philosophers, irons, football, and dumpsters

I found another old scrap of paper with a Meredith story/quotes from last fall, or maybe even summer! Plus I've got the more recent ones to share.

***

We have 4 magnetic finger puppets on our fridge. They were a baby shower gift for Meredith long ago, and she learned their names soon after she started talking: "Kant" "Nietzsche" "Hegel" and "Plato". My friend clearly had education in mind with these odd little toys.

One day I heard Meredith groan, "Oh, Kant!".
I asked what he did wrong (it was clear he was at fault for something given her tone).
"He's puttin' crackers all over him." She then showed me Kant, with bits of Cheez-Its crumbs down his little vest. I laughed.

Not much later, I heard, "Oh, Nietzsche!"
What now?
"He dumped the crackers all over the floor!"

This one was clearly not our philosopher friend's fault, so I had to end the fun, but it was sure hilarious.

***

More recently, Meredith wondered aloud about irons.

Meredith: "What do irons do? They don't have mouths to sing or hands to play the guitar."
Mommy: "So what do they do?"
Meredith: "I don't know. I guess they just live in the closet."

She seems to know exactly what our iron does (and that is, indeed, ALL it does).

***

Yesterday Meredith was wearing her favorite Gator outfit. She told me she was Tebow -- I don't even know how she remembers his name, given how little she was when he played for us, not to mention how tangential football is to our lives. But there you have it. We decided to go play outside, and she shouted with great excitement:

"I'm gonna run and pretend that my hands are footballs!"

So THAT was Timmy's secret. Football hands.

***

Finally, Meredith is very interested in dumpsters right now (and terrified of garbage trucks - go figure). We were on a walk and, at the back of a church parking lot near our path, there was a small dumpster. She wanted to go see it (thankfully it was empty!). When we walked over to it, I'm quite sure that she put together a pair of sentences that no one has ever said before. Ever.

"Hi, dumpster! Would you like me to dance for you?"

She proceeded to rock out for the dumpster.

The next time we visited it, she had a song in her head that I was not familiar with. It involves the phrase "Alive again" over and over, and I could only guess that it was some Sunday School or preschool song she had learned about Jesus. However, that day, it was modified for the circumstances. It went (with a very definite tune and rhythm, repeated for the two "verses"):

"Alive again!
Alive again!
The dumpster is alive again!

The dumpster is
alive again!
The dumpster is alive again!"

And so on. At home, she sings it with the accompaniment of her ukelele.

The next week at Sunday School the teacher helpfully mentioned to me that this week they were talking about understanding the concept of "alive", because they were studying the little girl that Jesus raised from the dead. I could just picture them asking the kids to give examples of things that are alive and Meredith helpfully answering: "Dumpsters!"