The Elf on the Shelf

We almost forgot to get out the Elf on the Shelf this year!  For those of you who aren't familiar with this, you can check it out here: http://www.elfontheshelf.com/#/home.  Anyway, Abbie was super excited to see the little guy.  Of course, she thinks that it is a girl elf.  She is still trying to decide on a name, but she has been talking to him about all the things she wants for Christmas.  I overheard her this morning and some of it was the same old stuff that she has been talking about all month - she wants a pillow pet, and a dinosaur, and barbies, etc., but I also heard her say "I need a new brain so I can remember more stuff."  Always so self-critical.  The thing with the elf is that she can't touch it or its magic will go away.  So, there it sits on the mantle, just staring around the room.  Abbie is quick, though, and it is hard to get one over on her.  She said to me, "The elf's face almost looks like plastic."  Hmm, she's on to us.  I told her that maybe the elf just has to have really tough skin because the North Pole is so cold.  This seemed to make sense to her.

The other day, Abbie and I were looking at very old blog posts and I realized that I used to write so much more about the things that she was saying.  However, lately I have been more focused on the things that she is doing.  Perhaps its just because fewer nonsensical things are coming out of her mouth as she ages and because she is doing so many more interesting things.  Anyway, she does still say interesting things.

Recently we were reading one of the many princess books that she got from the library at school.  The King in the story says to a musician that if life were fair he would be paid more for his talents.  Abbie was stunned by this statement.  "You mean life isn't fair!?!"  I didn't want her to get too disillusioned, so I just said, "Well, most of the time its fair, but sometimes bad things happen to good people and sometimes good things happen to bad people and that's not fair."  She thought about this for a moment and then said, "OK, so I want to be a bad person."  "Why, honey?"  "So that good things will happen to me."  You can't fault her for trying to game the system, but of course I had to set her straight.  "No, honey, most of the time bad things happen to bad people.  Only sometimes do good things happen to them.  If you want the greatest number of good things to happen to you then you should be a good person, which you already are."