How did my daughter get so smart?

Here are so pretty funny things Inara's said over the last couple months.

Before I start this story, I have to give a little backstory. One of the lightbulbs in our main stairway blew out a few weeks ago. It's super high up and hard to get to. Shawn bought one of those long, claw-like devices to reach the lightbulb. Given Shawn's luck, the claw got stuck around the light fixture and won't come off. If he pulls on it, the whole darn fixture comes out of the ceiling. I now have a nice yellow claw stuck to my stairway light. Once in awhile, Inara likes to point it out to me and asks, "What did Daddy do to the light? Why did he leave that on there?" So the other day, Shawn, Inara and I were shopping at Ace Hardware. I stopped to look at paint, and the two of them went to go get popcorn, Inara's favorite reason for hanging out at Ace. They come walking back and Shawn says to me, "You'll never guess what your daughter just said to me." Oh boy, I brace myself. Shawn proceeds to tell me that as they were walking, Inara points to the tallest ladder in the store and says, "Daddy, there's a tall ladder for you to fix the light with the claw on it." We both stood there cracking up. She's so bossy and constantly reminding us of our foibles.

Before bedtime, I asked Inara to pick up the toys she had left in the hallway. When I went in her room, I stopped dead in my tracks because the toys she picked up were placed right in the middle of her room. I then asked, "Inara, why did you leave your toys right in the middle of the room? You know mommy or daddy can step on them and get hurt." She slyly responds, "Mommy, I lined them up and you can just walk around them. See."

I was putting laundry away when I called her into my bedroom. I pointed out that she left her super tiny baby doll comb on the floor where it's going to get lost. She flops down on the floor right next to the comb. I then start going on about how I've already asked her several times today to pick it up because she's going to forget where she left it and it's not my responsibility to pick up her toys. She abruptly interrupts me and says, "Yes. Yes. Yes" followed by a deep sigh. Oh I'm so sorry to sound like a broken record your highness. She's almost 3 but the sass sometimes comes across like a 12 year old. Seriously, where does she learn such things?

She likes to congratulate me for doing things I congratulate her on. She loves to see my empty lunch or dinner plates and will say to me, "Mommy, you ate all your lunch. I'm so proud of you." I'm always checking her panties when I take her to the bathroom to make sure she didn't have an accident. Well now she likes to see if I've had any accidents: "Let me check your panties. Good job, Mommy. You no pee in your panties."

The other day Shawn took Inara potty and she asked him to lock the door. She's very much about having her privacy. She then stated, "I don't want mommy to come in. Or Snowflake." Snowflake is her favorite baby doll. Shawn cracked up and had to come share this one with me immediately.

Last night, when she was going to bed, she asked me to sleep in her room with her. I told her I had to go to bed in my room. She said, "No, mommy. I want someone else to sleep in my room with me cuz I'm all alone." I knelt down and told her she was a brave girl, to not worry, and that she had friends in her room with her: Snowflake, Mickey, Minnie." She frowned and said, "Mommy, they're not real. I want a real person to sleep in here with me."

Boy, do I love this age. She's so smart it's surprising every day what comes up with. Man, do I love her!!!