Conversations with a 5 year old

I'd like to get inside of Ashlyn's mind for a while. She's quite incredible. She cracks us up. Here are some recent conversations:

Ashlyn talking to Aunt Kim: "How old are you?"
Kim: "Twenty."
Ashlyn, after thinking a moment: "You can't be twenty because you are my mother's oldest sister and my mother is thirty-three."
(Ashlyn will ask us how old we are and when we were born. The next time she sees us she'll tell us how old we are, the date of our birthdays, and how old we will be on that next birthday.)

Ashlyn to me: "Grandma, I see some gray hair growing on you."
Me: "I know, I am long overdue for a color job."
Ashlyn: "Don't you like gray? I do, it's just a mixture of black and white."
The next morning-- Ashlyn: "I see your gray hair again!"
Me: "I know, you don't need to remind me, but hopefully you won't be able to see it much longer."
Ashlyn: "Don't worry, Grandma, there are lots of good things that are gray...like concrete!"

Me: "We've got to hurry, it is already eight-O-five."
Ashlyn: "You must mean eight-ZERO-five. Didn't you know that 'O' is a letter, not a number?" (She corrected me on this more than once!)

Ashlyn is always reading, thinking, making observations and asking questions. Out of the blue she came up and asked, "What does 'consequences' mean?" When we were taking her home she said, "Grandma, what does 'assisted' mean?" I told her it meant 'helped,' and if I assisted someone, then I was helping them. Then I heard her say, "Assisted Living." Evidently we had passed an assisted living center and she wondered what it was. One day Ashlyn asked me what 'glurp' meant. I didn't understand what she was asking so I asked her how the word was used. She started laughing and said that there was just this lady 'glurping.' I went to check and she was reading the comics...Dilbert of all things. In one of the conversation bubbles it said "Glurp." How do I define that for her? Ashlyn LOVES the word 'slurp' because the sound of it is so descriptive of its meaning. All I need to say to Ashlyn is 'slurp,' and she gets the giggles.

While eating, Ashlyn spilled all down her shirt. She said that it was 'okay, because that is what Oxi-clean is for.'

Ashlyn just can't believe I don't have a middle name. She wants to know why. I told her that my parents didn't think girls needed a middle name because when they married they added their husband's last name to theirs. Sometimes when she asks me what my middle name is, I say "Milligan." Ashlyn will tell me, "No, that's your maiden name." I told her that none of the four girls in my family had middle names, only the boys got them. She thinks it is awful that we didn't give any of our five daughters a middle name either. She acts like I was very derelict in my duties as a parent. She reminds me that all of my granddaughters have middle names.

When I pick beans in a short-sleeved shirt, I get a red, itching rash on my arms. Ashlyn tells me that I am allergic to the beans. She'll ask what else I am allergic to and then ask her grandpa if he is allergic to anything. If I sneeze, she wants to know what I am allergic to. Do most 5-year-olds even know the word 'allergic?' Also, while snipping the beans, she reminds me that my mother could snip beans faster than anyone...a tidbit she picked up from talks at mother's funeral.

After attending Primary in our ward, Ashlyn's teacher was telling me how the class went. Evidently Ashlyn was quite a handful. The teacher said the kids were all talking at once so she just sat with her arms folded and listened to their conversations, hoping they would decide to be quiet. She said she overheard Ashlyn say something about 'ordination to the Priesthood.' She asked me where Ashlyn got those words from as they are not words normally heard spoken by a 5-year-old.

Ashlyn has been planning her wedding for quite some time. For a while she said she was going to get married on February 3rd. When asked why she picked that date, she said, "Because it's the day after Groundhogs Day!" Like, Duh! Couldn't anyone figure that one out? Now she has decided to have a summer wedding. I asked her if she was going to be a June bride. She said, "Probably not June, because it would have to be after the 21st of June, or it wouldn't really be summer yet." Ashlyn is fine with a white wedding dress, but would like a pink sash. She wants 30 children, 17 girls and 13 boys. Ashlyn thinks the Salt Lake Temple is the best temple so that is where she is going to get married. When asked about the Logan Temple, she will give an emphatic "No!" She doesn't like the fact that the Logan Temple does not have Angel Moroni on top. That upsets her. Recently after attending the openhouse for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, she remarked to her mother that the Salt Lake Temple was still the best.

Ashlyn is very aware of family relationships. She will often say something prefaced with the relationship like: "My second cousin..." When she hears the garage door going up at home, instead of saying 'Daddy's home,' she is more likely to say to her mother, 'Your husband is home.' She has an uncanny way to figure it all out. One day after Mother's funeral she was telling me something about my mother. She started out saying, "Your mother...my great-grandmother..." and then proceded with the rest of the conversation.

I hope you enjoyed these few 'Amazing Ashlyn' stories. I hope Robin is writing a lot of them down. I am sure I will think of many more as soon as I post this.