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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[LessWrong]]></title><description><![CDATA[A community blog devoted to refining the art of rationality]]></description><link>https://www.lesswrong.com</link><image><url>https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/v1497915096/favicon_lncumn.ico</url><title>LessWrong</title><link>https://www.lesswrong.com</link></image><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Sun, 24 Nov 2024 22:25:09 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.lesswrong.com/feed.xml?view=rss&karmaThreshold=2" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Decorated pedestrian tunnels]]></title><description><![CDATA[Published on November 24, 2024 10:16 PM GMT Moving thru a <a href="https://dkl9.net/essays/walk_talk.html">visually-varied environment helps you remember</a> what you think, say, and hear. Adding visual variety to an area thus aids the memories of those passing thru it, and, on average, makes it look nicer. Dense cities, especially those with mixed-use zoning, already have many mutually-distinct buildings. Some other small areas, like parks, are similarly intricate. Suburbs and blander cities, however, are mostly dull arrays of streets and houses. We can do better.Visual art can be almost arbitrarily detailed and unique. If we cover walls around streets with visual art, the problem is solved. However, most walls around streets are the outer walls of buildings, most of which are privately owned, only some of which would approve of adding lots of art. Putting art on the street-ground itself helps, but people moving outside look to the sides more than down (citation needed), and getting walked on, cycled on, and driven over could wear away the paint (or equivalent).In much of the US, urban and (even more so) suburban streets are, regrettably, dominated by automobiles. Ideally, <a href="https://xkcd.com/2832/">we would use automobiles a lot less</a>. But, for a probably-effective stopgap: invite walking and cycling in an underground network of tunnels. Artificial underground space can get dreary, but a tunnel necessarily has walls, all of which could be delightfully coated with a wild assortment of images, completely solving my current concern. Tunnels would also be thermally insulated from the above world, and so have more stable, pleasant temperatures — especially important when moving without enclosed vehicles.Much as it may be putting pedals before handlebars to design them in such detail:<ul><li>the tunnels should form a grid, ideally triangular, or else in squares or parallelograms</li><li>the above world should connect to the tunnels near grid intersections, and maybe other spots</li><li>intersections should cut rounded corners for visibility, especially if tunnels allow cycling</li><li>tunnel-segments should extend 20 to 100 metres between grid-intersections</li><li>tunnels should be 1.5 to 5 metres wide</li></ul>Good art — <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=geLjMm77d6Q">at least, good-enough-art — could come from graffiti</a>, if legalised with the right caveats, like<ul><li>at most so much detail in one spot (encourage spreading out)</li><li>at most so close two repeats of a design (encourage variety)</li><li>keep it family-friendly to at least such a standard</li></ul>Enforcing elaborate rules on graffiti is harder and more expensive than prohibiting graffiti is harder and more expensive than allowing all graffiti. It may end up easier and cheaper to prohibit all graffiti and publicly fund visual art for tunnels. <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/vwnGKQsarGkwLKBGY/decorated-pedestrian-tunnels#comments">Discuss</a>]]></description><link>https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/vwnGKQsarGkwLKBGY/decorated-pedestrian-tunnels</link><guid isPermaLink="false">vwnGKQsarGkwLKBGY</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[dkl9]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 24 Nov 2024 22:16:04 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Are You More Real If You're Really Forgetful?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Published on November 24, 2024 7:30 PM GMT It's a standard assumption, in anthropic reasoning, that effectively, we simultaneously exist in every place in Tegmark IV that simulates this precise universe (see e. g. <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KcvJXhKqx4itFNWty/k-complexity-is-silly-use-cross-entropy-instead#Empiricism">here</a>).How far does this reasoning go?Suppose that the universe's state is described by n<style>.mjx-chtml {display: inline-block; line-height: 0; text-indent: 0; text-align: left; text-transform: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 100%; font-size-adjust: none; letter-spacing: normal; word-wrap: normal; word-spacing: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0; min-height: 0; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 1px 0}
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</style> low-level variables x1,…,xn. However, your senses are "coarse": you can only view and retain the memory of m variables y1,…,ym, where m≪n and each yi is a deterministic function of some subset of x1,…,xn.Consider a high-level state Y∗, corresponding to each yi being assigned some specific value. For any Y∗, there's an equivalence class of low-level states X∗ precisely consistent with Y∗.Given this, if you observe Y∗, is it valid to consider yourself simultaneously existing in all corresponding low-level states X∗ consistent with Y∗?Note that, so far, this is isomorphic to the scenario from <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KcvJXhKqx4itFNWty/k-complexity-is-silly-use-cross-entropy-instead#Empiricism">Nate's post</a>, which considers all universes that only differ by the choices of gauge (which is undetectable from "within" the system) equivalent.Now let's examine increasingly weirder situations based on the same idea.Scenario 1:<ul><li>Consider two Everett branches, A and B. They only differ by the exact numbers of photons in your room: A has an extra photon.</li><li>Suppose that we gave the entire history of your observations over your lifetime to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIXI">AIXI</a>, which simulates all universes consistent with your observations. Suppose that, in the end, it's only able to narrow it down to "A or B".</li><li>Does that mean you currently simultaneously exist in both branches?</li><li>Importantly, note that the crux here isn't whether you, a bounded agent, are able to consciously differentiate between A and B.<ul><li>That is: Suppose that, in A, the extra photon hits your eye and makes you see a tiny flash of red. If so, then, even though you likely won't make any conscious inferences about the photons, that'd still create a difference between the sensory streams, which AIXI (an unbounded computation) would be able to use to distinguish between A and B.</li><li>Similarly, if the existence of the extra photon causes a tiny divergence ten years down the line, which will lead to a different photon hitting your eye and your seeing a tiny red flash, this will likewise create a difference that AIXI would be able to use.</li></ul></li><li>But if there's never even a bit of difference between your sensory streams, are A and B equivalent for the purpose of whether you exist in them?</li></ul>I'm inclined to bite this bullet: yes, you exist in all universes consistent with your high-level observations, even if their low-level states differ.Scenario 2: if you absolutely forget a detail, would the set of the universes you're embedded in increase? Concretely:<ul><li>Similar setup as before: an extra photon, you see a tiny red flash, but then forget about it. In the intermediate time that you perceived and remembered it, you've taken no actions that made a divergence between A and B, and your neural processes erased the memory near-completely, such that the leftover divergence between A and B will likewise never register to your conscious senses.</li><li>AIXI, if fed the contents of your mind pre-photon, would only narrow it down to A-or-B. If fed the contents of your mind while you're remembering the flash, it'd be able to distinguish between A and B. If fed the contents post-forgetting, we're back to indistinguishability between A and B.</li><li>So: does that mean you existed in both A and B before observing the photon, then got "split" into an A-self and a B-self, and then "merged back" once you forgot?</li></ul>I'm inclined to bite this bullet too, though it feels somewhat strange. Weird implication: you can increase the amount of reality-fluid assigned to you by giving yourself amnesia.<a href="#fnc79xlpebspo">[1]</a>Scenario 3: Now imagine that you're a flawed human being, prone to confabulating/misremembering details, and also you don't hold the entire contents of your memories in your mind all at the same time. If I ask you whether you saw a small red flash 1 minute ago, and you confirm that you did, will you end up in a universe where there's an extra photon, or in a universe where you've confabulated this memory? Or in both?Scenario 4: Suppose you observe some macro-level event, such as learning that there are 195 countries in the world. Suppose there are similar-ish Everett branches where there's only 194 internationally recognized countries. This difference isn't small enough to get lost in thermal noise. The existence vs. non-existence of an extra country doubtlessly left countless side-evidence in your conscious memories, such that AIXI would be able to reconstruct the country's (non-)existence even if you're prone to forgetting or confabulating the exact country-count.... Or would it? Are you sure that the experiential content you're currently perceiving, and the stuff currently in your working memory, anchor you only to Everett branches that have 195 countries?Sure, if you went looking through your memories, you'd doubtlessly uncover some details that'd be able to distinguish a branch where you confabulated an extra country with a branch where it really exists. But you haven't been doing that before reading the preceding paragraphs. Was the split made only when you started looking? Will you merge again, once you unload these memories?This setup seems isomorphic, in the relevant sense, to the initial setup with only perceiving high-level variables yi. In this case, we just model you as a system with even more "coarse" senses.<a href="#fnktr9mm67xz">[2]</a> Which, in turn, is isomorphic to the standard assumption of simultaneously exist in every place in Tegmark IV that simulates this precise universe.One move you could make, here, is to claim that "you" only identify with systems that have some specific personality traits and formative memories. As a trivial example, you could claim that a viewpoint which is consistent with your current perceptions and working-memory content, but who, if they query their memories for their name, and then experience remembering "Cass" as the answer, is not really "you".But then, presumably you wouldn't consider "I saw a red flash one minute ago" part of your identity, else you'd consider naturally forgetting such a detail a kind of death. Similarly, even some macro-scale details like "I believe there are 195 countries in the world" are presumably not part of your identity. A you who confabulated an extra country is still you.Well, I don't think this is necessarily a big deal, even if true. But it's relevant to some agent-foundation work I've been doing, and I haven't seen this angle discussed before.The way it can matter: Should we expect to exist in universes that <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/tag/natural-abstraction">abstract well</a>, by the exact same argument that we use to <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KcvJXhKqx4itFNWty/k-complexity-is-silly-use-cross-entropy-instead#Empiricism">argue that we should expect to exist in "alt-simple" universes</a>?That is: suppose there's a class of universes in which the information from the "lower levels" of abstraction becomes increasingly less relevant to higher levels. It's still "present" on a moment-to-moment basis, such that an AIXI which retained the full memory of an embedded agent's sensory stream would be able to narrow things down to a universe specified up to low-level details.But the actual agents embedded in such universes don't have such perfect memories. They constantly forget the low-level details, and presumably "identify with" only high-level features of their identity. For any such agent, is there then an "equivalence class" of agents that are different at the low level (details of memories/identity), but whose high-level features match enough that we should consider them "the same" agent for the purposes of the "anthropic lottery"?For example, suppose there are two Everett branches that differ by whether you saw a dog run across your yard yesterday. The existence of an extra dog doubtlessly left countless "microscopic" traces in your total observations over your lifetime: AIXI would be able to tell the universes apart. But suppose our universe is well-abstracting, and this specific dog didn't set off any butterfly effects. The consequences of its existence were "smoothed out", such that its existence vs. non-existence never left any major differences in your perceptions. Only various small-scale details that you forgot/don't matter.Does it then mean that both universes contain an agent that "counts as you" for the purposes of the "anthropic lottery", such that you should expect to be either of them at random?If yes, then we should expect ourselves to be agents that exist in a universe that abstracts well, because "high-level agents" embedded in such universes are "supported" by a larger equivalence class of universes (since they draw on reality fluid from an entire pool of "low-level" agents).<hr>So: are there any fatal flaws in this chain of reasoning? Undesirable consequences to biting all of these bullets that I'm currently overlooking?<ol class="footnote-section footnotes" data-footnote-section="" role="doc-endnotes"><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="1" data-footnote-id="c79xlpebspo" role="doc-endnote" id="fnc79xlpebspo"><a href="#fnrefc79xlpebspo">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content="">Please don't actually do that.</div></li><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="2" data-footnote-id="ktr9mm67xz" role="doc-endnote" id="fnktr9mm67xz"><a href="#fnrefktr9mm67xz">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content="">As an intuition-booster, imagine that we implemented some abstract system that got only very sparse information about the wider universe. For example, a chess engine. It can't look at its code, and the only inputs it gets are the moves the players make. If we imagine that there's a conscious agent "within" the chess engine, the only observations of which are the chess moves being made, what "reason" does it have to consider itself embedded in our universe specifically, as opposed to any other universe in which chess exists? Including universes with alien physics, et cetera.</div></li></ol> <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zYCoqjYNHFAEJD8TC/are-you-more-real-if-you-re-really-forgetful#comments">Discuss</a>]]></description><link>https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zYCoqjYNHFAEJD8TC/are-you-more-real-if-you-re-really-forgetful</link><guid isPermaLink="false">zYCoqjYNHFAEJD8TC</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Thane Ruthenis]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 24 Nov 2024 19:30:55 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Perils of Generalizing from One's Social Group]]></title><description><![CDATA[Published on November 24, 2024 3:31 PM GMT I see people make statements of the form, "In my experience with people I encounter, X is correlated with ...".  The problem is, there's an excellent chance that the people they deal with are very unrepresentative of the population they want to generalize about, and I rarely see them show awareness of the possibility that selection bias has created the effect they're describing.Scott has <a href="https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/09/30/i-can-tolerate-anything-except-the-outgroup/">written</a> about the strength of social group filter bubbles.  But there's a systematic effect I want to highlight: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkson%27s_paradox">Berkson's paradox</a>.  Following Wikipedia's example:Suppose that people become famous either by being pretty, or by being talented.  Let's say these are all-or-nothing, binary traits.  Then, among the population of famous people, being pretty will be anticorrelated with being talented.  If a famous person is pretty, then they might or might not be talented, whereas if they're not pretty, then they must be talented—otherwise they wouldn't be famous.  So this anticorrelation between talent and beauty is guaranteed to exist among famous people, no matter how highly correlated they might be among the general population.<a href="#fn99ay2rf9zc6">[1]</a>If we use numbers instead of a binary, then we might imagine that talent and beauty scores are numbers from 0 to 10, and we'll say one becomes famous if those scores add to at least 12.  It follows that, if we see a famous guy and observe that his beauty is 10, then his talent could be anything from 2 to 10, but if we see his beauty is 2, then his talent must be 10.  So the selection effect will likely create a big anticorrelation between the two traits.<a href="#fnt7dulmcduzp">[2]</a>One can directly apply that model of "popularity ≈ beauty + substance ==> beauty anticorrelates with substance among the popular" to lots of areas.  (In fact, if we treat it like a real equation, we can subtract and get "substance ≈ popularity - beauty".)  For example, if games become popular by having a combination of good graphics and good gameplay, then, if you see a popular game with awful graphics, you know it has great gameplay.  A successful movie that looks ugly probably has a great storyline.  