From the Archives: Who’s on Surp? — Here in the Bonny Glen

July 7, 2009 @ 6:27 am | Filed under: These People Crack Me Up

Originally posted in April, 2005, when Jane was nine, Rose was six, and Beanie was four.

I was cleaning the bathroom this morning when Jane came in to ask me how to pronounce the word “usurp.” She had seen it in print a number of times but wasn’t sure how to say it. I told her, and then Rose wanted to know what it meant. So I gave some examples, including: “Or let’s say you’re sitting on my lap and I send you to get a tissue, and while you’re up, one of your sisters climbs in your place.”

Rose started to giggle. “A usurper!”

Jane wandered back out with her book. Then Beanie came in and perched beside Rose on the edge of the tub while I wiped down the sink. Bean’s hair was wild; it hadn’t been brushed yet. I sent her to get her hairbrush and when she returned, I sat down on the tub’s rim to tackle her curls.

“Hey!” Bean cried indignantly. “You took my spot!”

Rose cackled. “You usurped, Mommy! You’re a usurper!”

“What’s that?” asked Beanie. Rose explained.

Bean pondered. “I think,” she said, “that when a mommy surps, it’s okay.”

“U-surp,” Rose corrected.

Beanie was puzzled. “No I didn’t. Mommy surped.”

“No, U-surp!” Rose insisted.

“I surp? But I didn’t! Mommy did!”

By this point I was choking with laughter. Beanie took my paroxysms for some kind of dismay.

“It’s okay, mommy, I don’t mind when you surp me.”

“U-surp!” proclaimed Rose.

Beanie stared at her in disgust. “That’s what I SAID.” She humphed out of the room before Rose could get in the last word. I sat there howling. Sorry, Abbott and Costello. Your place in my heart has been surped.

Comments RSS | TrackBack URI

Summer says:

Normally a lurker – but SOOOO funny!! That was hilarious! Thanks for the laugh =DD
Posted on July 7th, 2009 at 7:34 am
feebee says:

My now-8 was told, at 6, that she was very astute. Her response?

“Daddy, what’s a stoot?”
Posted on July 7th, 2009 at 8:32 am
MelanieB says:

Too, too funny!
Posted on July 7th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Sarah N. says:

So glad you reposted. That’s hilarious! I’m laughing so hard my sides hurt
Posted on July 7th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Lindsay says:

Too, too funny.

Speaking of “who’s on first,” have you seen this Shakespearean version?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaGHVWKrcpQ&feature=PlayList&p=5DE3CEF9B8731C10&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=5
Posted on July 8th, 2009 at 4:55 am

Comment a lot? Register here. Already registered? Login here.

Want your own gravatar? Get one here.

Welcome to

the online home of

children's book author

you'll find posts about:

and much more!

Where to find unabridged Martha & Charlotte Books

Jane, 15 yrs old
Rose, 12 yrs
Beanie, 9 yrs
Wonderboy, 6 yrs
Rilla, 4 yrs
Huck, 19 months

and Scott, the love of my life

“Exploration,” says John Stilgoe, author of Outside Lies Magic, “is a liberal art, because it is an art that liberates, that frees, that opens away from narrowness. And it is fun.”

Yes: it is so, so much fun, and that is why I write these posts all chattery with excitement over this or that connection the kids made today. (Or that I made myself!) I know I get carried away, but that’s the point, isn’t it, that way leading on to way has carried me away?

And yet—and yet—I think we are at once ‘carried away’ and made more fully present in the now, more rooted, by these relationships between ideas about things past and future. The joy of connection makes me want to celebrate this moment, this brief encounter with wild-haired child and broad-trunked tree, bus going by, sign on church wall, Scottish warlord creeping over the tower wall and startling the English soldier’s wife who has just put her babe in arms to sleep by crooning that the Black Douglas won’t get him. Child, laughing, shouting “Dinna ye be sae sure aboot that!” across the courtyard outside the library. How can I not celebrate this freedom?

(from a post called Way Leads on to Way)

Subscribe to my feed

Coming in October with a foreword by yours truly

sarah: So cute! Infact I think he is the masculine personification of cuteness (Rilla being the feminine.)
Penny in VT: T-shirts never lie. Nor do bumper stickers. Cute little fella ya got there .:)
Melissa Wiley: Mary-Alice! Then we owe you a huge debt of thanks! It is one of Scott’s favorite books to read...
Mary-Alice: Little Bean!!! I acquired that book from the UK when I was at Harper. I loved that little girl and her...
Murray: Perhaps the t-shirt does not lie. Why else would he have called me yesterday? Not that he had much to say,...
Sue: I’m always impressed with how you manage a large family, writing, blogging, and everything else you do....
sarah: A busy life is a full life. I envy you your Kindle! Although I doubt it would be as forgiving of raindrops as...

Check out this big list of children's-book-related blogs at Kidlitosphere Central

Author and Illustrator Blogs

Every day is complicated, messy, and full of friction. And every day has glorious or cozy moments worth celebrating. I seldom bother to chronicle the friction and the mess because writing time is fleeting and precious—and childhood even more so. I’d rather capture the small joys that I might forget—or take for granted—if I don’t take time to set them down in words.

(Excerpt from this post about Real Life, quoted here because I don't want anyone to be under the impression that things are always perfect around here! Heaven knows we are anything but. Perfect, frictionless, orderly? Nope. Happy? Most of the time!)