only lauren

Lauren caught me sneaking into the house with the Easter loot. She recognized the bag I was carrying as being from our local toy store and asked, "Mom, what are you carrying?"
"Oh," I told her, "Sometimes I like to buy things for you and keep them as surprises." She thought for a moment then asked,
"Are those for . . . Easter?"
"Why would I buy things for Easter?" She gave me a knowing smile.
"Are you buying extra toys to leave out for the Easter bunny so he can make it look like he gave them to us?" I smiled back. She laughed as she scurried away and shouted, "I knew it!"

nerd alert

Ella came home from school giddy with excitement.  She raced into the kitchen and held out the book she found at the library, The Factastic Book of 1,001 Lists. "Look!" she exclaimed as she turned to the pages titled 'Inventions.' I'm going to read this section and write a 5-page book report on it!"
"Is this for extra credit?"I asked.
"No!" she said, "It's for FUN."
"Oh." I was admittedly a little confused, but listened as she explained.
"I've already read the sections on mathemetical equations, the periodic table, and how to say the numbers 1-10 in different languages. I skipped the part about all the ways to tell time because that was boring. The inventions section is awesome."
"Are you planning to do this over Spring Break?" I asked.
"Yup. When I told Ryan he said, 'Nerd alert.' Mom, do you think I'm a nerd?"
"Well," I told her, "If writing about something you think is interesting makes you a nerd, then being a nerd is a great thing. Besides, 'nerd' is just a word people use sometimes to tease people who enjoy learning. Don't let that bother you."
"Oh, it doesn't bother me, Mom. I don't think of the word 'nerd' as being teasing. I think of it as identifying a species of humans."

Nerd alert.