The Sperske’s

I made this over the weekend

iMovie makes it too easy.

They say that your kids are mirrors of you…or something like that.  I don’t know what the saying is, but I get it.  I’m constantly seeing Piper copy my actions or hear my inflections in the way she talks.  I often put my phone on speaker phone and rest it on my arm or shoulder when I’m driving and I can’t find my headset.  (I know, I know.  It’s hands-free, though not really the heart of the law.)  Now Piper uses her pretend phone to call Princesses or other storybook characters and puts it on speaker phone and rests it on her arm while she sits in her carseat.

Today I gave her an answer that she didn’t want to hear while driving home (I told her that she couldn’t watch Princess and the Frog on my phone).  I wish I had recorded the conversation that followed.  I had to try so hard not to laugh as she repeated pretty much everything I’ve said to her.  I’ll try to remember exactly what she said, but I’m sure that if you’re a parent (or have had a parent, for that matter) you’ll recognize some of the phrases she pulled out on me.

Me:  You can’t watch Princess and the Frog because you already watched some of it this morning and that’s enough screen-time for the day.

Piper:  Please?

(There is an exchange of “Please” and “I already said no” and more “Please”s and “What was my answer, Piper?”)

Piper:  Here are your choices.  You can get out the phone, and then play the movie and then you can watch the movie.  Those are your choices.

Me:  Oh really?  Those are my choices?

Piper:  Yes, you can get our your phone, start the movie and watch the movie.  Those are your choices.

Me:  I’m the mommy, I make up the choices.

Piper:  No, I’m the mommy.

Me:  Sweet, then when we get home I get to take a nap.

Piper:  No, I have to watch the movie.

Me:  Piper, I said no.  No means no.

Piper:  Yes means yes.

Me:  That’s true.  Good logic there, but I really do mean no.

Piper:  Do you want to try again?

(I ask her that when she doesn’t ask for something nicely and she needs to try again and ask nicely.)

Me:  No, I told you nicely what my answer is.  You’re not going to watch the movie now.

Piper:  I DO need to watch the movie now.

Me:  Piper, I said no.

Piper:  If you keep saying no, you have to go to time out and then we’ll talk a lot.

Me:  (Trying not to laugh because whenever she gets sent to time out I have a “talk” with her, you know.) Oh, okay.

Piper: I’ll ask you a lot of questions.

(I think this is because I always ask her a bunch of questions when in our “talk” after time-out.  “Why did you get sent to time out”, “What do you have to do next time so you don’t get sent to time out”.  Poor kid gets a lot of questions.)

Me:  So you’re still being the mommy, right now?

Piper:  Yes, I’m the mommy and you have to watch the movie.

Me:   Wow, Piper, you’ve really got me down.

It kinda ended there because she got distracted.  Man, she must hear those catchphrases a lot to be able to mimic me so well.  She’s 3 going on 30.  I’m doomed.

Here is a chart of the likelihood that certain things will happen to me throughout 2009

click here to see the chart

It’s important to know that in September I got a new car

Someone just walked up to the bell hop at the Ramada and asked of he knew where the “strip club” was. He didn’t know but someone sitting next to him did. Apparently it’s a steakhouse. I wonder how many irate phone calls they get every time a spouse eats there on a business trip. The Ramada is nice it’s really old but in a cool retro kind of way.

Just pulled in the first of three hotels that we will be staying in. We got a late start making sure everything worked before we left.

Getting ready to present software I have been working on for over three years.

Lastnight we finished a 6 hour drive down to Anaheim. I remember thouse long drives down to southern California. Piper was so good the whole way. She has no idea what we are going to do today!

Another beautiful day in SF.