Pee Sign

Kids behave in a wide variety of ways in the confines of a moving vehicle. Some cry, some kick, some throw things, some play video games, some torment siblings, some ask "are we there yet" every three seconds. My oldest is a self-entertainer - she has a whole library stashed away in the third row of my van, and most of her travel time is spent with her nose stuck in a book. Sometimes she plays her DS. Sometimes she sings along with the radio, and sometimes she asks rapid-fire questions. But she's entertained.

My youngest, however, does...absolutely nothing. And I mean nothing. She sits in the middle row in her carseat, her little hands folded primly in her lap, and just IS. She doesn't talk, or sing, or play, or sleep, or even look around much. Sometimes I'm so startled by the quiet (even though it's routine) that I have to check to be sure she hasn't simply vanished. When Milly rides, she rides with every fiber of her being. It's very zen, really.

But once in a while - usually when it's only the two of us - she'll talk to me in the van. Today was one such occasion, when we left her sister at home with Daddy while we took an oh-so-fun excursion to Office Max for CDs. (She doesn't mind mundane errands, either.) We rode in silence for a while. I tried to talk to her, but it didn't work. Nor did I expect it to. And then I heard...

"Pee sign."

(pause)

"Pee sign."

(pause)

"Pee sign."

What the heck?! PEE sign? Or was she saying PEACE sign? Personally, I hadn't noticed either - and those are the sort of signs that, appearing on the side of the road, would tend to draw attention.

So I asked her what on earth she was talking about and she pointed out the window to show me...the P SIGN.

Okay. P sign. I get it. It was a silly little game, but we kept spotting P signs all the way to the mall, and they were plentiful.

As we waited at an intersection, I spotted another sign and decided to ask her what that one meant.

"STOP ARROW."

Okay.  :)

The game resumed on the way home, with her pointing out various signs as we drove. (This child is going to be a stellar driver someday due to her keen powers of observation. She already knows that in order to make the van go, you first buckle up, then put the key in the ignition, put your right foot on the brake, and move "the handle" down, then move your right foot to the other pedal. It amazes me and scares me too - I try not to leave my keys within reach, lest the temptation to try it on her own becomes too much for her.)

Anyway.

"Stupid sign."

Stupid sign? Stupid isn't a word that we throw around a lot in our house, so I knew that Milly must have felt very strongly about whatever sign we were passing at the moment. Unfortunately, I didn't see it, so I had to rely on her description.

"What was a stupid sign? What did it look like?"

"It was a white triangle with a black upside-down hump on it and two circles."

Oooookay. That described...absolutely nothing that I could think of. Back at home, I pulled up a website of commonly used traffic signs and went through all of them with her, but none of them were the "stupid sign." As a last resort, I asked her draw it for me.

What she drew was no triangle. It was loosely X-shaped, with rounded edges, two black circles floating near the top, and an upside-down U near the bottom.

Stupid sign, indeed.

And tomorrow, we'll have to take a little trip so I can see it for myself.