Pumpkins Have Ponytails (and other thoughts)

I wish I had written down all the clever little associations the girls have come up with since they began speaking. Children don't have the language to describe much of what they are witnessing around them, so they make associations based on what they do know. For example, whenever something stops working, Clara says something like, "Daddy! The TV is crickets!" "Crickets?" "Yeah, crickets." I don't know where she got it, but her description of that quiet time when something is supposed to be happening, but is not, is the same as on television and in the movies. Crickets. If she has a cold and can't breathe through her nose she says, "my nose is crickets."

On the walk home from school today with her friend Nate, Clara saw a skeleton.
Clara: Look Nate, man bones!
Me: We call that a skeleton.
Clara (ignoring me and talking to Nate): I meant skeleton.

Two weeks ago, very matter-of-factly:
Clara: Daddy, pumpkins have ponytails.
Me: Is that what those things on top are called?
Clara: Yep

At dinner recently:
Clara: Zoobooschloop wawa
Megan: What the heck was that?
Clara: It was French

While eating pizza:
Kate: I'm eating beroni.
Me: Beroni?
Kate: Yeah, beroni.
Me: Oh, that's pepperoni.
Kate: Let's call it beroni.
Me: OK.

But with their language developing, at least once a day one of them will say something that amazes me. Today I was trying - and failing - to put a headband on Clara.
Me: I'm sorry, sweetie. I'm struggling.
Clara: Struggling means something frustrated.
I must have given her that "I'm so proud of you" look because she got bashful and snuggled up against me.