Oh Joy

A quick little post just for silly, as Emily likes to say. As anyone with kids will tell you, you never know what's going to come out of their mouths next. Usually it's not too difficult to trace the origin of their expressions and exclamations. They usually, for better or worse, tend to repeat what we, as their parents, say. However, this one had me stumped. A few days ago Katrina and I were out running errands while Emily was at preschool. One of our stops was the bank, which Katrina loves because they hand out stickers. As we were waiting in the drive-through, she suddenly exclaims, "My sticker, oh joy!" She proceeds to chant in her little piping voice, "Oh joy, oh joy, sticker, sticker, oh joy!" until she is given her sticker. I was laughing and at the same time thinking, "What?" That is not an expression either Christoph or I use. Occasionally, I will mutter a sarcastic, "oh joy", but I couldn't remember having done it at all recently. Of course I shared this story with Christoph and he was stymied as well. Then today, understanding dawned. My girls both like to watch a show called Backyardigans. Today, Emily woke up very early, so Christoph turned it on for her before he left in the hopes I could sleep a little longer (that worked, by the way). I came downstairs later, just in time to hear one of the characters exclaim, "I get to be in the spiffy club, oh joy!" Hmm...does that mean my kids are watching too much TV? In the last month, I would say definitely, but at least their mom's not in the loony bin, which is the other alternative. :) It is a relief to know she wasn't being sarcastic at the tender age of two.