Sadie was given a book of nursery rhymes for Christmas, which Abigail offered to read to her this morning.

“Listen to this,” Abigail said. Sadie glanced over at the book, but made no real effort to join into the whole nursery rhyme experience. Abigail began to read anyway: “Hey Diddle Diddle, the cat and the fiddle…”

Now, I know that the kids mimic lots of things I say and do. They say things like “drat!” and “oh my,” and “let’s use words to solve this problem.” I’m cool with that.

However, I would like to state for the record that not everything they say comes from me.

Abigail read the rhyme all the way through, then looked up at Sadie, who was still mostly ignoring the book. “Hey Diddle Diddle!” Abigail said. “And that’s only a small sampling of what’s inside!” Sadie reached over and grabbed the book.

You see? Not everything they say comes from me. Some things they say come from late-night infomercials.*

*No, they’ve never seen late-night infomercials. I’m just saying.