encounters with 5-year-olds

My cousin's conversation with her 5-year-old daughter. (By the way, Samster is a TOTAL girly girl. She's everything I was not as a child - pink galore).

"Mommy, who's your favorite Disney princess?"

"I like Mulan because she's a warrior."

"Why? Because she can fight like Soyun Eemoh?"

"Yes, like Soyun Eemoh."

(she thinks for a minute)

"Do you think I should learn how to fight like Soyun Eemoh?"

"Well it's very cool when girls are strong."

(she continues to think...)

A-HA! And sparky dances with excitement at the prospect...

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"Christinoona, follow me!"

"OK"

"Now put this cone here."

"OK"

"And put one next to it"

"OK"

"And one in front of that one"

"OK"

"And now put one on your head!"

Dylan wanted to play with me before class on Saturday, and he gave me half the orange cones (typically used for plyo drills). I mirrored his pattern until we had set up an elaborate game board to play "chess". Except it wasn't normal chess. It was "Dylan-makes-up-the-rules-as-we-go-along" chess. Which meant that he could conveniently decide that certain pieces would become knights or rooks or 'bushups'. HAHA. I totally thought he was saying 'pushup' and then realized that he meant 'bishop'. Love that kid. So these rules meant he could take my pieces but I couldn't take any of his. For example, he moved a cone up two and over one to take one of my cones.

"Hey, I thought you said that the front row was all pawns"

"No, that one was a knight."

So then I tried to take his knight with my 'pawn' in the front row.

"No, you can't do that"

"But I thought you said that was a pawn"

"It is. But pawns can't take that way."

"Sure they can. Pawns can only take diagonally."

"Well...not in this game. Pawns can only take forwards. But you can go forwards as much as you want. And when you capture two pieces you can make a new king. And kings can fly!"

HAHAHA. And by 'kings can fly' he meant they could go anywhere on the board and eat any piece. So of course, I lost. It was completely turning my brain upside down to try and keep track of which pieces were which. (Remember, these are all orange identical cones we're using). I love precocious children.