Mother's Day 2014 Interview

Following up on Mother’s Day 2012 and Mother’s Day 2013, here is my interview with the girls late this morning on Mother's Day 2014.  I am a little off of my game lately, so I didn’t do the interview before Mommy woke up.  Nor did I remember to take them to the grocery store to decorate cakes for Mommy.  I guess my mind is elsewhere.  I hope Mommy doesn’t mind the failure to get the cakes.

Compounding matters, here is the only picture I took this Mother's Day:  

In case you have forgotten what Mommy looks like, this is not Mommy.  It is a broken part of our washing machine.  Sorry, Mommy -- I hope you will forgive me!

In any event, back to the interview.  This year’s interview featured some frankly not-so-delightful interaction between the girls.  And I got upset, too.  But in any event, it is clear how much the girls love Mommy.  Happy Mother's Day to all the other mommies out there!

What is your favorite thing about Mommy?

Claire: Uhh, because she loves us.

Elsa: Did you type, “Uhh,”  Daddy?  Hee hee hee hee.

Daddy: Yes, I did.

Elsa: Oh, well why did you tell me that?

Daddy: Because you asked.  Elsa, what is your favorite thing about Mommy?

Elsa: Because she loves me.

What do you like to do with Mommy the most?

Elsa: [Long pause] OK, well, I’m thinking…but you just typed something.  Daddy, what did you type?

Daddy: Elsa, stop looking at the screen.  Go sit over there so you can’t read the screen.  I want you to focus on your answers, not on my typing.

Elsa: OK, my favorite thing to do with Mommy is doing stuff together.  Oh, so it would be quilting and randomly spending time together while Claire is at school and I have a half day.

Claire: I like to…play with her.

Why does Mommy love you?

Claire: Because we’re nice kids.

Elsa: You’re talking about yourself and not me.  Like, my favorite thing is not to play with Mommy.  Because my favorite is really not to be playing with anybody.

Daddy: OK, Elsa, why does Mommy love you?

Elsa: Because, because, because, I love her?

Daddy: Is that a question?

Elsa: No, I don’t know.

What is the most fun you’ve ever had with Mommy?

Elsa: The most fun I ever had with Mommy was everything except for getting in trouble.

Daddy: What specifically?

Elsa: Well, I don’t know.  Everything except for getting in trouble.

Claire: Mine is swimming with Mommy.

Elsa: Oww, stop sitting on me Claire.

Claire: Well I want to cuddle with you.

Elsa: Stop!  Get off me, Claire.

Claire: I want to cuddle with you.

Elsa: Get.  Off.

Claire: How about behind you?

Elsa: Just go to your normal spot.  Get off me.

Claire: I want to cuddle with you.

Daddy: We can cuddle later.

Claire: But I want to cuddle with Elsa.

Daddy: We can all cuddle together later.

Claire: Yay.

Elsa: But I don’t want to.

Claire: Yay.

[At which point Elsa put her foot in Claire’s face, Claire started crying, and I got upset and said the interview was over because they couldn’t behave.  I went downstairs while the girls stayed upstairs.  Claire came downstairs and said Elsa was staying upstairs.  Claire and I came back upstairs and I explained that they’d need to behave if we wanted to finish the interview for Mommy.  Because they love Mommy, they agreed.]

Describe what Mommy looks like.

Claire: Uhh, she has green eyes and she has a body.  She has some foots.  She has some ears.

Elsa: It’s “feet” not “foots.”

Claire: And she has hair.  And she has a ring.  And she has blonde hair like all of us do.

Darker blonde hair.

Elsa: She has dark blonde hair and green eyes and when it’s winter she likes to wear a green fleece in the house.

What does Mommy like to do?

Elsa: Ahh, she likes to…quilt and…give us kisses and hugs.

Claire: Ahh, she likes to cuddle with me and gives hugs and kisses and she likes to be with us.

What does Mommy like to play with you?

Claire: Umm, ponies.

Daddy: Really?

Claire: Yes.

Daddy: Elsa, what does Mommy like to play with you?