And, as Don Norman tells us, a product that looks like "it probably won a prize [for aesthetics]" may still be <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yepKvM5rsvbpix75G/you-don-t-exist-duncan?commentId=BvGfgdBrEzjzxXSZ4">horribly unusable</a>.But the idea applies to any case where you're selecting on one trait that's (approximately) determined by adding up other traits.  The original case Berkson wrote about may be presented thus: you end up in the hospital either by having diabetes, or by having a worse problem like an inflamed gallbladder; and therefore, among those who end up in the hospital, having diabetes is correlated with better health, even though diabetes itself obviously causes worse health.<a href="#fnbokdjqcgcq">[3]</a>Now let's consider colleges.  They sort by some metric of student impressiveness.  Let's suppose that the biggest determinants of that are intelligence and motivation.  Again, let's give each of them a number from 0 to 10.  Suppose you're at a mid-tier college, where those traits add to 12 for all students.  (The selection effect is stronger here, due to having both a lower cutoff and an upper cutoff.)Among these students, anyone with an intelligence of 10 must have a motivation of 2; if they had higher motivation, they would be at a higher-tier college.  And anyone with intelligence 2 must have motivation 10; if they had less motivation, they would be at a lower-tier college.  Thus, in this simplified and exaggerated illustration, intelligence and motivation are perfectly anticorrelated among students at this college.More realistically, there won't be an exact number but an accepted band, like "(intelligence + motivation) is between 11 and 13", and the boundaries won't be hard cutoffs but more like "The farther away you are from the accepted band, the higher the probability you'd go elsewhere",<a href="#fngr3mri1w9r">[4]</a> which is partly because college acceptance and choice are probabilistic, and partly because there are other impressiveness-affecting traits that aren't perfectly correlated with intelligence or motivation.  Taking these caveats into account weakens the effect, but I expect the result to still be "Intelligence and motivation are significantly anticorrelated among students at this college."Next, social groups.  I think social circles are significantly grouped by financial success.  If your friend is a billionaire, and you're not, this will tend to create awkwardness and friction; your friendship may survive, and sometimes does, but chances are high that it will not.  Lesser versions of this apply at lesser wealth disparities.It's reasonably common wisdom that intelligence and motivation, again, are some of the biggest contributors to financial success.<a href="#fn86v8xnuuvq2">[5]</a>  Also, many people met many of their friends in college, so the above stuff about college tiers carries over.  Therefore, among your friends, we expect a selection effect that causes intelligence to anticorrelate with motivation, and, generally speaking, both will anticorrelate with other positive factors.Your smartest friend probably has low executive function, ADHD, etc., because if he was highly motivated then he'd become a zillionaire and ascend to a higher social plane.  Your hardest-working friend probably has chronic health issues and other bad luck, as well as not being particularly smart.  And, for that matter, "bad luck" will correlate with success-promoting traits—otherwise they'd descend to a lower social plane.All the above can be expected as a simple statistical effect, completely independently of what is correlated with what in the general population.  You can easily end up with local correlations that are the opposite of the overall pattern.  (Not to mention the difficulty of deducing the right causation from a correlation, viz. "band-aids cause injuries".)I expect that >90% of people who make generalizations about the associations between certain success-relevant traits and others have failed to realize this.  And I'm not sure how one could, in general, "correct for" this selection effect—because, by definition, you don't know who you're excluding from your sample because you don't know them—except by doing a serious representative survey.<ol class="footnote-section footnotes" data-footnote-section="" role="doc-endnotes"><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="1" data-footnote-id="99ay2rf9zc6" role="doc-endnote" id="fn99ay2rf9zc6"><a href="#fnref99ay2rf9zc6">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content="">To illustrate with numbers: 10% of people are pretty and talented, 1% are pretty and not talented, 1% are talented and not pretty, and 88% are the non-famous masses.  Among the whole population, only 1.1% of the non-pretty are talented, while 91% of the pretty are talented—a huge correlation.  Yet, among the famous, 100% of the non-pretty are talented, while the fraction of the pretty who are talented remains 91%.</div></li><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="2" data-footnote-id="t7dulmcduzp" role="doc-endnote" id="fnt7dulmcduzp"><a href="#fnreft7dulmcduzp">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content="">You can come up with very unusual distributions, e.g. where the population consists of a bunch of non-famous people among whom talent and beauty are uncorrelated, and famous people who are all "8, 8" or "9, 9", in which case talent and beauty are actually more correlated among the famous.  In the real world, there are forces that would partly push towards this: fame tends to yield money, which can enable improving one's appearance.  But there exist famous people who don't bother with that, enough that I expect the net selection effect is still an anticorrelation.</div></li><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="3" data-footnote-id="bokdjqcgcq" role="doc-endnote" id="fnbokdjqcgcq"><a href="#fnrefbokdjqcgcq">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content="">If <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4102427/">this article</a> is to be believed, there are lots of purportedly serious medical researchers who write about apparent protective effects of obesity among certain subpopulations without seeming to realize the possibility of selection bias.  (The abstracted example they give: if hepatitis C and obesity both tend to cause diabetes, and hepatitis C is worse for you than obesity, then that will skew the results towards "obesity correlates with better health among diabetes patients".)This makes me want to execute some kind of hostile takeover of the medical research community.  I should bear in mind that this case is selected for notability—someone bothered to write an article about it, and then I think I saw it because it was upvoted somewhere.  Still, the alleged "obesity paradox" seems to be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_paradox">a thing</a>.</div></li><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="4" data-footnote-id="gr3mri1w9r" role="doc-endnote" id="fngr3mri1w9r"><a href="#fnrefgr3mri1w9r">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content="">Also, one could argue that, at the very top colleges, it's no longer true that "If your motivation were higher, then you'd be at a higher-tier college", because there aren't any.  Though one could counter-argue that such a high-achieving person would likely instead enter that top-tier college at a younger age, and/or drop out to form a startup.</div></li><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="5" data-footnote-id="86v8xnuuvq2" role="doc-endnote" id="fn86v8xnuuvq2"><a href="#fnref86v8xnuuvq2">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content="">I think it's more like a product than a sum, but the result is similar for our purposes.</div></li></ol> <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cP9XEZBDjs3amP8pe/perils-of-generalizing-from-one-s-social-group#comments">Discuss</a>]]></description><link>https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cP9XEZBDjs3amP8pe/perils-of-generalizing-from-one-s-social-group</link><guid isPermaLink="false">cP9XEZBDjs3amP8pe</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[localdeity]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 24 Nov 2024 15:31:18 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Disentangling Representations through Multi-task Learning]]></title><description><![CDATA[Published on November 24, 2024 1:10 PM GMT Authors: <a href="https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Vafidis,+P">Pantelis Vafidis</a>, <a href="https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Bhargava,+A">Aman Bhargava</a>, <a href="https://arxiv.org/search/cs?searchtype=author&query=Rangel,+A">Antonio Rangel</a>.Abstract:<blockquote>Intelligent perception and interaction with the world hinges on internal representations that capture its underlying structure ("disentangled" or "abstract" representations). Disentangled representations serve as world models, isolating latent factors of variation in the world along orthogonal directions, thus facilitating feature-based generalization. We provide experimental and theoretical results guaranteeing the emergence of disentangled representations in agents that optimally solve multi-task evidence aggregation classification tasks, canonical in the cognitive neuroscience literature. The key conceptual finding is that, by producing accurate multi-task classification estimates, a system implicitly represents a set of coordinates specifying a disentangled representation of the underlying latent state of the data it receives. The theory provides conditions for the emergence of these representations in terms of noise, number of tasks, and evidence aggregation time. We experimentally validate these predictions in RNNs trained on multi-task classification, which learn disentangled representations in the form of continuous attractors, leading to zero-shot out-of-distribution (OOD) generalization in predicting latent factors. We demonstrate the robustness of our framework across autoregressive architectures, decision boundary geometries and in tasks requiring classification confidence estimation. We find that transformers are particularly suited for disentangling representations, which might explain their unique world understanding abilities. Overall, our framework puts forth parallel processing as a general principle for the formation of cognitive maps that capture the structure of the world in both biological and artificial systems, and helps explain why ANNs often arrive at human-interpretable concepts, and how they both may acquire exceptional zero-shot generalization capabilities.</blockquote>   <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/f5hKmHm2LXXDtjpuC/disentangling-representations-through-multi-task-learning#comments">Discuss</a>]]></description><link>https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/f5hKmHm2LXXDtjpuC/disentangling-representations-through-multi-task-learning</link><guid isPermaLink="false">f5hKmHm2LXXDtjpuC</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Bogdan Ionut Cirstea]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 24 Nov 2024 13:10:26 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Mechanistic Interpretability of Llama 3.2 with Sparse Autoencoders]]></title><description><![CDATA[Published on November 24, 2024 5:45 AM GMT I recently published a rather big side project of mine that attempts to replicate the mechanistic interpretability research on proprietary and open-source LLMs that was quite popular this year and produced great research papers by Anthropic<a href="#fnxledbw3fbdl">[1]</a><a href="#fnd6lsvknph5">[2]</a>, OpenAI<a href="#fnzu50aygoqk">[3]</a><a href="#fniacee8qisf">[4]</a> and Google Deepmind<a href="#fnv9foytpla2f">[5]</a> with the humble but open source Llama 3.2-3B model.The project provides a complete end-to-end pipeline for training Sparse Autoencoders to interpret LLM features, from activation capture through training, interpretation, and verification. All code, data, trained models, and detailed documentation are publicly available in my attempt to make this as open research as possible, though calling it an extensively documented personal project wouldn't be wrong either in my opinion.Since LessWrong has a strong focus on AI interpretability research, I thought some of you might find value in this open research replication. I'm happy to answer any questions about the methodology, results, or future directions.<ol class="footnote-section footnotes" data-footnote-section="" role="doc-endnotes"><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="1" data-footnote-id="xledbw3fbdl" role="doc-endnote" id="fnxledbw3fbdl"><a href="#fnrefxledbw3fbdl">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content=""><a href="https://www.anthropic.com/research/mapping-mind-language-model">https://www.anthropic.com/research/mapping-mind-language-model</a></div></li><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="2" data-footnote-id="d6lsvknph5" role="doc-endnote" id="fnd6lsvknph5"><a href="#fnrefd6lsvknph5">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content=""><a href="https://transformer-circuits.pub/2024/scaling-monosemanticity/index.html">https://transformer-circuits.pub/2024/scaling-monosemanticity/index.html</a></div></li><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="3" data-footnote-id="zu50aygoqk" role="doc-endnote" id="fnzu50aygoqk"><a href="#fnrefzu50aygoqk">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content=""><a href="https://openai.com/index/extracting-concepts-from-gpt-4/">https://openai.com/index/extracting-concepts-from-gpt-4/</a></div></li><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="4" data-footnote-id="iacee8qisf" role="doc-endnote" id="fniacee8qisf"><a href="#fnrefiacee8qisf">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content=""><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.04093">https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.04093</a></div></li><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="5" data-footnote-id="v9foytpla2f" role="doc-endnote" id="fnv9foytpla2f"><a href="#fnrefv9foytpla2f">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content=""><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.05147">https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.05147</a></div></li></ol> <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/MKFGByqBRMbgQftRc/mechanistic-interpretability-of-llama-3-2-with-sparse#comments">Discuss</a>]]></description><link>https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/MKFGByqBRMbgQftRc/mechanistic-interpretability-of-llama-3-2-with-sparse</link><guid isPermaLink="false">MKFGByqBRMbgQftRc</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[PaulPauls]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 24 Nov 2024 06:02:31 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Beyond Gaussian: Language Model Representations and Distributions]]></title><description><![CDATA[Published on November 24, 2024 1:53 AM GMT In January 2023, beren and Eric Winsor <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/PDLfpRwSynu73mxGw/basic-facts-about-language-model-internals-1">cataloged basic distributional properties</a> of weights, activations, and gradients in GPT-2 models, providing a systematic view of model internals (thanks to Ryan Greenblatt for the pointer). This post extends their investigation in two directions.First, examining their characterization of transformer activations as "nearly Gaussian with outliers," I conducted detailed distributional analyses of post-residual activations. Myfindings align with observations made in comments and unpublished work: the distributions are better described by heavier-tailed distributions, dominated by the logistic distribution. What can appears as outliers or artifacts manifests in my analysis as consistent mixture distributions, with minor modes appearing systematically to both sides of the primary distribution.Second, prompted by Buck at Redwood Research (who shared initial code), I investigated how different aspects of language - subjects, attributes, and styles - interact in the model's representational space. I analyzed the relative distances between representations of sentences varying in subject matter and attributes (like tone or language) and found some patterns in how these characteristics compete for dominance in the model's internal representations. Perhaps most interesting, there is a consistent diminishing of these distances through the model's layers. Overall I had ten subjects, twelve attributes, and 200 sentences for each pair generated by Claude 3.5 Sonnet (before the update a few weeks ago). This is the dataset used for all of the work presented here.Below I’ll run through some of the most intriguing patterns I found and some thoughts on potential future directions. I do not expect distributional analysis to become a primary tool in safety or interpretability. My goal is to contribute to the higher level characterization of transformer based LLMs. My hope is that such characterization may suggest directions for future work that can contribute directly to safety and interpretability goals. I’d be interested to hear from the community if you have any questions or thoughts about future work. <h1>Logistic Dominated Mixture Distribution</h1>The logistic distribution dominated. I fit a range of distributions to the concatenation of the post-residual activations at each layer for each subject:attribute pair for GPT2-Small, GPT2-Medium, GPT2-Large, Pythia-160m, Pythia-410m, and Pythia-1b. For the Pythia models, the logistic and related distributions (generalized logistic and hyperbolic secant) dominated with the best fit 85% of the time, increasing slightly from 160m to 1b. The remainder were split evenly between lighter and heavier tails, with the generalized normal or crystal ball distributions fitting best 4.7% of the time and the t-distribution with degrees of freedom between 2 and 3.7 fitting best 7.4% of the time. For the GPT2 models, the heavy tails of the t-distribution with low degrees of freedom was much more common, representing 37% of distributions. The other 63% were best fit by the mid-weight tailed distribution, logistic, generalized logistic, and hyperbolic secant, 67% of the time. The only outlier is the final layer of the Pythia-160m model, where the post-residual activations were almost perfectly symmetrically bimodal!This suggests the common approach of using Gaussian mixture modeling for anomaly detection might not be the best. While theoretically GMMs can fit any distribution with enough elements in the mixture, one could certainly be more efficient, and likely more accurate, using mixture components that match the known shape of the target distribution better. Below is a typical example from the Pythia-410m model. Note there are no point mass outliers as reported in the previous work noted above. I did not see these in the GPT2 models examined in that work either.