the other day, i made roast beef for dinner. it was a pretty big production, thus lots of anticipation. ava was intensely interested in where the meat came from, and asked me several times throughout the day. i kept it simple and said a cow, vs. cattle, but got the point across. at dinner, as we were all settling into a ridiculously large cut of beef, she paused, looked at me, and said, "mommy, does the cow mind if we are eating its meat?"

pause...pause...pause...finally, i replied:

"not anymore!"

we went to the winter carnival parade yesterday, and it was great fun and both kids LOVED the characters (like the characters at Disney World), and both got a lot of hugs from various fuzzy creatures. on the way home, we were discussing minnie mouse and the superb hug she gave (i think we may have known her in her human form) and then ava stopped, thought for a moment, and said "mommy, why did all of those puppet things, those um, those um, those um THINGS that gave me hugs..." "characters?" "yes, characters. why did all of those characters have boots like i do?"

BUSTED.

i contemplated revealing the pretty evident truth, then decided to keep it simple: "because they need to keep their feet warm, ava."

on the way home, she also noted that she preferred girls because "they look nicer."