Miscommunication

I was in a hurry. It was a lot later than I care to say, and the children were smack dab in the middle of the bathing hour.

Story was sitting on the toilet, wrapped in her towel. Ivy was in the shower rinsing her hair. I was trying to dry Story off. When I reached into the shower to wash Ivy's hair, Story looked at the upper left corner of the bathroom and said, "Look! It's froggy." (Which actually came out" Wook, is fwoggy!) I braced myself and looked in the corner, scared that there might actually be a frog there. There wasn't. So I ignored her.

But, Story has this really bad habit of not letting you ignore her. She repeats herself over and over again until you repeat what she just said correctly. So, 3 seconds later, "Mommy! It's FROGGY."

I said, "Where's the froggy?"

Ivy said, "Mommy, does Story have a frog?" She tried to peek her head out of the shower curtain to see.

I pushed her head back in. "No, there's no frog."

"MOMMY IS FROGGY!" Story said again in her satanic voice.

"Are you saying Mommy IS a froggy, Story?" I asked.

"Ha! Ha! Mommy is a froggy!" Ivy sang.

"Noooooooo!!!" Story yelled. "Mommy, is froggy!!!!!" She gestured up to the same corner.

"What's she saying, Mommy?" Ivy asked.

Good question, Ivy, I thought. "Maybe she has an imaginary friend that's a frog?"

"Story do you have an imamaiginary friend that's a frog?" Ivy tried to ask. Story just looked at us.

"FROGGY."

Ivy and I were sold on the imaginary friend idea. I stopped the shower and wrapped her up in the towel. "Hi, froggy!" I called, waving to the corner.

"Hi, froggy!" I said. "That's so cute, Mommy."

Ivy and I asked Story all sorts of questions about her froggy. She looked at us like we were stupid, and just kept repeating, "No, it's froggy!"

I sat Ivy up to brush her teeth, and then picked Story up to look in the mirror as I brushed her teeth. She gestured emphatically to the mirror. "See? it's FROGGY."

I looked at the mirror...and it was steamy. It was foggy. "Story, the mirror is froggy?"

"Yes, is FROGGY."

"No, that's foggy. The mirror is foggy."

Story pondered this for a moment. "No, I say froggy."