<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/im2bqavmijalakodknil">More interesting is what you see if you zoom in. To both sides of the primary distribution you see what are small but clear secondary modes. To analyze these I fit a kernel density estimate to the data and then used the peak finder in scipy.signal. I played with the parameters to bias towards false negatives versus false positives. You can see a few probably missed secondary modes in  the examples below.<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/reruatxb0fma3lwypkvg"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/lozuemlphzd0u7g6qpf3">Some models had more secondary nodes on the left while others had more secondary modes on the right. There was a general pattern of a fairly constant number of nodes on the right, while the number of left modes tended to decrease as you got deeper into the model.<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/cwrxsjomgfylk2baiexo">Some other interesting patterns emerged. There are clear shifts in mode height, location, and volume (calculated as the estimated peak height time peak spread) across layers. We see interesting points where the pattern is consistent across models, where in other places there is no consistent pattern across models. <img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/kt5yfxtjb78ednjgtmur"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/bfgjlqspir3znpgfkjd5"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/tthv9kf0zuzzjmv0pd1x">If you look more closely at the distribution of mode characteristics across layers, you see some interesting patterns there as well. The GPT2-Medium model, for example, shows a bimodal distribution of the distance from the center of the left-most mode, with one mode dominating early layers and another taking over in later layers. This transition, along with corresponding shifts in mode heights, might mark key points where the model's representation strategy changes - perhaps reflecting different stages of linguistic processing.<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/sjyeszb07iibqcn6tqfw"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/jzi36ct0wn0j39rpxj4f">There were also some interesting patterns when looking at sentence attributes. Picking out the pattern across layers and attributes is a potential place for further work. But there are clearly some interesting things going on. Most strikingly, sentences in Japanese had clearer, more distinct secondary modes across models. This tended to be clearer in earlier layers, but mostly held throughout in the visual examinations I've done. The persistence of these distinct modes might reflect how the model maintains separate computational channels for handling the fundamentally different linguistic structures of Japanese, even as it integrates semantic information across languages. This example is typical of earlier layers.<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/c8ddlxhvnpzef7hp3sfe"> <h1>Representational Vector Similarities</h1>This work kicked off with the question noted above posed by Buck at Redwood Research. This work was limited to the GPT2-Small model. I designed my analysis to find whether a particular subject or attribute was represented in a unique direction more strongly than other subjects or attributes. To do this, I took a subject, call it s1, and an attribute, a1. Then across all pairs of subjects including s1 and all pairs of attributes including a1, I measured the cosine similarity of the post residual vector at each layer for sentences with the subject:attribute pair s1a2 versus those for s1a1 sentences and s2a2 sentences. I did likewise for s2a1 sentences. Across all sets of sentences and attributes, I took the average difference in cosine similarity for the comparisons. In this way we can see whether a subject or attribute is more distinctive or attracting. In the gif below, positive numbers mean the subject was more attracting, while negative numbers mean the opposite. I did this analysis with both the raw residuals and ones reduced in dimension via PCA to represent 90% of the variance of the vectors. When the dimension is so high and can be reduced by an order of magnitude while conserving the large majority of variance, I tend to believe the PCA versions more. But I have not done deep validation. In either case, you’ll see that the attributes in an angry tone, in all lower case, and in a childish style most consistently attract or repulse. You can also see a systematic decrease in subject/attribute distinctiveness as we traverse through the model. Perhaps this decrease across layers hints at how the model progressively abstracts and combines features? The fact that certain attributes like in all lower case maintain stronger distinctiveness even in later layers might suggest which features remain fundamental even as the model moves towards final encoding and prediction? <img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/ths2yovxdn2k605iuach">Finally, I took a first pass at examining the interconnection between this specific analysis of internal representations and the distributional analysis described above. I simply looked at correlations between some of the mode characteristics and the differentials in the heatmap.<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/cmwqmqrxoqyhse31nkik"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/ef6dh9mutpeurrcqyzk8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/vpvu22iphgfad8kukh3n">You can see some patterns here that could warrant further investigation. Expanding this analysis from GPT2-Small to the rest of the models in the distributional analysis could reveal broader patterns. Are there hints here that distributional information could augment other tools in interpretability discovery? <h1>Future Work</h1>As to potential future direction, I’m interested in thoughts from the community as I’m newer to the AI safety and interpretability space. I see potential future work in a few areas.One promising direction is anomaly detection. As noted above, the heavier-tailed nature of most of these distributions suggests current Gaussian-based approaches might be missing important structure. For instance, a model that leverages heavier tailed distributions and explicitly accounts for minor modes might better distinguish between normal variation and genuinely anomalous activations..The presence of consistent minor modes also raises intriguing possibilities for interpretability work. Rather than analyzing predetermined categories like the subject-attribute pairs used here, we could potentially use mode characteristics to discover meaningful subspaces in an unsupervised way. For example, the fact that Japanese text produces distinctly stronger secondary modes suggests these features might help identify specialized computational channels. Could this complement existing circuit discovery techniques by providing additional signals for where to look for specialized functionality? It could also be illuminating to see how this analysis might change when considering residual vectors which have been projected into higher dimension through sparse autoencoders. <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/beyond-gaussian-language-model-representations-and#comments">Discuss</a>]]></description><link>https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA/beyond-gaussian-language-model-representations-and</link><guid isPermaLink="false">rzpKYr7xYwHgsccLA</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Matt Levinson]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 24 Nov 2024 08:34:41 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Compute and size limits on AI are the actual danger]]></title><description><![CDATA[Published on November 23, 2024 9:29 PM GMT  Epistemic status: rather controversial and not very well researched :) Not super novel, I assume, but a cursory look did not bring up any earlier posts, please feel free to link some.Intuition pump: bigger brain does not necessarily imply a smarter creature. Apes are apparently smarter than elephants and dolphins appear smarter than blue whales. There is definitely a correlation, but the relationship is far from certain.Starting point: intelligence is roughly equivalent to the degree of abstraction of the world models (detecting Dennett's "real patterns", at increasingly higher level). Humans are much better at abstract thought than other animals, and one can trace the creature's ability to find higher-level patterns in the world (including themselves) with higher intelligence throughout the natural and artificial world.A non-novel point: Abstraction is compression. Specifically, abstraction is nothing but a lossy compression of the world model, be it the actual physical world, or the world of ideas.An obvious point: generating good abstractions is expensive. If you have enough resources to use your existing mental capacity, there is no reason to expend resources on generating better abstractions. If you have room to grow your brain to add more of the same-level patterns, it is cheaper than building better abstractions in the same brain size. A less obvious point is how hard building good abstractions is. This is what theoretical research is and what separates the likes of Einstein, Dawkins and Nash from the rest of us.An implication: size and compute restrictions while facing the need to cope with novel situations facilitate abstraction building.A just so story: human brain size is (currently) constrained by the head size, which is constrained by the hip size due to having to walk upright, which is constrained by the body mass due to resource availability and, well, gravity, resulting in abstraction building being a good way to deal with the changing environment.Current AI state: the LLMs now get smarter by getting larger and training more. There are always compute and size pressures, but they are not hard constraints, more like costs. Growing to get more successful, the elephant way, not the human way, seems like a winning strategy at this point.Absolute constraints spark abstraction building: the vetoed California bill SB 1047 "covers AI models with training compute over 1026 integer or floating-point operations and a cost of over $100 million. If a covered model is fine-tuned using more than $10 million, the resulting model is also covered" according to  the Wikipedia. Should the bill had been signed, it would have created severe enough pressures to do more with less to focus on building better and better abstractions once the limits are hit.A speculation: much better abstractions smooth out the "jagged frontier" and reduce or eliminate the weak spots of the current models, which is jumping from "rule interpolation" (according to François Chollet) to "rule invention", something he and other skeptics point out at as the weakness of the current models.The danger: once the jagged frontier is smooth enough to enable "rule invention", we get to the "foom"-like zone Eliezer has been cautioning about. Conclusion: currently it does not look like there are skull-and-hip-size restrictions on AI, so even with the next few frontier models we are probably not at the point where the emerging abstraction level matches that of (smartest) humans. But this may not last. <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/oAhehHvSxHpLBQXL8/compute-and-size-limits-on-ai-are-the-actual-danger#comments">Discuss</a>]]></description><link>https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/oAhehHvSxHpLBQXL8/compute-and-size-limits-on-ai-are-the-actual-danger</link><guid isPermaLink="false">oAhehHvSxHpLBQXL8</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Shmi]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 21:29:38 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Paradigm Shifts—change everything... except almost everything]]></title><description><![CDATA[Published on November 23, 2024 6:34 PM GMT The following is a short supplement to an upcoming post on the implications for <a href="https://nonzerosum.games/conscioussignificance.html">conscious significance</a> (a framework for understanding the free will and determinism debate) but is a more general observation.<img style="width:680px" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/y2zHM9fC5mrakaB3G/xiegql7jyrqrla9a8d3a" alt="">The world has undergone many paradigm shifts; where a profound truth has been revealed about the nature of the universe and our place within it. Individuals also go through their own personal paradigm shifts when they change their beliefs-which can be a frightening prospect. But I would argue it doesn’t need to be, because profound paradigm shifts seldom change as much as we expect.This is because, if there is a significant practical benefit to behaviour in accordance with a fact about nature, cultural evolution will often find this behaviour before we discover the fact. A few examples without leaving the letter ‘ G’:<img style="width:680px" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/y2zHM9fC5mrakaB3G/icnsnxreiuigx9y6xpg3" alt=""><h1>Gravity</h1>Discovering gravity did not inform us about how we could move around by applying pressure with our limbs to the large gravitational body upon which we’re hurtling through space. We’d already worked out how to react to gravity without knowing exactly what it was (in fact, <a href="https://nonzerosum.games/graviton.html">we still don’t know exactly what it is</a>). It’s even feasible that we could have learned to fly while still maintaining a flat-earth perspective, and even with our incomplete understanding of gravity today, we are capable of space travel.<h1>God is Dead</h1>The 19th Century saw an increase in scientific discoveries such as Darwin’s theory of Evolution as well as increasingly secular forms of government born out of the Enlightenment. The associated atrophy of religious belief during this period in western philosophy was encapsulated in <a href="https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/the-gay-science-9780394719856">Nietzsche’s phrase</a>…<blockquote>“God is dead, God remains dead, and we have killed him”</blockquote>… leading philosophers to grapple with <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4934.The_Brothers_Karamazov">Dostoevsky’s assertion</a> that…<blockquote>“If God is dead, all is permitted.”</blockquote>Both Dostoevsky and Nietzsche independently assumed that God’s death leaves a moral vacuum.<img style="width:680px" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/y2zHM9fC5mrakaB3G/lti7vj7mr3e42swbtysx" alt="">In reality, a materialist worldview demands similar interpersonal ethics as a religious one. So, when belief declined, moral behaviour persisted, not by divine coincidence, but because many religious morals had differentially survived, primarily due to their facility for social cohesion.<img style="width:680px" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/y2zHM9fC5mrakaB3G/dblzaebvzphbmri01rxz" alt=""><h1>Germs</h1>From a modern perspective, the germ theory of disease seems a perfect counter-example of a profound truth that made a tremendous difference to everyday people; the imperative to wash one’s hands has itself saved billions of lives. However, even this theory, a version of which was proposed by Girolamo Fracastoro in 1546, failed to make a splash, partly because pseudoscientific theories had lucked upon some practices that were effective. The prevailing Miasma (or “Bad Air”) Theory at the time, at least, warned people away from rotting food and flesh, despite having no sound scientific explanation for why they should.Even the paradigm of spiritual possession and witchcraft had developed some practices that informed behaviour consistent with the germ theory; the idea of quarantine, animistic gods providing treatment via plant leaves and concepts of impurity. This does not mean to say there was any merit to these beliefs, they are better viewed as rationalisations to justify practices born of utility. But over time, practices evolved such that germaphobic tendencies were in full swing before the likes of Louis Pasteur lead to the <a href="https://healthandthepeople.ncl.ac.uk/germ-theory/#:~:text=In%201861%2C%20Pasteur%20published%20his,that%20specific%20germs%20caused%20diseases.">Germ Theory of Disease</a> being fully accepted in the late 19th Century.<img style="width:680px" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/y2zHM9fC5mrakaB3G/gd34ppwhozx7zclhpxiy" alt=""><h1>Genes</h1>Genes are a recent paradigm shift, and the most profound. The discovery of DNA and the genetic code has revolutionised our understanding of life itself. But even this discovery has not changed as much as we might expect. The idea of heredity was already well established, and the idea of selective breeding was already in practice. And how much does the fact that you’re made of genes change your day-to-day life? Not much, unless you’re a geneticist.<img style="width:680px" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/lesswrong-2-0/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/y2zHM9fC5mrakaB3G/rdfgmciosq2i1xsmgbmc" alt=""><h1>But…</h1>Over time, paradigm shifts do change everything, in a sense that they make what was previously impossible possible. Science and technology have enabled us to fly to the moon, build universal ethical frameworks, save lives and even edit genes—feats that would not have been possible without gaining an accurate picture of the world. But the discoveries that enabled these feats were not bolts from the blue, before we knew about them, we had already developed practices that were consistent with them. Importantly the anticipated consequences of these profound discoveries didn’t eventuate, and the feats they enabled did not arrive immediately, but required a continued process of cultural evolution to reveal their utility.