Gracie walked into the living room from the kitchen and my first thought was "there's no way this is gonna end well."  She was carrying five of my Campari tomatos and wearing a very big smile.  "Let's play One Potato!"  Since she was a very small thing, she has mixed up the words for potato and tomato and they'd evidently been playing Hot Potato at school (probably with a ball) and she'd obviously mixed up not only the words tomato and potato but the games Hot Potato and One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four!  She sat down on the floor and told me to sit, too.  My first instinct was to tell her no - that we don't play catch with food, but then I remembered my promise to myself to be less apt to instantly tell her no.  I've found myself lately telling her "No!" to things for no reason other than I'm tired or I just don't want to deal with the aftermath of her creativity.  And honestly, the constantly saying no is just as draining (for both of us) as the aftermath and nowhere near as much fun.  So, I've decided to try to lighten up a little and if she wants to do something, I'm going to give it a whirl (unless, of course, it's something dangerous or illegal or both - she still throws plenty of those requests at me - "Mama, can I ride on top of the car?" - those requests are still instantly denied).  This one, though, was relatively harmless - the tomatos were getting past their prime anyway and we have wood flooring in the living room, so what was to be lost by playing a little "Hot Tomato"?  So, I sat on the floor across from her and for ten minutes or so, we tossed the little red fruit (or vegetable) balls back and forth.  In a weird kind of way, it was relaxing.  She threw them a lot more gently than she normally throws balls, and the texture of them was kind of soothing when I caught them.  Finally, after about 25 or so throws, the tomatoes' skins were starting to tear slightly.  I told Gracie she needed to go and throw them in the trash.  She took them in her hands and walked to the kitchen.  About halfway there, she looked at them, then turned to me with a look of wonder on her face, "Oh, Mama!  They're HATCHING!"  And I laughed, my best laugh of the day.  If I'd denied her the game of Tomato Toss, I'd have missed that little gem coming out of her mouth.  I wonder what you get when tomatos hatch....

The picture doesn't have anything to do with the story, but, I can't post an entry without a picture