"Well you don't smell good so..."

The other day, while spending some more of my hard-earned cash on the lovely Eliza, I leaned in to hug her and she said "You smell bad."

I backed up, allowed her to see that I was hurt, and said "Eliza that's a terrible thing to say to Mama.  It's mean."

She shrugged and looked at me rather innocently, completely unaware that she'd hurt me.  "Well, you don't smell good so..." I'm afraid I can't how she finished the sentence.  No, I'm not trying to censor my daughter, I simply didn't understand what she said at the time or I don't remember.

I didn't smell, by the way.  I'd taken a luxurious shower a few hours earlier.  We were visiting my mother at the time this wonderful statement was made and my Mom thought perhaps she said this because while I was enjoying said shower, Eliza was downstairs with my Mom, crying for me.  My mother told Eliza I needed to take a shower or I'd smell bad.  When this line of talking didn't quite work, my Mom then told Eliza that I had to take care of myself in order to take care of her.  I think she still kept on crying.

I wonder if she is learning these kind of statements from her peers at school.  Today, while I clipped and polished her tiny toenails, she said "I can't go to school with my toes looking like this.  I can't let the kids in my class see my toes like this."

I wasn't aware that she was showing off her feet to her classmates but I suppose well-groomed toenails can be added to her list of worries.

Not much more time to write so to summarize the past week--C and I moved all of our stuff out of our old apartment last Tuesday, slept on air mattresses and then moved our stuff into our new place on Wednesday morning.  I shouldn't say we moved it because we had a team of movers do the dirty work but it certainly felt like I'd done quite a bit.  We spent New Year's Eve unpacking.  Thursday, I unpacked all my clothes so I could turn around and pack a suitcase for a holiday visit to my parents for the weekend.  It was a bit too much and I'm happy to be in my new home for the moment.  

All is well and Eliza returned to school yesterday, thank goodness.  It was really tough having her home from school and no babysitting relief while we packed and prepped for the move.  But we are more or less settled.  The kitchen is unpacked and both bedrooms (yes, Eliza has her own bedroom for the very first time!) are in good shape.  However, the living room is a sea of boxes and I've pretty much run out of places to unpack and put things.  We had several big closets in our old apartment that made up for the fact that we have no bookcases or entertainment center.  While this apartment is spacious by New York standards and the kitchen is the best I've had, there is very limited closet space and no shared storage space.  So bikes, the car seat, suitcases, etc. are in full view.  

Several boxes filled with books, cds and dvds are also polluting the living room but until we have some kind of enormous bookcase/storage unit in place, I don't expect this problem to be rectified.  But I don't care, I've no problem living amongst boxes as long as I can cook in my kitchen.  It drives C crazy, but not enough to invest in said storage unit.

Right now is the honeymoon period in our new place but soon, I expect he'll be screaming that these boxes are not unpacked.  

But right now, I choose to be happy in my new home with my girl.