<h1>So…</h1>The lesson I take from this is not to be afraid of paradigm shifts, and to recognise that new ideas don’t destroy the world to make it anew, but rather they reframe our understanding of the world to reveal new possibilities. Humans have a (often maligned) capacity to rationalise their behaviour, to understand new information in terms of information they already have, sometimes with bizarre results. However I believe this capacity is applicable in the case of paradigm shifts, enabling us accept new information without abandoning all the hard-won lessons of our personal and civilisational history. This approach is key to understanding the <a href="https://nonzerosum.games/conscioussignificanceimplications.html">implications of ‘conscious significance’</a>.<h1>Related Material</h1><ul><li>This post is a supplement to <a href="https://nonzerosum.games/conscioussignificanceimplications.html">Implications</a> where determinism is a profound paradigm shift, which is somewhat rationalised in my concept of <a href="https://nonzerosum.games/conscioussignificance.html">conscious significance</a></li><li>Another related post is <a href="https://nonzerosum.games/itssubjective.html">It’s Subjective ~ the end of the conversation?</a> Which tackles the idea of the centrality of conscious experience in ethical considerations, while distinguishing it from subjective relativism.</li><li>On the topic of rationalising beliefs, my <a href="https://nonzerosum.games/beliefs.html">contagious beliefs</a> simulation uses the mechanism of belief adoption via alignment with prior beliefs as a core principle, essentially enshrining cognitive bias as our primary conduit for learning.</li></ul> Originally published at <a href="https://nonzerosum.games/paradigmshifts.html">https://nonzerosum.games</a>. <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/y2zHM9fC5mrakaB3G/paradigm-shifts-change-everything-except-almost-everything#comments">Discuss</a>]]></description><link>https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/y2zHM9fC5mrakaB3G/paradigm-shifts-change-everything-except-almost-everything</link><guid isPermaLink="false">y2zHM9fC5mrakaB3G</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[James Stephen Brown]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 18:34:14 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Sober Look at Steering Vectors for LLMs]]></title><description><![CDATA[Published on November 23, 2024 5:30 PM GMT We thank Madeline Brumley, Joe Kwon, David Chanin and Itamar Pres for their helpful feedback.<h2 data-internal-id="Introduction">Introduction</h2>Controlling LLM behavior through directly intervening on internal activations is an appealing idea. <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.06681">Various</a> <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.01405">methods</a> <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.15213">for</a> <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.15916">controlling</a> <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.03341">LLM</a> <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.06668">behavior</a> through activation steering have been proposed. Most steering methods add a 'steering vector' (SV) to the model’s activations at a given layer and token position during inference. This approach leverages the hypothesis that many human-interpretable 'concepts' like <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.06824">truthfulness</a>, <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.11717">refusal</a>, and <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.15154">sentiment</a> are represented as directions in activation space. Steering interventions are appealing because they use much less data than fine-tuning and do not require changes to the model parameters. In principle, this makes them more efficient and easy to controlling properties of the generated text in a desired way.However, steering methods face a variety of significant challenges that hinder their practical applicability, comparability and further improvement. In this blog post, we discuss recent work performed at <a href="https://www.kasl.ai/">KASL</a> and <a href="https://ucldark.com/">UCL DARK</a> investigating challenges to steering methods for LLMs, focusing on 3 key challenges:<ol><li><a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QQP4nq7TXg89CJGBh/a-sober-look-at-current-steering-methods-for-llms#Current_steering_methods_have_substantial_limitations">Current steering methods have substantial limitations</a><ol><li>When evaluated more thoroughly or in different settings, many steering methods turn out to be unreliable and often fail to generalize outside their specific training setup.</li><li>The steerability of different concepts varies significantly, with some proving resistant to steering.</li></ol></li><li><a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QQP4nq7TXg89CJGBh/a-sober-look-at-current-steering-methods-for-llms#Typically_used_performance_metrics_overestimate_steering_effectiveness">Typically used performance metrics overestimate steering effectiveness</a><ul><li>Most steering methods are trained and evaluated in artificial settings like Multiple Choice Question Answering instead of settings that reflect deployment, like free-form text generation or behavior on typical application tasks. This raises questions about whether steering methods are useful and reliable in practice.</li></ul></li><li><a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QQP4nq7TXg89CJGBh/a-sober-look-at-current-steering-methods-for-llms#Methods_are_not_compared_on_the_same_benchmarks_and_metrics">Methods are not compared on the same benchmarks and metrics</a><ul><li>Most steering methods are trained and evaluated on method-specific datasets, in which they show good performance. However, evaluations on datasets of prior work or common benchmarks are often missing. This makes it difficult to track progress and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of new methods.</li></ul></li></ol>Overall, there is still much research to do to make steering methods a reliable and useful tool for controlling LLMs. We conclude with a discussion of several important <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QQP4nq7TXg89CJGBh/a-sober-look-at-current-steering-methods-for-llms#Recommendations">recommendations</a> for future research.<h2 data-internal-id="Current_steering_methods_have_substantial_limitations">Current steering methods have substantial limitations</h2><h3 data-internal-id="Reliability_of_positive_steering_effect">Reliability of positive steering effect</h3>In <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.12404">Analyzing the Generalization and Reliability of Steering Vectors (Tan et al., 2024)</a> (accepted at NeurIPS 2024), we find that <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.06681">Contrastive Activation Addition (CAA)</a> has substantial limitations in terms of robustness and reliability. Steerability is highly variable across different inputs: depending on the concept, spurious biases can substantially contribute to how effective steering is for each input, presenting a challenge for the widespread use of steering vectors. While CAA is effective on some tasks, many behaviors turn out to be unsteerable, even when sweeping across all layers and strengths for steering. As a result, it is difficult to ensure they will be effective on a given task of interest, limiting their reliability as a general alignment intervention.<a href="#fn5sujaj6byan">[1]</a>   In <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.07213">Comparing Bottom-Up and Top-Down Steering Approaches on In-Context Learning Tasks (Brumley et al., 2024)</a> (accepted at MINT @ NeurIPS 2024) we report reliability issues with both <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.06668">In-Context Vectors (ICVs)</a> and <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.15213">Function Vectors (FVs)</a>. ICVs perform poorly on functional tasks (i.e., tasks which generally involve invoking some sort of 'function' to transform input to output, e.g., translation) and have high variance for other tasks like sentiment transfer. On the contrary, Function Vectors (FVs) did well on functional tasks but on the sentiment transfer task, they even steer away from the desired behavior, echoing results from <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.12404">Analyzing the Generalization and Reliability of Steering Vectors (Tan et al., 2024)</a> where some concepts are “anti-steerable”: using the steering vector produces the reverse effect.<h3 data-internal-id="Steering_negatively_impacts_overall_performance__fluency_and_coherence">Steering often degrades overall performance, fluency and coherence</h3>In most cases, steering negatively affects general model capabilities. <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.15518">Cooper Stickland et al.</a> find that steering degrades generated responses to complex <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.05685">MT-Bench</a> questions, equivalent to halving pre-training compute for some cases. <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.14433">von Rütte et al.</a> report that steering increases perplexity on high-quality text samples from <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.07327">OpenAssistant Conversations</a>. <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.06681">Panickssery et al.</a> observe that large steering magnitudes decrease the quality of generated open-ended text, as assessed by both GPT-4 and human evaluators.<h2 data-internal-id="Performance_evaluations_often_do_not_measure_real_world_performance">Typically used performance metrics overestimate steering effectiveness</h2>Current evaluations of vector steering methods for steering language model behavior rely heavily on subjective demonstrations rather than quantitative metrics. In <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.17245">Towards Reliable Evaluation of Behavior Steering Interventions in LLMs (Pres et al., 2024)</a> (accepted at MINT @ NeurIPS 2024), we argue that existing evaluation protocols lack four key properties:<ol><li>Evaluation in open-ended generation contexts</li><li>Consideration of model likelihoods instead of sampled tokens</li><li>Standardized comparisons across different behaviors</li><li>Meaningful baseline comparisons</li></ol><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.17245">Pres et al.</a> construct a new evaluation pipeline that incorporates these four key properties and find that CAA interventions are less effective than previously reported for a variety of behaviors. Though each previous steering method demonstrates success in specific scenarios described in their original papers, this work suggests that without standardized evaluations, it remains unclear how well they actually generalize beyond their original experimental setups.<h2 data-internal-id="Methods_are_not_compared_on_common_benchmarks_and_metrics">Methods are not compared on the same benchmarks and metrics</h2>Different steering methods are trained and evaluated on custom datasets and tasks, which makes performance comparisons difficult. It would be beneficial to evaluate new methods on common benchmarks with clearly defined test sets and evaluation metrics. In <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.07213">Comparing Bottom-Up and Top-Down Steering Approaches on In-Context Learning Tasks (Brumley et al., 2024)</a>, we observe that ICVs perform best at shifting high level model behavior, while FVs are best at more fine-grained in-context learning tasks. Most notably, both methods are effective only on specific types of in-context learning tasks and are not universally applicable. Though each method might succeed in the specific setup of the paper they were introduced in, without a universal benchmark for evaluating steering methods, it remains unclear how well steering methods actually generalize outside of these specific setups.<h2 data-internal-id="Recommendations">Recommendations</h2><ol><li>Develop theory for why and when steering should work. There are probably good explanations for why steering works well in some cases and not in other cases. It would be great if we can develop a ‘theory’ of steering and theoretically principled methods. There has already been some <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.09631">exciting work</a> in this regard that could be built upon. Note that the more expressive method derived in this paper uses a projection matrix on top of shifting activations by a fixed vector. Another important direction would be fleshing out when and why activation steering might be preferred to standard finetuning techniques (e.g. using DPO on the contrastive data point pairs). We suspect the benefit of steering over finetuning might be related to the connection between activation steering and <a href="https://ought.org/updates/2022-04-06-process">process </a><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.20050">supervision</a>: in a way, steering aims to supervise the process of the model's internal computations (as opposed to supervising the process used in CoT reasoning).</li><li>Invest in robust benchmarking and evaluation methodologies. Robust benchmarking and evaluation has historically been an Achilles' heel for interpretability works, as well as for methods generally inspired by interpretability findings (see sections 3.4.1 and 3.4.3 of <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2404.09932">this agenda</a> for more discussion). Most works on LLM steering are unfortunately no exception in this regard. We recommend that the community should invest in and insist on robust benchmarks and evaluation methodologies in the future. This may include evaluating steering methods in more realistic scenarios (e.g., open-ended question answering, multi-turn dialogue, agentic settings), as well as putting effort into finding and showing examples where the methods fail.</li><li>Report degradations in model performance. Our works consistently found that steering vectors tend to degrade model performance – often to a highly significant degree. However, unfortunately, many works on steering either do not evaluate model performance degradation, or measure it in ways that underestimates its impact. We recommend evaluating the side effects of steering interventions, for instance by measuring model performance on<a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.14992"> tiny versions of popular benchmarks</a> and measuring changes in perplexity<a href="#fng4dpkdeoi9c">[2]</a> on high-quality text such as <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.07327">OpenAssistant Conversations</a>.</li><li>Look beyond linear methods.  Much existing work on steering implicitly assumes the <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/JK9nxcBhQfzEgjjqe/deep-learning-models-might-be-secretly-almost-linear">linear representation hypothesis</a>: the notion that models tend to represent atomic features as directions in latent space. However, this is unlikely to be true in full generality, given that nonlinearities are what make neural networks universal approximators. Indeed, recent work has provided evidence that models use <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.14860">nonlinear geometry</a> in their representations. Because steering methods rely on the model's learned representations, linear methods will likely not work on nonlinearly-represented concepts, and it seems plausible that this explains some of the empirical failure modes discussed above. As such, we think that it is worth exploring more general steering methods<a href="#fne7p6mqv8a2">[3]</a> which can accommodate such non-linearities, and may therefore apply more generally. </li></ol><ol class="footnote-section footnotes" data-footnote-section="" role="doc-endnotes"><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="1" data-footnote-id="5sujaj6byan" role="doc-endnote" id="fn5sujaj6byan"><a href="#fnref5sujaj6byan">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content="">That said, we also observed that steering vectors tend to work out-of-distribution when they work in-distribution. As such, it could be fairly cheap to evaluate whether steering vectors will be generally effective, by just evaluating them within a small set of contexts. Overall, this means that steering may be effective for specific use-cases, e.g. <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.11717">refusal</a>. </div></li><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="2" data-footnote-id="g4dpkdeoi9c" role="doc-endnote" id="fng4dpkdeoi9c"><a href="#fnrefg4dpkdeoi9c">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content="">Note that some change in perplexity is expected: for example, a model steered to be non-toxic will likely have higher perplexity on toxic text than the un-steered copy of that model.</div></li><li class="footnote-item" data-footnote-item="" data-footnote-index="3" data-footnote-id="e7p6mqv8a2" role="doc-endnote" id="fne7p6mqv8a2"><a href="#fnrefe7p6mqv8a2">^</a><div class="footnote-content" data-footnote-content="">See <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4mtqQKvmHpQJ4dgj7/daniel-tan-s-shortform?commentId=J5fk8wiCYEZGrouqg">here</a> for further thoughts on non-linear steering.  </div></li></ol> <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QQP4nq7TXg89CJGBh/a-sober-look-at-steering-vectors-for-llms#comments">Discuss</a>]]></description><link>https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QQP4nq7TXg89CJGBh/a-sober-look-at-steering-vectors-for-llms</link><guid isPermaLink="false">QQP4nq7TXg89CJGBh</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[Joschka Braun]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 17:53:38 GMT</pubDate></item><item><title><![CDATA[Text Posts from the Kids Group: 2018]]></title><description><![CDATA[Published on November 23, 2024 12:50 PM GMT
Another round of liberating kid posts from 
<a href="https://www.jefftk.com/p/making-groups-for-kid-pictures">Facebook</a>. For reference,
in 2018 Lily turned 4 and Anna turned 3.

