Speaking Her Mind

Me: Jayla, you're the best!
Jayla: Mama, I know I'm the best!
Me: [Giggle] Well, don't ever let anyone tell you that you're NOT the best.
Jayla: [In all seriousness] I won't, mama.

And somehow she has managed to channel my grandfather's personality...or at least his loathe for people walking on his grass, which is impossible because he has a fence around every square centimeter of his property but, he likes to warn people about walking on his grass anyway. Twice in the past week, Jayla has done the same thing.

We were getting in the car to take her to school one morning last week and the same cute little old Asian couple that is always walking around the neighborhood was doing just that. They, however, were walking on the opposite side of the street from our house and on the sidewalk. This little factoid did not stop Jayla from running to the end of our driveway, putting on her mean face, and shouting, "Hey! Don't walk on our grass!" at them. And I wish I was kidding. I had to muffle her, pull her back over towards me, and tell her to stop saying that. Her response? "But, mama, these are OUR grasses!"

And then yesterday, we were pulling into our driveway on the way home from church. My husband stopped the car to let a little girl ride her bike past our driveway before he pulled in. Apparently, even though this girl looked like she a good 8 or 9 years old, she hadn't quite mastered the art of riding a bike well. So, in her nervousness, she lost her balance and ended up in our grass. From the backseat, Jayla witnessed it all and I could tell that she was getting fired up. Once we pulled into the driveway and I got Jayla out of the car, as soon as her feet hit the ground, she ran right up into the little girl's face (she was still trying to get her balance on the bike long enough to ride out from the front of our house) and screamed, "Hey! What's the big idea!?!? Get off our grass!" Again, I'm not even kidding. Seriously, if she weren't three years old, I think she would've scared the little girl. We directed her into the house and told her that it wasn't nice to yell at people that you don't know.

And then I told her to give her great-grandfather's personality back to him because our grasses really ain't worth dying over.