Mismatched

Mackenzie is Miss Mismatched. It started when she received a set of 3 socks of the same color but intentionally manufactured with different designs. Now she wants her socks contrasting every day, regardless of if they're her LittleMissMatched socks (that's the brand name). For a while she wore opposite shoes too, which earned us a few strange looks.

Until recently Mackenzie would speak Dutch only when she was angry with me: "Je bent een stoute papa!" (You've been a naughty dad). If Amy or I scold her sometimes she'll glance away and give a nonchalant shrug of her shoulders to let us know that she's guilty but doesn't really care. This goes quite a ways towards showing that she thinks she runs the show. Along those lines, she's told me in a heated moment, "I don't wants to behave!" Sometimes this rejection is OK to hear. An angry, "Not you daddy!" at 2 am means I can go back to bed because Mackenzie feels strongly she wants to see her mother.

Mackenzie says many hilarious things but it's often her tone of voice, her timing, or her expression that makes it so. Since it's difficult to translate sounds into writing a bit gets lost somewhere. Some of these include: "Are ladybugs scared of people?" "It won't be scary...right Tay Tay?" "Do dolphins eat people?" "I'm not sweetheart. I'm Kenzy!" "Carry me like a baby princess!" "I wants to go potty on the toilet with you."

Sometimes it's what's at the end of the sentence that's important for Mackenzie. When she's certain of herself she ends with an, "uh-huh." Don't mess with that. If she's teasing or trying to put on the slightly spoiled, youngest child routine, then she puts a solidly emphasized, "HAHA" after any statement meant to offend.

There's a great deal of bad American too (American is a language similar too, but quite different from, English, Australian, Irish, Scottish, etc): "I did it tomorrow," is not an uncommon statement. Time to teach the kid past tense, I guess. Sometimes "he" is mistaken for "she" and vice versa. Little things like this, of course, are being sorted through in her mind and will soon become only memories.

Occasionally she addresses me as "daddy Browne" or even Ted. Same for Amy. Sometimes her quotes sound a bit controversial although they weren't intended to be: "You've got a biiiiig butt!" has gotten some good laughs--this is definitely one where the tone of voice is necessary. My recent favorite is when she marched into the bathroom while I was preparing to use the toilet and simply said: "I get to go potty first because you've got that other thing!" Proof that sometimes females can be a bit bossy towards people with those "other things!"

When all is good: "Hello persons!" "You're nice daddy!" "I love you AND I like you!" Sometimes she wants to verify: "That was nice of me, right mommy?"

We've told her so many times that she needs to put on a warmer shirt that now she calls a short sleeved shirt a "cold shirt." The other day she saw spackle (hole filler) on the wall and said, "Look! Bird poop."

She's growing up fast and she's empowered with a mind of her own.