(Some of these were from me; some were from Julia. Ones saying "me"
could mean either of us. Ones from others are labeled.)



<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2469187189889149/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZV8znUKBl4iCxsP93VhzbpCEffBOphFByWyJnPpKM_hJdss02Ze4Cd9nS6mLuC200yTzKMSsmyJpS1OqtM5Laq8p0RlM-OxWAcXHXPufKYLruD8rXysRKjbsoKHUpfvOLmnV4Qdo14ZYlAmgzi5OyylLHjFufdk2xXJMgzNQe0L4fopg6S2LcDL9SGkMgsEIuY&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-01-12</a>

Since Lily started listening to "Heidi" a lot, her language has started
sounding more nineteenth-century at times. My favorites:


"When Fani opens my present, she will cry with joy and surprise."


"I will crawl into bed, as happy as a lark." (This was accompanied by
crawling across the entire room toward the bed, which she believes is part of
crawling into bed.)

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2470656469742221/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVQToPoatcSyz9yEFGkBm4nrxPri1bZ9gQ8rfPUXHVFUjFEGvlt1krRtCJgYkrhZpj7C6SByL1dMtEpSdT6Dv9IjhcJR64P80RFFIKMkATk0KV9H4biBr2tDU-uWHXclM5gPR2JX94p7mBDhF7jI7yuCNcL73ctEaKjRxn09Kvcbo_nYCeMVaIMO_QR2UCigb4&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-01-15</a>

"Anna, what would you like for your bedtime snack?"


"Snacks!"


"Would you like a cheese stick?"


"Snacks!"


"Would you like some toast?"


"Snacks!"


"How about some nuts?"


"Snacks!"


"Ok, but what kind of snacks would you like?"


"Snacks!"


"Could you be more specific?"


"Snacks!"


"How about an apple?"


[Shakes head no] "Yes. Cut. Pieces. Eat."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2473153516159183/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZV0olQnRYhpKupW3ubbxUjwm2i11OGBzM_n8VMJnLxYVoIfllOq1KBwNDC8YrpfnrDqmv5EQwWd2HCae9SLHj08GHNDjxRZBBoHL2rZEjvgPo6gclnbr21hXSh07XJh6KbPxPeCxexqOOgsm0MlJGgvhQDJMbf6WV6DGj5eugvAyBJmPEe6b-SANC9Xd2QU3_kqOzM4jlxOPLI59q80fiQ1&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-01-20</a>
Lily: [at the Goodwill, playing with a Barney stuffie] "I think this might be a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobyahs">Hobyah</a>"
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2474045809403287/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXlPc6BOjvtSAAwSeSBOD6sMn9loNCHT4TcYPBHxgy7CvrFLU4UgZeYuhnwzDEepNgzYu5kaghWq8zue552c5DqC7WGrgol_CI4EsF2SRC6iKGw-OYgaZlZfUCVuzOT0shVNL0vZM7BbIm1pJ2X9tfSvGzDNr_YZ5fh06sKtjjG94Ol4R2H6dPyhL6_B7kAxfw&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-01-21</a>

At the end of Scuffy the Tugboat Lily says: "he sailed around the river
block!"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWi1YBRfVUrXIaP6n1WIAAE3i77oci5vHwMsZxOmKAyjcx2SaW5oGKl7P5X3F9YyGAMyL90zinVbF-n1dfCdjBrk_i8GIxxzHg7elHC6rZ1MeYsEwcq-yKFYnWnEvZO3KSTip9TNZh6njyLF3HzfsI525A3JvLez8q04VLh_UiKaKXbLOWLZvT5qSF0HDKADnQ&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R#?hdk">2018-01-23</a>

Lily: why didn't you do what I wanted?


Me: because you didn't tell me what you wanted.


Lily: but whyyyy didn't the thought come into your head?

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2477375552403646/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXa7EaWX1l0QJmwSzGxchE5C9_1dQzNbjnQL5q0ryDk4-U-HMXm-RgAf2WbwUbhe7V2934r2VHmKvUNmKcwi74qkhAFfr3yN_ci92_mbHJa9Rt5HsIsigUdg_1_OjOvxRekfDxbqAI7w1lmOJ1v0N2Ge2tNTvMav8HJ256qgONSTvFy-mxrQrj9Tfa3E4-2fVs&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-01-27</a>

Me: "Why do you keep taking Anna's [toy] baby's bottle? You have your own."


Lily: "[sobbing] But I don't like mine! My baby has a sippy cup not a bottle,
and it has ooorange juice! My baby isn't going to get enough proooteein!
[more sobbing]"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2481067305367804/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVVKtlsXI0ymbTGdnH2VLpK7rUOzoGZiLwtcj-mo1nASvRkq4FxvdLaF22pr2v45ic-XqnQqUQ2thR8PCWF5a4NMNohcQ5v9M2lHewlACdNCwgMRRdRlZyDYHeQewCNfl_V0Ob_4iwRZImam9X3ttO1cwFkHt2yt61RPjGQt2yp_oZjIt3zRZOpeugbDOj1Ljs&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-02-03</a>

Lily: "there are three people cuddling in bed"


Julia: "can you count them?"


Lily: "one, two, three, four"


Jeff: "who had you forgotten?"


Lily: "I forgot mama"


Jeff: "if one of us got out, how many people would be in the bed?"


Lily: "three people"


Jeff: "and if one of them for out?"


Lily: "two people"


Jeff: "and if another?"


Lily: "one person"


Jeff: "and another?"


Lily: "nobody"


Jeff: "and another?"


Lily: "nobody can get out of an empty bed!"

<hr>

"if we have four people in a bed and two get out, how many are left?"


"two!"


"if we have five people in a bed and one gets out, how many are left?"


"three!"


"[Julia holds up five fingers, puts one down] how many are left?"


"[counting carelessly like she already knows the answer] 1, 2, 3!"


"Can you try again?"


"1, 2, 3, ,4"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2482314695243065/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZV0kWptHMAymJO2KU4eF27whVCoayUY3um_cA_lmlyaCyoXF8Mh_B2fwrcZbbrscY_7jU7S-9cf2WasIvQV82GYlKMDlb906vcsdqibDkE7VBvZHLf6dCjVETj8P2DPQ_bpz92tjBTUp0yAoNGSyG-FMtsrm3KNdr4EiyVd8j-KqykMv2qMLIrF3ZsD19v4FBk&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-02-05</a>

When Anna feels she should be congratulated for some accomplishment, she
shouts, "JOB!" (abbreviated from "good job.")


At this point I've internalized it enough that I say it to myself when I do
stuff like finishing a document at work.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2483303321810869/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWBwihkH1SCR662KrLQDeQzfMagOogQKTHwletjZ_sihsg-xs2vFKgTX8fvLbahmiXZAAWiswexIIfDgz1MGOEZInkKmmjkbtV6w8SlWxeA7cyOfJirNpoD_HZpbMMGXHGHB4JEzosdWiw8xIQHjdbayhnFlYDW12Dih6LHBM8Yca2oY5ouRfk1Icdex9SKvzc&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-02-07</a>

Anna's still only doing one word sentences, but now she's added "it" as a
suffix:


"Wantit"


"Eatit"


"Likeit"


"Hugit"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2484628425011692/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZX0Aw6fScTTP16TLeetVqntSGj08nKZyH0Z7d9DtU1iU20gsgpBnjm8OwNrXEf3buNFf3D_7uIF7HH08KJm62WS7_qkoyn2Dyrb6TVgUuBpW1InHGVjOZZlxpdbE-AVBlYt-g1hebQnlAV4r2H8ep30ptu0pCzf9m51R0H8AZPVF6vPGdIh-thWM2CZzt3v6bxmbDSpyrhLLXbwB7TWjp1r&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-02-10</a>

Anna tucked her napkin over her noodles. "Cozy."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2489490694525465/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWVHMTg9v4MdzdIAk926VU1AO0ruE2-4AfpiiEvg8bmXjE7iFfGD5mIM76wFiI2b1pvLTkbu_7FD1xBSQi-5wmKHA4M7KKzl2DwRRPJnAk_gg5La_y2AaajGyAz1aN4EfI1dHNgOcpNL3Fkhf10oPhrJpD38e5CZJ0f9LEhrOxyDAiJKoaIrQCwtebtZ4Jqgko&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-02-18</a>

One of Anna's first verbal rather than slapstick jokes: telling me the green
beans are pink and blue. "Goof," she proudly declared afterwards.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2489567471184454/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZV_WD_5yryl1sHjU6M5a10HJZRSd34i22vUsV4qsFj7KKOZ1lZGApf9FSo1i1hDPiZrXfFO464kx2dOmk1UdfX5t9bZqPRn5WWSlBMtIiBEZeASqJfMkC_VeK3f5fglMoF6E6QkNHDD4gK6oTnDYpvZ3lqG4b5dL1QIexPK_1JsYvMtMkU4lfhVo4ztE3N24AU&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-02-18</a>

Lily, to another kid at the dance: "will you dance with me?"


