day 27: cotton-headed ninny muggins

This morning, in the chaos of getting ready for school and out the door bright and early, I called McK a "cotton-headed ninny muggins". She was being goofy, and the name fit the moment. Aaron began borrowing that name from a movie that has become a family obsession, Elf. It's not uncommon for one of the five of us to be quoting it at any random time. For example, when I answer the phone, I'll hear a kid in the background loudly whispering, "Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?" Or, when one of the girls catches me singing to the music playing in a store, she'll quietly (or sometimes, not so quietly) belt out, "I'm singing! I'm in a store, and I'm singing!" Or, my favorite so far, was when we were in a Mexican restaurant a few weeks ago with some friends, and upon hearing her friend order a taco with just beef and cheese, R burst into loud laughter. "Did you hear that?" she asked. "He ordered beef and cheese! He's gonna smell like beef and cheese!" The girls have also asked me on numerous occasions if they can try spaghetti with syrup on top.

So, as you can see, for me to call McK a "cotton-headed ninny muggins" is not an uncommon thing in our house.

But, being as temperamental as she is, I braced myself for how she'd handle the name-calling.

"Mom, I like it better when Dad calls me that."

Yeah. Me, too.