One Bad Apple

I'm learning very quickly that we need to be so very careful of what we say in front of Elaina already. Her little mind is as sharp as a tack and picks up new words and repeats them at the drop of a hat. Worse yet, she happens to know the meanings of so many words and gets her own little ideas and opinions on what she hears.

A prime example of what I am referring to happened just tonight. As Elaina was finishing her dinner in her highchair, I began to clean up the kitchen and noticed an apple in the fruit bowl that had gone neglected for weeks. Knowing I wasn't about to eat the now softened apple with leathery skin, I promptly tossed it into the trash. I immediately realized my mistake just that quickly. Elaina had watched me. I just taught her to throw food in the trash without even realizing it. She's so good about throwing things away when being asked, I hoped I didn't just confuse her by tossing fruit away so carelessly.

Of course she had been watching and shouted out, "Apple!" "Yes, Honey, that was an apple. It was a bad apple."

Elaina: "Apple. Bad."

Mommy: "No Sweetie, just that apple. It was rotten. Apples are good and yummy. "

Elaina: "Apples. Bad. Apples. Bad."

Mommy: (OMG! In oh-crap-take-it-all-back-mode) "Elaina, Apples are good and yummy. We eat apples, like applesauce. We like apples. They're good. I'll give you a cookie if you forget everything that happened in the past five minutes."

Done deal.