Me, descending stairs, speaking to Kiera: Come on, kiddo.
Kiera: I not a kiddo. MOLLY is the kiddo.

Me, speaking to whichever girl is closer: Would you close the fridge please, sweetheart?
(Molly closes fridge)
Kiera: NO! She said for sweetheart to do it! YOU not her sweetheart, I her sweetheart! (Bursts into tears.)

Kiera, as we walked to the car through the falling snow today: Snow falling on the naked! (She means her bare skin.)

Kiera, at dinner last week: Can I have the wine cover?
Me: Uhhhhhh...oh, you mean the bottlecap?

Molly decided to start counting out loud today when she finished her lunch. She continued counting as she went upstairs so that I could brush her teeth and Kiera's teeth, as she put on her coat and boots, as we went outside and got into the car. She hit 900 as she hung up her coat at her preschool. At that point I suggested that she take a break, and I'd remind her after preschool that she'd stopped at 900. (I didn't want her sitting and counting out loud during their Large Group Time.)

I can't say she did it without a mistake, because while we were in the car, she counted from 730 to 739 about four times before continuing on to 740. It was kind of interesting; she was clearly getting fatigued, and her thoughts were wandering, but she didn't want to just quit. I'm not sure if she had an actual number goal in mind that she wanted to count to; I don't think she did. She just wanted to count. For about 45 minutes.

Also, I think I mentioned her reading about a month ago. She's reading more books, more independently; she has mostly sought out books with "Beginner Reader" or "I Can Read This By Myself" on the front, recognizing that they'd be accessible to her. But today, I came into the living room after breakfast to find that she'd abandoned her Light Brite and was curled up on the couch reading The House At Pooh Corner. She started reading in December. (She was reading silently, so I don't know how many words she was skipping over or how well she was understanding it -- but it has an adult-sized typeface, set close together, not the big, friendly letters of a children's book, yet she picked it up anyway. How cool is that?)

I generally find it really irritating when people sexualize relationships between preschool children by refering to an opposite-sex friend as a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Molly regularly plays with a little boy named Ezra on the playground after preschool. Ezra is not her boyfriend, and she is not his girlfriend. They're two five-year-old children who play together on the playground.

But...but...

There's this other little boy at the preschool who has what I honestly would describe as a crush on Kiera. Not on Molly; he and Molly don't get along particularly well. But he lights up when he sees Kiera. He has two little sisters of his own (twins) and he's affectionate to them in a big-brotherish sort of way (sometimes gentle, sometimes rough), but he has been consistently gentle with Kiera, while also wanting to show off for her. He wants to have conversations with her like she's a peer and will positively glow when he gets her to smile at him. He informed me on Tuesday that he wants Kiera to come to his birthday party (which can't be anytime soon -- his birthday was in November -- but I've certainly seen this sort of interaction before, between Molly and HER friends, where birthday party invitations will be verbally issued months in advance as a sign of affection. It's the preschooler equivalent of saying, "Would you like to come over for dinner sometime?")

Looking at the way this boy interacts with Kiera, I can understand why someone might start calling her his girlfriend.

She's not allowed to date until she's potty trained, though.