The Mouths of Babes

As I was digging through old files on my computer the other day, I came upon one that got me curious. It was labeled “mollyisms,” and I tried and tried to open it but it was corrupted or just too prehistoric. Driven by curiosity I persisted, and voilà: documentation of toddler Molly’s quotable quotes appeared on the screen. Here she is at age two-and-a-half, 29 years ago:

Molly:  What’s this, Mama?
Ginna:  That’s a rolling pin, for making pies and breads.
Molly:  (A moment of consideration) . . . Is it for fixing doors?

11/21/91

Also…

Molly got into bed with me this morning, looked deeply into my supine face and said, “Me have wrinkles when me’s bigger?”

11/5/91

More on wrinkles later. And finally…

M: I don’t wannnnt you to wipe my face.
G: Why not?
M: Because you’re ugly.

11/5/91

Apparently I lied a minute ago. Because there is in fact one more I want to include here:

G:  What’s your bellybutton for?
M:  It’s from when I was strapped to you.

7/17/92

Now let’s come back to the present. After quarantining for two weeks I visited Chico, where I met tiny Ruby Star, who (at five days old when I arrived there) weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces. Eleni is happy that Ruby is no longer strapped to her, and that she is here for all the world to see.

I also got to hang with Jesse and, on numerous occasions, be shown all the rainbow things (curtains, wall decorations, stuffed animals, drawings) in his room. On my last day there he asked me to follow him into the living room where he snapped a picture of me with his tablet. Then, using that image as a source, he carefully drew me. “But I’m not gonna draw your wrinkles, Mama Ginna,” he apologized. Still, the likeness is remarkable, and he even got my glasses.

And last but not least, Ember celebrated her tenth birthday while I was there. She stayed with me at the AirBnB each of the four nights. She’s a wonderful little companion.

The other fun thing recently was working with my friend TJ Meekins on putting together one of her Hillbilly Jukebox radio shows for KVMR in Nevada City. She did most of the work, but I got to help pick out the songs. During the broadcast a couple days ago, a “Barbara from Delaware” made a contribution. It was, of course, my mother, who stayed up past her bedtime to tune in via Internet. She got to hear us dedicate Willie’s Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain to her.

Oh, well look-ee here. I figured out how to edit the audio in iMovie (which now works since Molly helped me update my Mac’s system to Catalina a few days ago) and toss it up onto YouTube. “Toss” is the wrong word, since it implies ease. I wrestled it up there and it took almost two hours to process.

In other news, Trump released himself from the hospital last night, claiming Covid is no big deal and that he knows all about it now. I’d been worried he would say just that if he ended up with a mild case. The election is less than a month away and I am among the millions who are agonizing over the possible outcome.

2 comments

  1. I so enjoy all those wee quotes! And I have now learned: I *will* have wrinkles when I’m older.

    Jesse’s drawing: that’s a stunning likeness.

    The radio show was so excellent! I hope for a repeat cameo, someday again.

  2. Those Mollyisms make my wee day as well as Ruby’s cute face. I think I should gather some more current Mollyisms and we can start a collection. Thank you for posting the link to the radio show! It was super fun to listen to but I look forward to giving it a re-listen without all the announcement interruptions.

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