Parenting Without A License

Money and Underwear!

Posted by Kimberly on November 5th, 2007 — Posted in Diva Girl, NaBloPoMo

Usually I’m pretty good at parsing out the non-sequiters The Ladies pop out with. Most times, it doesn’t take me much to figure out what has sparked their nonsensical outbursts and wring sense from their seemingly random observations. I can often even do it while keeping a straight face. Sometimes, however, they catch me by surprise.

Like last night, when apropos of nothing Diva Girl suddenly exclaimed, “Oh! I know what they needed! Money or underwear!”

Huh?

I have to admit, I had no idea what she was talking about, who “they” were, or what they could possibly need with money and underwear. And Diva Girl’s explanation didn’t do much to clear it up for me.

“It’s in their jeans, Mom! And what’s in your jeans except for money and underwear? So that must be what they needed!” It was adorable to see how pleased she was with herself for solving this puzzle, but I still had no idea what we were talking about.

The penny finally dropped when she elaborated, “They said they needed something in our jeans and that’s why they sent the Mimzy back.” It all came clear at that point. Last week for Movie Night The Ladies and I watched The Last Mimzy, in which a dying future society sends a series of “mimzies” into the past looking for the key that will save them–a key that can be found “in their genes.” Although she hadn’t said anything at the time, Diva Girl had apparently been puzzling over this strange statement ever since, trying to figure out what they could possibly want with our jeans.

I tried–in between giggles–to explain to her the difference between “jeans” and “genes” and that they were in search of DNA, not spare change and underwear, but it’s a difficult concept to grasp when you’re only 8 years old and only have a rudimentary understanding of the whole process anyway.

Homophones are hard.

[Ed. Note: I swear I’m not playing fast and lose with NaBloPoMo. I wrote this yesterday and accidentally hit save instead of publish.]