea: Be careful mummy!
Lara: Everyone’s looking at me (with my crutches). The year 1s were all staring.
Rhea: This is the most rushing I’ve ever done in my life I think (getting dressed to be ready for mum to take her to school).
Lara: Too bad that a headband made out of pottery wouldn’t be floppy.
Rhea: I hate you mummy.
Lara: Why aren’t you tired after you’ve slept?
Rhea: Mummy why do we wake up?
Lara: How can you tell which one is which? (looking at some chickens in a cage).
Rhea: You really need to learn how to be patient dad.
Lara: You didn’t do that correctly.
Rhea: It does matter if there’s sticking up hair because you can’t get the pins in.
Lara: I wonder if mummy’s number on her lock is the same as the password on the iPad.
Rhea: The phone password has 6 numbers though.
Lara: Why isn’t the word ‘wide’ (in Wide Brown Land) wide?
Rhea: Mum, you planted some plants in the sandpit?
Lara: Why didn’t you write about Grandpa’s play (in your last blog)?
Rhea, explaining the rules of tips: But if you tip daddy you’re not both in, he is, because otherwise that would be buildup tips. OK?
Lara: Why did you mess up with our names? My middle name is Ann’s but Rhea’s is your grandmother’s.
Rhea: How did you decide who to call Lara and who Rhea? And who to have my surname and who Lara’s?
Lara, watching the women’s cricket: How come there isn’t an audience?
Rhea: What can we do while you’re having a conversation?
Lara: Mum, how do they know what the weather will be?
Rhea: I wish beaches didn’t have sand. It’s so messy!
Lara: We had Mrs S today. She makes us line up in a row and we can’t talk and we can’t even whisper!
Rhea: It gives me a brain freeze.
Lara: Mum, to be honest she’s the best in the whole Maks Ballet School thingy.
Rhea: I’m not OK with that.
Lara: With the 100s and 1000s, do they just put as many as they can in there or does someone count them?
Rhea: When does the tooth fairy go to the dentist? 2.30.
Lara, to me: Why do people think we look the same when we have different coloured hair?
Rhea: She screams more than us!
Lara: That girl who had an operation on her nose – she wasn’t allowed to pick her nose (but why would you that’s disgusting) or blow her nose or sneeze. . .
Rhea: Wait, what’s a comma?
Lara: You don’t have to worry. . .
Rhea: How did it feel the first time we sucked the milk? Did you like it?
Lara: What on earth are you making for dinner?
Rhea: What’s a porkie pie?
Lara: I want to hug you with both arms.
Rhea: I can’t think of a name that rhymes with Arthur OR Martha (for the 3rd seahorse they found two years ago that isn’t framed or named).
Lara: Mummy am I small for my age?
Rhea: We have four copies.
Me: Are they all the same?
Rhea: Yes that’s why I used the word ‘copies.’
Lara: Was your name Isolde when you were little?
Me: Yes, why?
Lara: It’s a funny name for a child.
Rhea: That was the first time I’ve played without Lara.
Me: How was it?
Rhea: Sometimes I missed her and sometimes it was OK.
Lara, to Steve while watching Gardening Australia: Would you like to be a plant?
Steve: No. It would be boring.
Me: Would you?
Lara: No. You’d have to eat poo.
Me: Do you have any ideas of what Adrian might like for his birthday?
Rhea: Well when there’s a choice of doing work or not doing work he chooses to do work so he might like some French work. . . (after a bit) that’s not a very good idea.
Me: What should we get Becky for a birthday present?
Rhea: She speaks Mandarin so we could get her a mandarin thing.
Lara: My favourite part of the wedding was giving Becky the earrings and my second favourite part was being a flower girl.
Me: Why was that your favourite part?
Lara: Because I liked the look on her face when we gave them to her.
Rhea: What’s for dinner?
Lara: Tacos.
Rhea: Is that some sort of tart?
Lara: (re the lyrics of a song) Why did she write down how she felt and throw it in the fire?
Me: Sometimes it feels good to write something down and throw it away.
Lara: Yes but why didn’t she throw it in the recycling bin?
Me: Did you eat your lunch?
Rhea: I ate a bit of it but it was a bit disgusting.
Me: You don’t like me to go recently. Why is that?
Lara: I’ll spell it. Because I space l-o-v- e space you.
Rhea: How old were you when you learnt how to skate?
Me: About 11.
Rhea: I asked daddy how old he was when he learnt to skate and he said ‘what makes you think I learnt how to skate?’
Lara: Do you even like daddy?
Me: Why do you ask? What do you think?
Lara: I think no.
Me: Why do you say that?
Lara: Sometimes how you say ‘Steve.’
Me, after a fight between us: How can you be a bit happier and we have less fighting do you think?
Rhea: If you stop being mean to me.
Lara: Everyone will ask where Rhea is (at the birthday party) which will be very annoying.
Me: We could write a note to say that Rhea is sick, thanks for asking.
Lara: At Sophie’s party everyone asked where Rhea was. I said ‘she’s not here’ and no-one asked anything else. Even Sophie asked where Rhea was and she didn’t invite her. She said she expected us to come together.
Me: Can’t you be a bit more patient with each other?
Rhea: Why should we be patient when you’re not patient?
Maggie: What’s happening in Melbourne (i.e. why is Steve there)?
Lara: It’s hailing.
Rhea, on coming home: Did you leave the heater on?
Me: No. That would waste energy.
Rhea: But the heater doesn’t run out of batteries!
Me, to Steve: Cover your mouth, we don’t want to get sick.
Lara: I do. I want to be sick on Wednesday.
Lara on Wednesday: Mum, it’s really annoying because my tummy’s really hot and I’m really freezing.
Rhea: You’ve got Ox-ford st. Lara.
Lara: I hope you mort-gage all your houses!
Lara: What were you thinking!
Rhea: She can’t read your mind Lara.
Lara: You’re terrible at putting cream on.
Rhea: She’s not too bad actually.
And on that note – Happy New Year, may 2019 bring growth, fulfillment and discovery.
