Checking Her Parents' Curfew

For a while now, Fiona has been taking various stuffed animals with her to day care. Each day we'll let her choose one (some days she wants to take a whole menagerie, which is difficult to manage on a quarter mile walk). About a month ago she started periodically handing her animal of the day to Andrea once she had been dropped off, explaining to Mommy that this way Mommy would think of her when she was at work.

Last night, Aunt Kathy had a concert and we booked a babysitter. We did our usual good-byes, telling Fiona that Miriam (her babysitter) would be there for dinner and bedtime but that we would come in and kiss her when we got home.

Fiona announced that she wanted Mommy to take Rojo, her red dog, with her. "And then," she said, "when you come in to kiss me you put Rojo in my bed so I know you're home."

Pretty clever for a three year-old, huh? It reminds me how, when I was a teenager, my parents used to be able to tell if I'd come home yet or not by whether the light over the garage had been turned off for the night. Nobody ever told me I'd be facing curfew checks from the other direction when I became an adult.