Santa was going to bring her THREE ponies

Oh that is just mean.

Hee hee.

A number of kids that I grew up with thought that chocolate milk came from brown cows.

I'm just looking forward to the day--and I know I've got a ways to go yet--when she can play well enough to build things and make up stories with her toys. Because then, if my own memory of childhood is accurate, she'll actually prefer those toys to our stuff. And while she'll still like books, she'll want to read them rather than eating or shredding them.

I just can't get over how tall she is. How is it that less than a year ago she was this tiny little 7 lbs. and change creature about the size of your forearm, and now she's walking around the living room and trying to strip the dining table and entertainment center of their contents? (Fortunately, the latter locks, but no more casually tossing the DVD set we're watching onto the top, or leaving a pen or a stack of junk mail by the TV.)

I don't lie to kids. Telling them the truth is more fun. You can slay the tooth fairy, Santa, and the Easter bunny in mere minutes.

Next, cancer and taxes.

That reminds me of the TAL story in the "Kid Logic" show where the little girl (now grown up) was convinced her friend's dad was the tooth fairy.

I always hear, and enjoy because it becomes a huge group sing, You Never Called Me BY My Name.

A number of kids that I grew up with thought that chocolate milk came from brown cows.

I got that one, too. My dad also told me that I could make people or things I didn't like disappear by pointing at them, closing one eye, and then snapping my fingers. Years later I still find myself trying it in the hope that maybe, just maybe, this time it'll work.

You can slay the tooth fairy, Santa, and the Easter bunny in mere minutes.

"Santa Clause does not exist/And there's no Easter Bunny./You'll find out when you grow up/that Big Bird isn't funny."

t /Denis Leary

My sister-in-law has told her kids that the Tooth Fairy can magically make himself look like someone you know, so you won't be scared.

I'm not sure how much the almost-8-year-old buys it, but why would she care as long as it means she gets money for her teeth?

I love how Calvin's dad explains to him that color photography has always existed, and all photos are color. But years ago, reality was all black and white....

Probably my favorite Calvin strip ever.

You Never Called Me BY My Name

Steve Goodman! I love Steve Goodman songs.

On a compilation album put out by two female hosts for WGN radio, there's a great segment on "The Dog Farm," which is where all dogs go when they've grown too old and/or sick to be taken care of at home. One listener called in and told how her mother had arranged with an aunt up in Wisconsin to make up letterhead for the "farm" and write a few letter on how well Buster was doing there, and then after a few months, report on his sad demise. Then, for the next five minutes, other listeners called in with similar stories, followed by the capper of the listener who called in to tell that she believed in the Dog Farm until fifteen minutes earlier, when she heard the first caller's story, and realized her parents had lied to her twenty years earlier.