Them: "sure!"


Lily: "Papa, let's play chase!" [Runs off]

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2492872084187326/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZU_I--tNV2PIM9pIK7QVKtlStEVG7Zpb2Jnh2BN0lIgsAVHXY0h8wC-SOdXbN3xKzLkJy-BzRX27Dj-yAHTJgccipwODhJuHZGaaADUzzH0YkA2ZV0ZjsIwIrDk9c3Ep1sZskaMzV871tlUYws_Hzs1oLzzoL3921ZHHjgg5wwufdUGYMcXdrU2El289FIv5_w&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-02-24</a>

Lily: "The big hungry fierce aliens are killed now. I shot bows and arrows at
them and now they are dead and they can't bother my bandaged patients. I
can't find my pickaxe."


I have no idea what genre we're in.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2493264970814704/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXd-lZlOz4efvzGp6P-7c7fP3S_dY1G2DKYwnLeXHvjpTabL5Xujgb1CWFyRr8ZVo3n6yxmsZfKUKgEYct7INSIoxBKyAL1SMza4a7UoWMeojypXxzLapPcJIors1utni7_C_gnnpfAqIw1SNInisnRfG76jEWZZgesdVOOEm8bTwLrgy5Wh7zmuVgC8mP1WgY&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-02-25</a>

Risk reduction in parenting: when you realize your three-year-old is
definitely going to build herself some stilts, and it's just a question of
whether any adults help her do it.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2500376916770176/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZU18ydq7lHgNwnK5s_Es8GO8CX-RczoQ_BREnsCYd-xp5XWsKzgUKOHeRmFG9QJaPP7GbbIgJfvXNOtOqIbc8bXoiMoY191FWlMKXe-hKzO7kXvG4Jh2z9OqreAoHb-SMjrR7m-I_bTcY3lKCqlzVouEbcVte4W0BtexhT7dg0eEFju4CqiX-oPMLb_xZ0YuA41RNZPqjk7G4H-XSC9HZgw&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-03-09</a>

I brought Anna some shells I found. She put all the little ones to sleep in
the big one. "Nap. Bed."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2500899740051227/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWmgadMX3AHANcHtGZs-EzaT8j40ZLTHJVxppBjOfhtCcB8VtDzg0dEPsXXEEQr-Jpk3jW9vbtwPDfe7p7neRyRwXNTbRI7k_2grWAVihcFDM1ZONEuS_AIJdwUXBqvXe8P1aTOipqL6Sigmm9tZ_ac53ysLlUju3tlzlJW1glytWQpwOxwOeF0gb1awswb_Mk&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-03-10</a>

Lily: "It's funny that it's called a forehead. We only have one head, not
four."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2503761636431704/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWifSG1FOXwGNLAN1ysX6NHY0LHzv-U56sOobOiKpYL2Z4uTsEyWmgrgYhefjTxyxAEeTNHXtRM6EoyG-O6rTQv_AR1XY0lOy03chVi-KKdaMZva4IhBBUdYqemRc3zKTA82vloujdegNNUEqNEz0dAabMukaxlKcfxYj6rH2WAxOGXmx_W4bLKPWj07NCRccY&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-03-15</a>

Anna has a solution for everything. The solution for anything wrong with
people is "bandage" and the solution for anything wrong with objects is
"tape."


Me: "I'll wash this when we get the new washing machine tomorrow. Our old
washing machine broke, so we have to get a new one."


Anna: "Fixit! Tape!"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2504056809735520/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXKPTT2lVCj6bBcXByyHQMS03DzKwklcw6xjaD6fLiFfGES58Mx8CvBMGu9Lwx-tEu1mqQhVfvBAWUwJHUr9o5oJKXd03T-f-2Dwz5LXIr_bApqlAQ2xEqCoGIz2KzqTWqSlzmgZXVsUau9EcNH0tpyIZjWJf0_KQWIDJDKCupWBXlLudygJa2TcahUIcMvG5g&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-03-15</a>

Lily: "My Baby doesn't like me, because she doesn't like my rules. I make her
take a nap after every meal because otherwise she would die, but she doesn't
want to."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2509751772499357/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWPeoN0XMumlkT2rgSn6uZ_mItyiXRkd9ssRXGwmo-odw-S3e7F_fVebjLa0sHQK3Dcq5umagO1EQeRgr2MJU9Cs4wVa63wbS3mxLxTBmAAS2LTDfa_-MUKTbwL_LCpEe2hS6745p_fwG5mND1xmQjk3Jp2AUZGUFee5Vmol-MeUheKPtJap7zHcmbhQVOndc5FPRVa7KQBIVV287I1cjct&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-03-25</a>

It's lunchtime but she's still writing notes on her medical treatments for
her bears and dolls. "I'll eat lunch when I'm done with all the patients." I
tell her this is not how it works.


(Dette: I mean, it totally IS how it works...)

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2513425825465285/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZX00Ea3flfrjikOZMBQmpQnz4LLC067907742zjW469rNI-xnCVfZ1rGGpVdgG9z5SyB95UPlOeeLWo5U_WwIvU7j44uSdNodSiCPEl6sNmgaUCYWxYbSGJ8s6kG1Nod6YiK8N2r5wi1TzBKJxFgmNspWv0S0jEfjYQ1hdJyLuz78izCsvljB-gSpw1dhXyAZs&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-03-31</a>

"I want to be Anna, and I want the person who is usually Anna to be Lily. But
I want you to put Anna to bed in Lily's room and Lily to bed in Anna's room."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2513723328768868/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWGkR5f-kqaUjRGCogNn_eHhYfv04Kx_fMQMJUkBDVfI_TZKgX1VSdkzUppyR7YfJFPpEiEUnxIKGMFB-dQ3j4WwkxoV8keNtXKJl7nTA_8I2MPUYQ4lHNH3vAGX2O_wbJeRy7OJOFyuJn7cOaiDN3mozOdLjo1HgazmeGhRYei_5QvqTTAG1Ek1DH9caNIjcCZcJp6LoFqXi9ufKfbVnel&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-04-01</a>

"When we find our Easter baskets, we will just put the candy into our mouths
and swallow it down our tubes."


Well, that was a disturbing way to phrase it, but yes.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2517290595078808/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWKGrQKsF3bsXVkMzPv-XZLuDGO8efAstXqTg_krtb_QWIMqWkgozsS_WetuEcIvxmO81qbpEZuR9Ibwz1C3L4ypBFEbP9e0dcxPdcjR66FvddJSD8_E1-giW_xY3f8sUnWZDxR17tIkdzWmgBTiL57HuBOfmsd_G_WRm6wlt-Xn6zrPUOn_X9HbqgSY8un4E4&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-04-07</a>

[Listening to "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"]


Lily: I especially like the "Go away, Anna" part

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2517877918353409/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXYmTWHuQolQFl3dxVfviYzocCAxrvpRRZT95sF4KZqpAmSLj15ryonW6DMzyITliWJRWgD9v3wLjhqTgekwczJNuxPGG_hclTcQ8zIQLKdIIAkG2rLVY6E83JAnPVzy2z-kh86rN5iy2auxwymmJICzT122eIu1wpdqjz00FbT9JG8DAWcY8cS8aaHsUcV-mc&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-04-08</a>
Anna's approach to the "attorneys general"/"mothers-in-law" construction: "teddies bear."
<hr>
Today she did "kitties cat"
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2519776824830185/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXO9strHO-k_WUnXoeHG8_-zEZJM1dJuJOL4dTg5MlTXruT5momujLequPwlNlAC9USgHzNbl8SAXRQNdC7eHFZpnOzUF4e2w61l-j_E4TiS24-duUoEworZm_fARaegzOS-x_WY5ID1QcNLjkLGhVyvVFpCVPbTGubQDwoeVu3kjm-iGdcerUqAKIukMPdCQI&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-04-11</a>

As a treat, Jeff is showing the kids robot videos during their bedtime snack.
His interest in "giant robots fighting each other" (Lily's pick) has waned
and he's now showing them footage of "steam robots" which she has not yet
realized are trains.


The next video was "how to build a house for your rat out of popsicle sticks." YouTube is truly a wonderland when you're four.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2521265234681344/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVZ7v_rZwAVh_SrRTKg5wBsJmJj7IvdFVNeqHGYVw0cZ4t8o_tXkruW6sq4CpB19sIllu28fJqKiSxtDYGPmZIebawMrXiPZata86JaDi7Mu6meHgLtAP0jUttFvz4gcISeiSvxxXHjCIxlwAaV3K87ItgVlQPbzxKMyMhFlNgF8SJOwKyr7WUlS-B7fV19Tzs&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-04-14</a>

We've gone to bed, but Lily is still telling stories to Lily bear: "... they
grabbed a loaf of bread and a lot of cheese and they threw it into the hole.
Then all three rats set to work eating the bread and cheese. Then suddenly
they're was a flash of lightning and a big clap of thunder and the rats
stopped eating, quickly climbed up the hole and grabbed the two children. The
children and the rats were so scared that the children ran and grabbed a big
piece of cheese. Then the girl cut the cheese into three slices and handed it
to the rats. The rats put it into their mouths and sucked on it really hard,
and grabbed onto the little girl and onto the little boy. Then the rats
nibbled to the cheese and went back into their hole.


The next morning, when the girl and boy went to open the door the best
morning they just saw a big tree that was blocking their way. So they tried
... a big truck came with a very long crane attached to it and a lot of
workers with a very long piece of rope. They tied the rope around the tree,
and the big truck lifted the tree up and took it away. The two kids went
outside and played.


And let me tell you about the big giant turnip! Once upon a time there lived
an old man and an old woman. Once the old man went outside and saw a lot of
turnips in the ground. They were all the same size, except one of them was
very big. The old man grabbed onto the turnip and pulled and pulled, but he
couldn't get the turnip out of the ground. He saw the old woman who lived
with him and he said "old woman, help me get this big turnip out of the
ground, I can't get it out!" So the old man grabbed hold of the turnip and
the old woman grabbed hold of the old man. They pulled and pulled but they
couldn't get it out of the ground.


Suddenly they saw my whole family walking along the road, even me and Anna
and my au pair, and even David and Al and even Yuri and Ben, and even Eve was
there. We all pulled it out of the ground. It was so large we allsat arrive
the table and are it with butter. Because we were all hungry after all that
pulling.


The old man and the old woman had a giant bed, and it had a very long pillow,
and it had a very big blanket, three big blankets. One was cold, and another
was cold, but the last one was warm. So we all climbed into bed. But suddenly
Ange came walking along the road and she was very sleepy. She was just
sleepy. When she saw the house and heard a lot of people snoring, she went to
the house and saw a large bed with lots of people in it. she saw a big part
with no one on it, climbed in, and went to sleep. The next morning they all
went home. But the old man and the old woman stayed at their house.


Buh-buh-buttons. Buh. Tuh. Buh-tins. Duke of Wesselton.


[Unintelligible whispering]


[Sleep]


(Luckily Lily tells stories just slower than I can swype)

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2523601391114395/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUbEBFL39nc087_Xtb-bv1rNZbhEMtQk2JXx5IltjKeXU1LzlAly0BYA6kdIeI_TjjOIJBISuFK74tvCiTZc68RYXe8zketTQvCPcQQBu_MHZRARpVFCyfKWG22TSboXMzxjKFOkccRfGy2A5kQhut8H2lgmS8Zkws_jY3KyncXwerawaBGwk7aNDLtK0g1sw0&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-04-18</a>
[from David]

Lily: "My stuffies [stuffed animals] are mean to me in bed at night. They hit
me and jump on me."


Julia: "I wouldn't let someone sleep in my bed if they did those things to
me."


Lily: "But I love them!"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2533271490147385/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWQ66ssVVSiBhT0aZ8EEd8iox2c4CX1cHRFQQ2Pw2BtaeNkenHZY-hlUs5aAqS-jh45GeZUj9a0uRxRiCQarrDuJsWFSerDhZ2BsiJEMApXazd8A43wkY9yDYrPAcLAumMQb7jjMWcpCz_mwdP8RRGBBVZP2OzCdwA35OTk-9RrYpuFtsx5CVtgS50Khgsa2Cc&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-06</a>

Going to bed at dance camp: "Papa can I tell you a story? I want to help you
fall asleep. First I will tell you story, and then I will sing you a song.


Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived by herself on the edge of
the wood. She went on a walk and then the bears went into her house. Then the
little girl came back into her house and then she was friends with a friendly
moose and a friendly donkey and they lived happily ever after, the end.


Now I will sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star because that's a song for night
because it has a star in it. Now I will begin: [sings twinkle twinkle]


Papa, are you asleep yet? [I give no response]


I will sing one more song, to Lily Bear. [sings Ba Ba Black Sheep. First time
singing, then humming.] Papa, I hummed to you, because I thought you would
like that. [Hums I've been Working on the Railroad, compete with a truck
drivers gear change for the second verse] I hummed "I've been working on the
Railroad" to you and Lily Bear.


[Hums several more songs]


Did you like it? [I don't respond] I think I have just one more. [Hums
"highland laddie" A part repeatedly very loudly with strong down beat
emphasis] Papa, that's a song that you play, that I just hummed. I'm happy I
hummed to you. [Hums/sings something I think from Daniel Tiger]. [Sings/hums
she'll be coming round the mountain]


[Unintelligible whisper singing ... sleep]"


(This was after we had turned out the lights and were in our beds. I was pretending to be asleep so she'd sleep.)

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2533674336773767/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVhnf-w87Jle0iBwJ_3HAthVZsYBhdSNIxfFP0TLf0ZArpF4G5Sr8GALtiWLZdwyBXUGfg344HKI5FL45PJU5uSVuqiNlYF6YPp6UuxO-ThT6aA0kuL0rQ-Ml00DoiUAlmcU3MCrQ1ijm-pQFNUsZ-dk9Fbie_ezzSxT5ytwHQyX3wabRXqTk8OIWM05XTgxtY&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-06</a>

Movie synopses from Anna:


"Big Totoro. Mei. Fall down, hole. Landed. Big Totoro. Little one. Catbus.
Lost. Find'er."


"Elsa, Anna. Push. Ice, slippery. Sister hug. Better. Hold hands."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2534826803325187/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUwIa67f9-5udK65SNZUWSDclWhXBQdqaq_plc-B3GXxKCzAXr-_28vsJ5B6JODRhzOq_5jEdnnDM4hT2p4_HsB7g70oqLE28_2dFG5y7aUCnLIGTwjwejT8An8iE9_CnQJSpbCeYxJ-5229Xv3t92d3f45gZQ8W18tCWeQ1WfhMpXh7M1JZVAj7oPQSlFQTXQ&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-08</a>
"Mama, tickle me, both hands!" - Anna
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2535668703240997/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWTvEkPRgpw6t-UIhQf0vBrw1m1qb1lSXCQWvcHCvENovIlIxVe7WZXt47TQe1yBTn6LJtWJarZ8aG9I9LUIcmDrfGG0O11cPJqKGo4T7Hfh9l3fltUWlBTBrwfyDFkThTQKKp2YtRj40GNK0YbYqMwrCi_JvpN1eugPs_otS-MctYlvcZHX1M2KyHn2dkYvjwOR0yfaLMNdFNcvePasKzd&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-10</a>

Lily asked for her lesson to involve a bear town. I made something I thought
would be a color sorting activity ("put the red bears in the red house"), but
soon the orange bears were moving into the blue bears' house and they were
having a campfire in the backyard and roasting marshmallows and making
s'mores "and they are listening to stories on the littlest bear's tablet."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2536194576521743/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUOAzhThmPjqe2nDNpIZ5cgav5ZSXr9zHQdj0KmgsHfLbKylzpb4IHB32umV3AHYB_AxdFq5ooWzLqgJ225cCx1m7QVfr_0qzzuXNAclWPRXeDotP0FoJseIXkY-W5usymGB0dRvv1fRlSAIq3XK9aLqvS0zzm3n_LdGKLbg_6Sjs1xXQSoO30bSD3FbYj-HR0&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-11</a>

Lily: Ange, do you wanna have a baby?


Me: what?


Lily: Do you feel like having a baby?


Me: Not right now, why?


Lily: Cause I feel like having a new friend


Me: you want me to have a baby so you can have a new friend?


Lily: Yeah, can you?


Me: Maybe in a few years


Lily: I guess I won't have any friends...

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2537256733082194/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVPgn3LtHA_iwP5_u17ICgIvygIilAadxKNYUyxnCsi41HNVtq3qZUDjpjZHKOnOS1Gnrx9ySGI4xTZxZb57mycdkglchuzKfPV7gQsK3CAAtJJBRDW_xHEpzLVjpC5jp3Ooms_7WtomJQTJ5ezYWwRZdZRU2ZKrrJPSPsdbe6k6UIjxhAh6CPsgvR-4SUimr4&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-13</a>

Reading a book with Anna, asking her to identify parts of the picture.
There's a rabbit sitting on a stump, and I get: "broken part of tree".

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2537523903055477/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUvashvz-36si9G6izRs6yuHhT0wOASMsRStLJx8N5dPlJtyZ5uTP3Mm1RcV477C8XCufXiirZ-47_vmGu6ezxLkkxGNGvooj6_VEKnDTE0iVMzimMVosGbYpvxKIr3Cf8e0mbQhxS5gNVAc_dMeQ1HHtNhgAMwFe0GTzhttfV8MaNDCXLTzvvgnHGZyAeV9Q0&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-13</a>

"We should never visit Maleficent because she is so mean. She lives in a
cottage on top of Mt Everest and it has a fireplace and three rooms: a
kitchen, a living room with a fireplace, a dining room, and she has a bed
near the fireplace to keep her warm, and a couch is near the fireplace. She
never slips on the ledge of Mt Everest, and she can fly up the mountain. She
never dies, and she has a big tank over her nose and mouth with air and food
and water and stuff in case she gets a cold. And she has a big big... the
biggest roof that you ever saw, and it's so big that at the end it turns into
an airport. And Maleficent can fly to the airport and wings attach to her
back and a magic flying cape attached to her back help her fly."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2538480049626529/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZU-nCPRVEt3y30OGZtCsdCik59ZxaiQC-n_gRcot83W5BFpjPKhASO7ZnTSbvXcO-UdGIVowT101Z0OfMVBkERU6g3ndHRV6rRFigCiV6vAxcSCJ7rEw5vdy2iNSHwOOVlUrzboaOycMbNidT9QYlIvjt2HS6fyQjyLcy6mEw0zGpwvIfabSpjJotv8yq3NH90&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-15</a>

Favorite Anna word of the week: eyebros. I've told her several time it's
eyebrows, but she likes her version better.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2538887979585736/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUnhXVuUOxDyzbeAo7iKr5IPmhEc2fUV-6klmdLrAdclxFcd4Iyga05SgwscfJKNwWcZ5aE5PeaAZCE6nPJcIGN6nyHGIcukn8Xbn37Z9ruHmLsQbke_xJG9SEmXU28RfjGZi1jdpuV0Vd8dXlH8KIxOnRZ30so2UcQphbJ7qgaFSsuUueMFacFfJyilIU8k5M&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-16</a>
[from Ange]

Lily: Anna I will never go away from you. We will always be together.


Anna: No! No! *literally runs away to the other room*

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2538895306251670/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUKJuspN_zrzVxRg9ZTOCciE9TzwS3SVSndusm56bGueMeTyOCZtjPlwBxHef3EOrgNTXu9vzTyHFWTys291d0eQ4I5rHL-P7FJFp2vRarzw4O-Od-Qt8C0snFORTdVhLiRhThznT2IycGYpOuaeF0VPB2kU6ZXPLPKJSOcj4DO4A9fNnQz9se5NqvLB8HUylc&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-16</a>
[from Ange]

Lily is giving fashion advice before naptime. For context: I'm wearing
overalls but I don't wear the straps, so they hang down.


Lily: Hey! Why do you like the way your overalls hang down?


Me: I don't know, I think it looks cool... Do yo-


lily: Oh no, it doesn't. It really doesn't... It just looks like a rectangle
and rectangles are no fun shapes.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2539071976234003/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWKVSmlcnN5bMKag9-YK5CsBkYVb-u_HTim45nI0xu1um3TTUvJ81WNgeitf9X57e4RZTIEENCdnkEUlzCJFsXmaz1iwORd28Hd00KdITpn1RZRCVFqXRp7KJQFDbXMDt7kNI2BVLfNWA9jHf5ZEfe23r-NvUSM5F0-w4Bds_4ZmWi9SPTKNQ3hTL5Z99lcTxs&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-16</a>

Lily: "When I grow up I'm going to help Jenny build robots. And I'm going to
ride my bicycle to work, just like Jenny"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2539921742815693/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWYHl1H1xWJ_WgpP--6cCfblimjOKLp4uwCLJVWpC8HQ9JrKPorX9SgkLpYeXrDkLPr24qBYOgS1nz5Ex2J6XgSaNuqdD89jxosbNR-58F2CZ13HVCEIfGw2RnjpriumnPGbiKvkEM9Y4ItGCwWGbeB8GrnggDEE2DZHuokg9oOaDWyHa_HsLS5jW2BAZjQKRo&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-18</a>
[from Ange]

Lily: How do people talk to God?


Me: Well, it depends on the religion, but usually people just talk because
he's supposed to be always listening.


Lily: Oh


Me: Why do you wanna talk to God?


Lily: I have scary feelings and maybe God can fix that for me...


Me: Oh, yeah, maybe he can help with that.


Lily: ...He gives us what is good for us.


Me: where did you hear that?


Lily: Heidi.


Me: yeah I guess he does.


- She told me about Heidi praying in her room -


Lily: I wanna pray to him right now [We're having lunch]


Me: Right now? Okay, you can do that.


Lily: But how?


Me: Just say hi and tell him what you want to say


Lily: Hi...God, I have scary feelings and I don't like them, can you please
get rid of them? That's all I have to say to him, bye!

<hr>
[from Julia]

This is mostly from Heidi, but also from the other day when she said she
didn't want to get married and I said that was fine. She got distressed and
said, "But I don't want to be a monk!" So I had to explain that there's more
to that than being a monk, like living in a special building with other monks
and talking to God. She knows a surprising amount about monks for a kid in a
non-religious household.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2543039315837269/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVVUN-pKz1ms5NGU0EOGs2Zj3lAVIlg4wj-RI7SsAQKF3A47PFgUSega_qDnePuGOmY5C83-2Nm9pZdrxmMIn6YqpEvQFeAu4wL8_bv1le1rG9Qx_kMMpaPTMJ1ULA4smr1Awci6LT_M6cz61V3BhRZ-BuXS22JiPIwBm3UTxMASlTQIKBw-OkqZ7gCcsgyiTo&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-24</a>

As Anna gets more verbal, it's fun hearing her internal monologue come out.
She's been following me around the garden lately, making her own "gardens" in
the dirt and muttering about what she's doing.


"Working on. MY project."


"Problem. Problem. Rock."


"Sand, poke, poke, poke."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2543817245759476/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWuJ2llFZ1hRvsMgtMX0kHoosc2KrrwvZB7IZKJXp_d4jxyV_TqPijJArLSn_ub1JtnlwZcSm-8g9EZrDmZDnCq_6fhftnZAYKNdIWtUARZgyuMBmsm-cmOEwsVFZiUPid8qyVYF4Az33Z4TcJxka9GwZGcLxVE8h2SzbEUwaFsOgPiEp0h2UAJwH0SaXBEeyw&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-25</a>

Physics lesson: the girls decided to push Jeff out of the bed by bracing
against me and pushing. Guess who got pushed out of the bed?

<hr>
Anna trying to push me out of bed was really cute, both in its innefectuallity and in the exertion noises she was making
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2544798735661327/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXLlxcBRxbuDZXtoaDmPvnaajgmaBe8Oo_wvldCWFeJzhFyt199_8NxUXfxX0_OCMXnkyLNAhNg8lAz309tjgo-bwNNNc-2-KbJspVBs9hlCY5voicx5PAzWUtajfXeuNx81_INVLFbK9Piw63099qQYDPtnYJ-YYh5WzvFZ0P7Dh4M6DbtMCEnMdPfztLDaNQ&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-27</a>

Lily: "I'm going to sing you a very sad song: [singing in her own tune]
'Winnie the Pooh is on the ground... And then not moving. He's dead.' That's
the song. I like sad songs.'

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2545840078890526/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWQy8zaL8bN3S_YM8CjOPKt5wyE_rxpryoYYPPP0IeH_13r3FkVcbZR7umabn-YRKtp0pQ4ineUOPNoDHzlSp1TBiFjoB-uG7Sh2dGAr9TjiADW_qlVUGMsNNLlC230L00jb7WpiB6sRaelOGnp-jNHsvmkMn3gv6IlJdmYVpU4pgCCSk9VMB5ETIyyO_pz0PU&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-29</a>
[from Ange]

Lily: Ange do you want me to tell you a story?


Me: Sure


Lily: The story of Noah?


Me: if you want to


Lily: Once upon a time there was a lot of people but they were bad people.
But there was one family that was Noah and her wife...


