"Look, momma! My witch is following us!" Alexis declared from the back seat as she pointed at her window. Or, at least I thought she was pointing at her window.
"Mmhmm . . ." I replied. I really didn't have any idea what she was talking about. The kid had conned me into letting her listen to the Camp Rock 2 soundtrack for the eighty-eleventeenth-seventieth time, so I was trying really very hard to not hear a single thing that was going on anywhere near me.
Alexis cut through my attempts at zoning out by repeating herself over and over. "My witch is following us!" she kept saying. I finally decided I should at least acknowledge the kid since she was so excited. I gave her ye old I'm Going to Basically Repeat What You Just Said So You Think I Am Paying Attention.
"Not my 'witch,'" she corrected, "My 'WITCH.'"
I was stumped. I tried to focus on what she was trying to say while ignoring the screeching blaring out of the car speakers. At last, it came to me. Alexis was wearing a Halloween t-shirt. It must have had a witch on it and she had to be seeing the witch's reflection in the window. OF COURSE it was following us.
Not that any of that explained why she had corrected how I pronounced, "Witch," but whatever.
A few minutes later, Alexis asked if we could stop and explore around a barn. I'm never ever going to turn down a good opportunity at some photos, so I obliged. As we got out of the car, Alexis pointed to the sky and started yammering about her "Witch" again.
I followed her little pointing finger and saw a whole lot of nothing.
It was time to make like Nancy Drew and get to the bottom of the mystery. I tried questioning the kid for a few minutes, but nothing became clearer. Finally, I asked her to spell what she saw.
So this is where I tell you, yes, my 4-year old can spell a whole bunch of words. It's not exactly the wondrous ray of sunshine that some would think, though. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with your spouse with your kid in the room, knowing that you can't just spell the key words? GRRRRR. I would try Pig Latin, but Mr. Husband would probably look at me like I have five heads. He already does that a couple of times per week when I'm acting like I'm in the final round of the National Spelling Bee, so I try not to encourage him.
(For what it's worth, I figured out this whole spelling thing the hard way. Let's just say Santa had to make a fairly major return because two weeks after spelling his name and purchase, the kid suddenly was all, "I know what Santa is getting me!" It took her a while to piece the letters together, but -oh- she did it. DOUBLE GRRRR.)
Alexis thought for a minute, then replied that she didn't know how to spell it. I figured I'd help her out by giving her the letters I thought I knew.
"It's W-I . . ." I began.
"S-H!" she finished gleefully.
I was still confused. "Your . . . wish?" I said hesitantly.
"YES! MY WISH!" Alexis practically screamed.
I looked back at the sky, trying desperately to find the magical missing puzzle piece that would make everything make sense.
The airplane trails. THE AIRPLANE TRAILS!
Alexis had decided that the trails behind the airplanes were falling stars. She was making wishes left and right because there were about six airplanes total flying at the time.
I'm never telling her they were airplanes and not falling stars.