Mama, what's a snowbank?

For those of you not quite understanding who the occassionally mentioned KS is..she is someone I work with and in fact, I'm her supervisor...which makes for an interesting political setup. But I will explain that as time goes on...

But on Wednesday and Thursday I had the honor (?) of watching her interact with her daughter because there was no babysitter right before the holiday break.

The girl wants a movie - I don't know what the choice was though I'd guess Monsters Inc but there was no real way to tell as the sound was not turned up. "Mama, I can't hear it" I heard over and over. "I'm not turning it up...the speakers are right by my ears and if it gets too loud, I'll get grumpy. You don't want me to be grumpy do you?" was the reply more or less each and every time with a good deal of exasperation to go with it. Hmmm. Ok. So why'd u turn it on for her in the first place? Finally the girl gave up on being able to watch it and decided to paint instead.

"I don't know how the babysitter puts up with this all day..." turns to me, "I'm just not cut out for this running after kids thing..." or some such. Then she spent the next few hours calling her chiropractor's office every half hour - only to get the voice mail. A topic for another discussion: what exactly do people become addicted to with chiropractors etc? Is it the physical contact? All I know is at 8am they weren't answering because they weren't open yet. At 10am, they "ought to be open by now..." At 2:30, "They gotta be in, I need to go today..." At 3, "Where are they?" with a kind of mournful moan. One day of watching your own child and you cling desperately to the hope that your chiropractor will be in...

Or how about the joke that was exchanged between them about who knows what - was starting to think this was a sign of some bonding going on finally...but as soon as the girl started to laugh, "Will you zip it? No one wants to hear that mouth..." Apparently not.

But it's little things that make you wonder - like when she promptly returned my colored pencil _sharpened_ once she'd convinced "Mama" to let her sharpen her own set out in the hallway. Or the cute way she spoke: "Mama, can I go outside? I need to borrow the wind for my kite..." Or her response to her mother's attitude: "I can't stand this complaining of yours...I ought to bury you in a snowbank and leave you there." a silent pause "Mama, what's a snowbank?"