Ali’s vacation withdrawals haven’t been nearly as bad as I’d feared. She’s mentioned Tennessee and being in a house with everybody a couple of times, but it really just hasn’t been a big deal.

However, one thing that has been troubling her is that her “message” from Pop somehow got erased.

You see, Pop left her a message on our answering machine sometime last summer. And nearly every day, she would listen to it multiple times while I was preparing or cleaning up from breakfast.

Of course, I could recite it by heart.

She was usually really good at hitting the “play” button and not the “erase” button, but somehow, like the fate that Gramamma’s message found a long time ago, it got erased.

She has been complaining about it all week, and I kept telling her that we’d get him to leave her a new one, somewhat halfheartedly and noncommittally, as I was always in the middle of the dishes or something when these requests would come up.

However, today she got to the point where she couldn’t take it any longer.

After trying and failing to listen to Pop, she picked up the phone, brought it to me at the sink and said imploringly, “Call and get a new Pop.”

So I called, and of course Pop AND Gramamma were happy to oblige and leave her new messages.

In her glee and joyous state at these new messages, she asked me if she could send an email to Pop.

“Sure, baby”. I pulled up the email. “What do you want to say to Pop?”

“I want to say ‘I love you Pop'”

“Okay. Type an I. . . then a space bar. . . then an L. . .”

You get the point.

Except when we got to Pop’s name, she insisted that she wanted to send Pop two O’s like she was sending him two P’s.

She’s generous like that.

So the first line of her email went like this:

I LOVEE YOU POOP

I’m sure that the feeling is mutual.

19 thoughts on “Count on a Toddler to Not Make You Read Between the Lines.

  1. Oh thank you. I laughed so hard my students were looking at me wanting me to explain. But I didn’t, because there is only so much a 1st grader can “get” and I am not too sure this is one they would understand. But you totally made my day!

  2. That is to cute. I also wanted to give the results of my test on my 4 yr old, he passed with flying colors and waited on the 2nd cookie to eat them both! Woohoo, now, I’ll get back to you in 20 years and let you know if it really means anything!

  3. How cuuuutttteeee! Thanks, I’m at work @ having quite the day, :( thanks for the giggle with a smile kicker. :)

  4. That made me literally laugh out loud! I would have loved to see your dad’s reaction to that message!

  5. This cracks me up! Glad she’s so generous!

    And I love the answering machine message idea…

  6. Tee hee hee! I hope he gets a t-shirt made with her quote and picture on it. Father’s Day, anyone?

  7. That is so adorable. I love that Pop and Grammama (sp?) leave her messages of love that she repeatedly wants to hear. How sweet!

  8. thats great! im sure he will NEVER delete that email!
    so precious!
    but i can relate to Ali. I had nickname for relatives that were less than flattering–I have an Aunt Panties (Sandy) and and Aunt Koo Koo (Karen)–hopefully Ali will not grow up CALLING her beloved grandfather Poop! Lets just hope that was a onetime spelling mistake! Ha!

  9. Rachel,
    Hi, I just found your links on Facebook, I have already read a couple of them and they're great. I loved this one, and the MomButt one. These are both the only ones I have read so far, but I just know I will love them all. I wanted to ask a question. I'm looking at the picture of your daughter and her beloved Pop, and I just love the swimming floaty thing she has one. I have a two and a half year old that just loves the water and swimming. The only problem is that she has no fear. She will just walke right in and even jump right in without anyone around and I've had to rescue her from the pool and jacuzzi a few times. I'm always one step behind her, but sometimes she is just out of my reach. Anyway, I tried a life jacket and she hates it, its too bulky and restrictive, I think and so does she… I was wondering where you got your daughters frog floaty in the picture… if you could let me know, that would be great! Please get back to me as soon as you can. You can email me at
    JaniceMemoracion@aol.com
    or even on Facebook. My name is Janice Memoracion. Or even call me at 916-477-0085. Thank you so much in advance. I would love for my daughter to have one of those besides it being functional, it is adorable!

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