Sweet little Beth

Everything Beth says is made a little cuter by her sweet little voice. So, imagine the sweetest little voice you can hear when I tell these stories.

This morning, Chris was gathering up the trash to take out because it's garbage day around here. Yes, here in America, the only federally recognized holidays this week are Christmas day and New Year's Day. So, the garbage men, who work for local government, still have to work on Christmas Eve. (I just threw that in because the other night I was chatting online with a friend in Australia. He works for their government--perhaps on a federal level since he lives in Canberra. Anyway, this was pretty early in the week and he was done with work for the time being. He said, "The government shuts down until January 4." I haven't stopped laughing. That's so Australian. Our government doesn't "shut down" for anything. Even our noble senators were hard at work ruining the financial future of our country and eliminating the need for personal accountability just this very Christmas Eve. Note: where there is no accountability, there is no freedom. But that is a different post for a different blog since my blentries are light-hearted and easy-reading.)

What was I talking about? Oh yeah. Beth. Chris was gathering up the trash. Beth looked at him with big eyes and said, "Dad, what are you doing with all that garbage?" This is funny because it's as if she's never seen anyone take the garbage out. And also because she said it in her best Cindy-Lou Who voice and reminded me distinctly of "Santy Claus, why? Why are you taking our Christmas tree? Why?"

And then later today, I came home from some last-minute shopping. Really, it wasn't last minute. It's for Ammon's birthday which isn't until Sunday. I could have saved the shopping until Saturday. I walked in as Beth was coming up the stairs. She looked at me with her sweet little face and said, "I'm grumpy." I guess she felt she had to inform us of her bad mood because no one could tell otherwise. I was in the middle  of a comforting and cheering hug, when my brother Michael walked in. He said, "Hi Bethie." And she said, "I'm grumpy!" So Michael said, "Well, I better watch my step." He pretended to back away in fear and Beth started laughing. "Michael's funny." And that's how Beth's bad moods go.