Conversations With A 7 Year Old

Yesterday was the Marine Corps birthday and the birthday ball.  After I get all my pictures together and get a few from my friends I will post them on this blog.  But in the meantime I want to tell you about 3 funny conversations I have had with Lucy recently.

First, most of you know Lucy, but for the few of you that don't I will give you a brief description of her personality.  She is carefree, always happy and smiling, always finds the postive in any situation, at times a little out of control, friends with everyone within 10 feet of her, but can't remember anyone's name, has a tender heart and is very consicious of wrongs in her life and a free spirit.  Her first grade teacher said it best on one of her progress reports "Lucy's world is a happy place!".  No matter what is happening around her, Lucy is happy.

In the last few weeks I have a few fun/interesting conversations with her.  The first occurred the day after Columbus Day.  She was walking around singing the song "In 1992, Columbus sailed the ocean blue".  No, you didn't read it wrong and I didn't type it incorrectly either, she was singing it wrong.  I thought she just was mistaken at first and didn't say anything about it, but after she sang it like that 5 or 6 times I felt the need to correct her and tell her the right way to sing the song "In 1492,  Columbus sailed the ocean blue".  Well, she quickly informed me that her friend at school told her it was 1992 and since her friend said it that was the correct way to sing it.  I realized that to Lucy, who was born in 2004, 1992 seems likes a million years ago.  So our conversation that followed when somthing like this:
Mom: "Lucy, if Columbus sailed in 1992 what year do you think I was born in?"
Lucy: after a brief pause: "2001"
Mom: "No, much ealier then that." 
Lucy: "What came before 2000?"
Mom:"1999"
Lucy: "Ok, you were born in 1997"

After the conversation went on like this a few more times I told her I was born in 1977 to which she exclaimed how old I was.  But I explained to her that if I was born in 1977 Christopher Columbus did not sail in 1992.  Her next response was "Was Nana alive when Christoper Columbus sailed?"  She compares all old things against when her great-grandmother was born.  I told her that not even Nana was alive when Columbus sailed.  That gave her something to think about, but I bet if you asked her today she would tell you that Columbus sailed in 1992...I mean that is what her 7 year old friend told her was correct.


A second conversation occurred when Lucy was learning about contractions.  Russ asked her what a contraction was and her response was "It is when you take 2 words and and put them together and add an apostrophe."  Russ said to her "So, if I took Russ and Amy and combined them together to make Ramy, would that be a contraction?"  Lucy thought for a few seconds and said "No, it would only be a contraction if you made it Ramy's with the apostrophe."
I'm thinking we may have a little more work to do on the contractions.
She also told me on election day when I asked her if she knew who won the election that Abraham Lincoln had won.  I again tried to gently correct her but she would not budge.  She was absolutely sure Abraham Lincoln won.  And I'm pretty sure that is who she still thinks is the president.  So, we may need to not only work on our contractions but our history as well.

The third conversation was just the other day.  Lucy was doing some homework on the computer when she ran up to me and our conversation went something like this:
Lucy: "Mom, what does the word evidence mean?"
Mom: "It is something police collect in order to solve a crime."
Lucy: "I still don't understand."
Mom: "Use the word in a sentence so that I can better explain it to you."
Lucy: Thinks for a while.  Then says very seriously "Ok, I have a sentence using the word...What does the word evidence mean?"
Mom: I was laughing out loud.  "Lucy, that still doesn't help me to be able to explain it to you."
Lucy: "Well, I'm taking a quiz on a book I read online and the question is 'What does the word evidence mean?' so I don't know how to use it in any other sentence."
Mom: "Nice try Lucy, now get back out there and finish your homework."

This kid keeps me on my toes on a daily basis.  But she is precious and I love her so very much, even if she does drive me nuts some days.