Madeline is saying the sweetest words I've ever heard.

"Love you!"

A few nights ago at dinner, the three of us (Rebecca was having a sleepover at Grandma's house) were sitting around the table. I was trying to teach her to say "Please" when she was wanting something and she finally got "Cheese, please!" down pretty well. It was so sweet, the scrunched up nose and wrinkley face that she'd make when she said it that Brian said "Oh Madeline, I love you". She paused for a moment then broke into a grin and said "Love you! Love you! Mama? Love you!"

She's also now saying "Cheese please" every time she wants anything.

A few weeks ago I took Rebecca into the grocery store to grab a few quick things while Brian kept a sleeping Madeline in the car. As we were rounding our way through the freezer section and past the beer Rebecca stopped dead in her tracks. I turned around and said "Come on, Becca, keep up with me" She stood completely still and stared at someone hidden from me behind a display case. "Rebecca," I hissed, "Come on! Don't stare. Let's go!"

She turned to look at me with wonder and excitement showing on her face. Then she blurted out something unrecognizable. I asked her what she'd said and she said "Mama! Come here! Look!"

I finally walked over to prod her along and realized what she was looking at.

She whispered again to me "Mama! That man! That man has a TAIL!"

There was a man restocking the beer display with a feather dusting brush in his back pocket. Because he was squatting down it was sticking strait out of his pocket and indeed looked a bit like a tail.

Rebecca excitedly kept whispering "A tail! Mommy he has a TAIL!"

As I pulled her along towards the checkout, trying to explain it was a brush not a tail, she shook her head.
"No Mama, I saw. That man had a tail!"

The other day I was getting the girls ready to leave for daycare when Rebecca stopped short, looked at me with a puzzeled expression and said "Mama? But.... if Santa Claus as fingernails, why is he named Santa CLAWS".

I tried to give a very simplistic explanation that some people have last names that sound like other words. She looked at me for a moment then said "I don't know about that, Mama" in a cynical tone.