As we were headed to Long Island last week for Karen's baby shower, Erin was acting very silly in the car. We played bizarre games of her creation (I think she made the rules up as she went along), including one where she would say someone's name, and we needed to tell her if they were near or far...
Anyway, as we were leaving the Parkway, Erin said in a sort of whisper-shout, "If this takes much longer, I'm going to punch myself in the face."
Slightly disturbed, I looked at Laureen to see if she had heard. Judging by the horrified look on her face, she had indeed heard Erin. Having stopped at a red light (or maybe a stop sign, I don't remember which), we both turned to look at Erin, hoping to gain some perspective on her statement. Sitting there in her booster seat, our little girl met our concerned looks with a gigantic Cheshire Cat grin, and then mimed the act of, you guessed it, punching herself in the face.
Concerned Dadoo-mode took over, and I immediately launched into a lecture about how hurting yourself is never a solution to anything and you need to respect yourself and your body and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... sorry. I nearly put myself to sleep with my own lecture. Halfway through my dissertation, I heard giggling coming from both my side and behind me. I shot an annoyed glance at Laur, who barely held in her laughing and said under her breath, "She's kidding. She's messing with you." At this point, I looked in the rearview mirror to see Erin looking back, grinning ear to ear. As I began to shake my head, she pantomimed the punch again and cracked up in hysterics. She really was messing with me!!
The second Erinism occurred as we were driving to church on Ash Wednesday.
"Are we there yet?"
"Pretty soon Erin," I replied.
"Good, because if it takes too long, I'm gonna fall into a pool of acid and break into a million pieces," this was delivered with such a deadpan seriousness (picture the "Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie" line from Christmas Story, but with Erin's voice delivering the acid line) that it once again brought looks of disbelief from Laur and me. At this point, Erin started to crack up into hysterical laughter again, and Laur and I broke out in a sort of nervous laughter. Looks like we're going to have to keep a closer eye on the things that may be influencing our little girl.
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