MyThreeDaughters

Remember that episode of the Brady Bunch when Peter gets busted by Mr. Brady for something, and Peter tries to get out of it by saying he was following his Dad’s “exact words?” So then Mr. Brady tells Peter, OK, we’ll use “exact words,” and sticks Peter with his own, exact words numerous times until Peter cries “uncle”?
Well, I never said anything about exact words, but I got thrusted and parried by Elizabeth, the three-year-old, with my own words this afternoon.
The scene: Fontaine and Elizabeth in the living room, playing their usual pre-dinner game of Grab, Push and Squeal. (My Dad used to refer to this as playing “grab-ass,” which I never understood and now think is just about the exact word.) So I have to come into the living room and play Dad:
“Fontaine, Elizabeth, I don’t want to come in here again and see you jumping on that couch!”
Elizabeth: “Hey Daddy, you don’t have to see it.”
me: “Elizabeth, you know that’s not what I meant…”
Three-year-old: “Daddy, you can just go in the kitchen, and don’t look in here.”