Elsa: Read Harry Potter.

What is Mommy’s favorite thing in the world?

Elsa: Umm, us.  I mean, me and Claire.

Claire: What’s the difference between “us” and “me and Claire”?

Elsa: “Us” is me and Claire.  No wait, “us” is me and Claire and you and Belle Belle.

Daddy: So Mommy likes you and Claire more than me and Belle Belle?

Elsa: No, she likes all of us the same.

Claire: Ahh, umm, she likes to, umm, she likes to go places with us or give, umm, and that’s it.

What makes Mommy happy?

Claire: Hmm…when funny things happen.

Elsa: Umm…to…to…for me and Claire to try new things and like them.  And just to see us.

How old is Mommy?

Elsa: Is this is a birthday interview? 

Daddy: No.

Elsa: So why do we need to do the “how old” thing?

Daddy: OK, we’ll skip it.

Elsa: No, no, she’s 39 or 38.

Daddy: Claire, do you know how old Mommy is?

Claire: No, how old is she?

Daddy: 39.

Claire: OK, then write 39.

Elsa: “Write” 39?  It’s “type” 39.

What is Mommy’s favorite food?

Claire: Mommy’s favorite food is probably…ah…fruit?

Elsa: Umm, I have no idea! 

Daddy: You don’t want to guess?

Elsa: I don’t want to guess?

[At this point I realized that my laptop’s monitor was blocking my view of Elsa, who was busy reading a Harry Potter book.  That explains her lack of a real answer and some of her weirder answers earlier.]

Daddy: Elsa, can you please put the book away while we do this?

Elsa: Sure.

How are you and Mommy different?

Elsa: She has green eyes and I have blue eyes.  And she has darker hair than me and I have lighter.

Claire: Because I’m small and Mommy’s bigger.  And we both…and I have more whiter skin than Mommy and because she has green eyes and she has a ring and she has darker hair than me.

Elsa: You have a ring.

Claire: No I don’t.

Elsa: Yes you do.  Well, I don’t know if you have a ring and just don’t wear it all the time.

Claire: Well I don’t have one.

Elsa: Oh.

How are you and Mommy the same?

Elsa: We both have blond hair and we both like the color green.  And, haha, we both sleep in beds.  And we both have lights in our bedroom.  [Elsa was laying on her back on the bed at this point and looking at the ceiling, which explains the lights reference.]  And we both have a Furby sticker somewhere by our room.  [Points to a Furby sticker on our headboard, while I wonder why I have never noticed that there is a Furby sticker on the headboard of my bed.]

Claire: I put it there!

Claire: Because we both love each other.  And we both, hahaha, and we both have lamps.  Because we have lamps.  And we both, and we both, haha, and, we both, and…that’s else. [I have no idea what she was trying to say here.]

Elsa: [In a sing-song voice] And we both and we both and we both.

What is Mommy not very good at?

Claire: She’s not very good at sleeping less in.

Elsa: Like, not very good at the opposite of sleeping in.

Elsa: And she’s not very good at tennis, hee hee hee.

How do you know that Mommy loves you?

Elsa: Because she says “I love you” a lot.

Claire: Because she says “I love you” a lot.

[Elsa then talked, for about 3 minutes, about how the answers were identical.]

What does Mommy say to you a lot?

Claire: Umm, “I love you a lot.”

Both: Hahahahahahaha.  [I don’t know why this was so funny.]

Elsa: Umm, “She loves you a lot.”  And no more playing…nononono, not that.  I just thought of something that she says when Grandma Baldwin is over – “Don’t play on Grandma’s tablet too much.”  Well something like that.

What does Mommy do to you except not something bad?  [Elsa formulated this question a few years ago.]

Elsa: Hugs me and kisses me and does a lot of love signs.

Claire: Like saying “I love you a lot.”

Both: Hahahahahahahaha.  [I don’t know what was so funny here either.]

What do you want to tell Mommy on this Mother’s Day?

Elsa: Happy Mother’s Day

Claire: Uh, I love you, Happy Mother’s Day.