"Astrated!"

My oldest daughter (we've had another one since I last posted here -- a beautiful girl who is now 7 months old!) turned 4 last month and started preschool last month as well. She is having a lot of fun and learning a lot. As always, she is a non-stop source of entertainment for us, but a couple of things recently have really made me chuckle. She is really into being the "strongest" these days and a couple of weeks ago I got her buckled into her carseat and then she huffed. "What's wrong?" I asked her as I got myself buckled in. "Well, Mommy," she begins. "I had an argument with J (not using the name to protect privacy -- a boy in her class) today because he said he was stronger than me and I told him I was stronger than him so Mommy, I want you to go to my school on Monday and tell J he's not strong and that I'm stronger than him." This, of course, was told to me all in one sentence without taking a breath!

You know that Volvo commercial where the dad is trying to put his daughter into the car and then trying to close the door but she won't stop talking long enough for him to do it? We laugh every time we see that because THAT is our daughter. All the time. She never stops. Ever. Most of the time she doesn't even take a breath. Apparently that's how I was when I was a child. A few weeks ago after church my husband came up to me to tell me he had her in the car so we could get in and go. Then he shook his head. "Remember the Volvo commercial?" he asked me. I laughed. "Yeah, did she do it to you again?" "Yeah. Except this time I couldn't get the door closed because she stuck her foot in it."

A few nights ago I went into her room because she was yelling for me and told me her toe hurt. I told her to go to sleep and went to take my shower. I was brushing my teeth before getting in the shower and could hear her talking to my husband so obviously she had gone into our room where he was reading in bed. I finished and he said, "Mommy can you come in here for a minute?" His voice sounded amused. I stepped out and he said, "She says she is very 'astrated' right now because her toe hurt and now her elbow hurts too." I looked down at her and asked her what was wrong. She made her frustrated noise with force "OHUGHHH! I'm REALLY ASTRATED because my toe and elbow hurt!!!!!" I tried not to laugh and told her I was sorry she was "astrated," but that going to sleep was the only thing that would help at that moment. We don't know for sure what word "astrated" means, but we think she must have been trying to say "exasperated." It was too cute!