She KNOWS, Gigi, She KNOWS!

Me and Willie Nelson have something in common. We're always singing "On the road, again." Once again, I found myself in the car with Maya, either picking her up and taking her back to Athens.

Bored with the iPod and apparently finished with the picnic basket of snacks that I had packed for her, she started a conversation. "Gigi (that's me - will tell you the story of the name on another post), there's a girl in my class that looks just like a puppy dog." Ever vigilant for Learning Lessons opportunity, I launched into my best speech about how nice it is to be nice and how we should not talk about how people look and how we REALLY shouldn't tell them, even if they do look like a puppy dog." I was hoping and praying that I was having this conversation in time -- before she informed her little classmate of her likeness to a "puppy dog."

Maya wanted patiently -- ok, not so patiently, she was doing the "ooh, ooh, ooh" Vennie Barbarino thing - raising her hand (to indicate she wanted to add something). When I finally stopped talking, Maya said, "She KNOWS, Gigi, she KNOWS! She's got a mirror at her home."

I REALLY had to use the backseat buffer to avoid laughing and get my best parenthood face on to respond. When I finally swallowed all the giggles, I said "It's still not nice to tell her."

I could only wish for two things (1) that I wasn't too late for the "don't tell her" advice and (2) that Maya would change schools before I saw the girl with the basset hound face.