two anecdotes

1.
We took Sage to see Madagascar, her first movie in an actual theater. Halfway through the film, she turned around in her seat, frowned at some children talking loudly behind us, and hissed, "Ssh!"

Then she turned to me, shaking her head gravely, and bellowed self-righteously, "MOMMY, THOSE KIDS ARE SO NOISY!"

2.
Sage was playing at home with her four-year-old cousin Cassandra, the two of them kicking around an inflatable Mickey Mouse toy with untrammeled glee. "Poor Mickey," I remarked, watching them. "Why are you guys doing that to him?"

"Mommy," my bloodthirsty daughter explained, with long-suffering patience, "we're just killing him."

Oh.