Breathtaking

There's a Seinfeld episode where some guy calls Elaine "breathtaking." She takes this as a pretty big compliment, but later he uses the same term to describe an ugly baby...Elaine is understandably upset, and spends the rest of the episode trying to figure out if he was actually insulting her. You know, we have a lot of Seinfeld-esque moments in our house. Sometimes I call people shmoopie, and E definitely dances like Elaine. But we had a series of events yesterday that can only be described as "breathtaking."

A few nights ago, while M was at work, I made a secret thing for a secret reason, which may have something to do with a holiday that will honor him some day in the near future. Well, I LOVE this secret thing that I made, so I decided to show it to E, accepting the risk that she may decide to tell M about it. Well, I took it out and held it up for her to see, and her eyes widened and she said "Wow!" She was all smiles, and I was appropriately proud of myself for impressing a two-year-old.

Later, we were out in front of the house looking at the strawberry plants. She has been watching the little white flowers for awhile, waiting for the berries to come. I pointed out a little green berry, and E said "Wow!" Okay, strawberries are pretty great, even if they're not yet red. Then she found another and said, "Wow!" And another, and another, "Wow, wow, wow!" About a dozen Wows in all, for tiny unripe fruit. I can live with that.

But then came the ugly baby. I was changing E's diaper, and it was a really stinky one. Lately, she has been asking to see what's in there before we throw it away...this is probably a byproduct of potty training, making her more interested in her bodily functions. That's what we tell ourselves, anyway. Well, she looked at that diaper, and, you guessed it, "Woooow!" A bigger, more animated response for her own poop than for strawberries or my art project...In the future, I will look elsewhere for compliments. E can no longer be trusted to build my confidence.