...Noah and her husband.


So God told Noah that there was going to be an enormous flooding so her and
her wife had to build a huge boat but all the animals had to fit and her wife.


And then something strange happened, the water got higher and higher and it
started to rain and all the people drowned and...


Me:


Lily:


Me: Lily is that the end of the story?


Lily: I think that's the end of it.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2545854778889056/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZU4f5T7gCEsqCqeb94Z9LMBQk7VEjaJbQOq8JBqVFxzWXHhxyyK7_lCp_tk0v_UUNVQwapXHMLDLYODdxpd9H_1z1kLd9H1K0WPXJ_4ZKubTCMdTbSUj8GkCxb7EhSSkyj1xkjAdpc_XyL8TO05NgweN_KDsMERSr03Uhb8mBpZJqjeK6ziH12JnEeQGnkJmAg&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-29</a>
[from Ange]

Anna: your boobs ange?


Me: yeah, I have boobs. Where are yours?


Anna: Nipples. Nipples on me. Just nipples.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2545857295555471/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXNPjD0yZMqbEvDkVi_6uKIP7YmQaThKC3kVFlrvegCIfUtIlD1pCZSnuXcIqk6izyiphcfpUCqbuIe7SuxW0h8To3Em6mO-pBTA3j65JFQaKRFNIfbL6oIqq_rqcwhBD-82DwNUDkkFurPTz5vmgpwOsDc5WnkQc43trLkxY5HbkfaKdIFYTyEhd1QruZqHV0&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-29</a>
[from Ange]

Lily: Can you tell me a lie, Ange?


Me: Anna is 5 years old.


Lily: That's a lie, another one?


Me: You have 2 dads.


Lily: That's a lie, another one?


Me: I am 50 years old.


Lily: I don't know if that's a lie... Is that a lie?


They do wonders to my self-esteem

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2546497872158080/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVAi6HRAr-6facaFn7tmNq3Lwu7zSuSTPuXp4EiAq0MYKXJcwzD_zAlXJt64HdYSvzeRoCEg9H5XpBTwhhD74mwYgCW4XZt4BrWit6X2htdQJvLPAKxbi9FvqnVxtqRHFHPIhjNPHCLxQfEdXsuXLk_47treDBzxaSVx_euseaZ4HgcPJV99RIZ_744EB7ZPss&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-05-30</a>
[from Ange]

Lily: I wish we had a maid


Me:What for?


Lily: For them to do the work for us?


Me: What work?


Lily: I wish the maid could do all my work taking care of my baby so I could
play and then just watch them on the weekends. I always want to sleep with my
baby but I want the maid to... Uhm... Take care of my baby on weekdays. And
the maid could share Anna's room. It's a great idea!



<hr>
[from Al]
Lily told me at lunchtime today that she didn't like her job. I asked what it is, and it is taking care of her baby for Butter Bear and Lily Bear, who are the baby's parents.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2551927524948448/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXFlTgtLyn3UNVIc8A4V-B1G_b0mPCce-xj8xPOfFUG6KZ0dZMgW46wW6s4cOrbLKMFpj6Wxq0VVkHvlgn6actZrZvuhsrGFiTBoDtPWVmQwz7V_7ESAqzlWlVU-jjxn9ezTMF0l6tlQPSjKGoTD30BLrblJTFG0igeSroiSHej5LbSPVbiH7uN2e660RLivCQ&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-06-08</a>
[from Ange]

Anna: "Little. Boy. Names. Oli. Wants. Cry."


Oli: "No no no!!!!!"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2553357561472111/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUdz-82X4P4t_-uiXSZNi9oayFTQ_rz-cySVkC3ZxvhLW70MBnqOMeURLjLOUpY6BRtJN_8X3kNvrFXsRagRrSENrRlge1XvxGb7BWbZHeyoB6Kw61HQ886aCBc913-s9iKhT-mqCWQl8mkrHSoR2p8A8bNAFpBW2CZBk1FGHk046F35r_d6OwBMOt_4i_yekk&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-06-10</a>

Anna: [running, sticks tongue out, says ah-heah-heah-heah] ... "me run. me
stick tongue out, say ah-heah-heah-heah"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2554071378067396/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZW71sSi-0PY6oiEm-QD3rQPHvnS52jez7XcMZvYxLMhc39bLy257J1PxA8myO6D-a7EGlrT38usNy_ojIZIcfSHuH4A9X0bqFVJCv65Q6hHR39kDxkI6Df7HsYdZDcqeuuo8nJArBSTbJJuK-hyCWKsFN7eAWVPBPi7QEMLejY3-HTTLIcYxG3mNKdXRIL4MhI&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-06-11</a>
[from Ange]

Me: "Anna high five!"


*Successful high five*


Anna: "Give. Me. Fist."


Me: "Aw, bump it!"


Anna: "ba. la. la. du. la."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2554434284697772/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWJIF1FMJLklF6lnJnq68DpihXa_k6HevE-HNGcMCOvwxn2jU-b6OxUdXwPrFU_yo-NqeSeWrfuNOPm66Ew7XurWyEwITb0SE87PPisp3nQLkVhwznkt1Q6peqoMFcdHjrGJ6TZIc3-W2fEtISJu2YlkHjLJIKOtD4bhk3PzjTwazFkZnN1tqU6G7G-7TUY_vE&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-06-12</a>

Lily: "I'm allowed to use a knife!"


Anna: "Me. Not. Me. Sad."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2555239821283885/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUw_B84Ni6y0i705MzGokvsjoIa9k-YAfLq_heojT7XBBGKIAnvG1vl3F2b88o1Bp6dpC_UGIKidoMBVi-sa3LqhQegJwtmiAs-v0u2hCBspDn4UAwuZdiyqaLBInoiUKWKcmLCQZfqmDfXgTCgxsntSX5p882OTxO7_egckwliMty3UfmoHppQQkSS2-4kJDk&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-06-13</a>
[from Ange]

Lily: "Uno. Did. Tres. Cuatro. Cinco. Six. That's how high I can count in
Spanish"


Anna: "A. B. C. D. BLAGH. BLAGH. BLAAADGHHR. [She laughs says Funny Song] Me.
Said. Haha. Funny. Song."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2556064817868052/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWPG7R2LgGu5zyKOXNnPNiclVH61l-5KM0evtghrBBP1rBtNDE4ZpD25BLyKxujJuXBhIZGyy__ISv-Mg_xVGGDrDvGbfJJAX-ftWfFY8HjaEvDCHdbH0pkAsi5xtlri_s2HvFpLWW_bd4qo7bC1jN4lB8gnCqpI3adwqirOyM_8UV_KKjuxbQoLSo9O4SdNbA&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-06-14</a>

Lily: "Is this an odd or an even day?"


Me: "It's an odd day"


Lily: "Then please call me 'Lily'. Remember to ask Ange to call me
'Lily' on odd days and 'Lilyanna' on even ones"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2556272071180660/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZW-8tubXKg2dprFscL-4uBYGXtjQB44qOVFAUAfGrAtcXTzRH9kVgfc_d6dG6Xlk3jlIMb70ISFlym7XNd3UFdfG7Y31J-yy0zQyOrWk5EbCaD7wGh-K9ixIZCGvnu_YJZGTrUJsP5KCcX4Y-dMGbP2pYjdvYM7SHj9WP9cYcniMi8pBXv9XNrkpqm60gVoLqY&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-06-14</a>

Lily: Oli is crying!


Me: What happened?


Anna: Oli. First. Me. Take. Book. Not. Nice. [Translation: Oli had the book
first, I grabbed it. It wasn't nice]


Me: Did you say sorry?


Anna: Oh... [Walks away]


Me: Anna!


Anna: oh! Sorry. Oli. Bowlie.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2557175877756946/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXM1bjMTHa9j_gCxjPD_xQV4lAbgBu0PbMfpF3zaVpxEI3QtLA8gHKbldsSFLVZvE5lGvzC0pSKoMc9K8zDz1ssEgwBmHkTCJDFN3IfS5LfshceC3wPvtd3xCNt1_zD8Mfz-7ePsBo3638xkA_DADSSy_DKKibg45wYy6ynM7lNYtiZk8EbnmmX35ZVcEdxgcE&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-06-15</a>
[from Ange]

[Sitting at a bench @Davis Lily and Anna see a Totoro stuffie]


Both: Totoro! Totoro! Totoro!


Me: what else can you see?


Lily: we just can't take our eyes off the Totoro.


Me: what?


Lily: there are two Totoro stuffies, that's all we can see.


Anna: Totoro! Totoro! Totoro!

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2557324627742071/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXlcXQ7udRHQi_EEvrV5jkMNqrkN6xzg9bLc7iDgLZvsWFpO5SHTXKye3cqSQEb_5I-stZ2EUENvf6vjLREjOMi8L5ogFeISoOMIohc6G933-tgKj31K-94oJdGQd8iXpUjlcznlcgAPPXBU5diU86N3BhnH2VEoMN_k2pjIkR_kd_19eYiJ3Gw3zeXwBBzlT8&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-06-15</a>
[from Ange]

Anna: Pappa, mean.


Me: Why is your Pappa mean, Anna?


Anna: Took. My. Troller. 'way.


Me: Anna he needed it, he's going grocery shopping, he's gonna get us food.


Anna: [In a really high pitched voice] Fooooor. Dinneeeeer?


Me: Yeah! For all of us!


Anna: Not. Him.


Me: No food for him? Why?


Anna: He's. Mean.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2565135310294336/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVhyWnJyXEZT242DUOC4f01qffHyO5yBfzdsd2Tgr-rGz3e4n4Hj5BEJSKByOAs1j0grPrBOP0UxuQHZfFeJGZ_GkgL6B0aVuMA0_LZlzyVZuJMnVoXaMwOTIv9R8mkKCARQy6TU7xC2ronFm3UxY9RNq_PFGQ-xTvmtsIpnBkcjh-RrjR4qMm0zE4oBQCa1Rc&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-06-23</a>

Things Anna has identified as her favorite color recently:


"Green my favorite color"


"Trucks my favorite color"


"Blue my favorite color"


"Eating cake my favorite color"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2567831520024715/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXnKK2Zq1ZEgam4_O9JKxsRMqWgvFEDsBiKdPZIX1lMJ13QhSUAp4KESdS33fVj5KGKPYwcImseVJysEB6sTUIKwKxrYxLD0a4nmtbMj-8cGvxz6awzZhPQoZVCUQRgTiPqRgx5HjtqLqFMpCJfMVZLEfqIF4h2w1o10ZvUl9QARsDuzKmyDwjiK7LKd3w1OBo&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-06-25</a>
Anna: Papa, give me scissors ... I need cut library book two pieces
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXr3csJxNEiHPsRB1J4lM-rd7wxGioKvyzQCbgJHMoVymQUL5jHoxSBsHDtVjqW3IwpxJ4icRCefyHA2xgE5QUsfGogH4t5uqqOpknmnsCEJhOrHfs-tjLmpGyvfytZCRdo8oHzE60HPyYyYXoeDEmvyWiACDpRI1bOQJ6zzSlfJaPFlBXVdc1UIAkI2rVn9Cg&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R#?jkj">2018-06-27</a>
[from Ange]

Me: "Anna, chew and eat slower so you don't choke"


Anna: [Fake cough] I choked!


Me: "No, you didn't"


Anna: "Hahahah I joked"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2570101223131078/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXoAXvjtXuxMGuFRw9BlUMU-Pm9S_6CJ90Iv1lvCHzJOj-SdaPEL1J1Km_nqXCA7Y6dCp5pUuahqnozSWFutJ8IvaiVaYPilGZ5gkSX2l87bIo0Ozrj7OsZxYd2ZGXJdkJJnuph9nbAPZ55Mte9odpA5ueSA8M4wZSpbjvN2oHaISApGTAasOpvXc1EbmCvl08&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-06-27</a>
Anna: I don't want a bandaid, I want tomaaato saauce! ... Beans too.
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVgVHhSymEVFLQVUbBvG4EzU-pWqd31sLl5ho4HI-xMapdzFAqb9mHfD6kOzeTlXzTubcXozyxxZ8pfGDmqCxI8_GCC7Sq__1YK1eBRxkXG1G-XLB3raM-y-gjl0xafXQ8qCv36x5ndPMJvvKcwJCVK0dBtjvyVTz4JZF8JnBldxP9v0XCti3Od_ahIgnr15rrXYPMZO6x3-uIWAMsgG48l&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R#?kje">2018-07-04</a>
Lily plays with multi-tracking: <a href="https://www.jefftk.com/lily-ba-ba.mp3">mp3</a>
<a>2018-07-04</a>

Recording of Doris Day, singing: "I'm talking in my sleep about you, about
you."


Anna, delighted: "About ME!"


Two-year-olds are the most charming narcissists.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2578143968993470/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVS6l69uO-09qMU8KyuYDW520WBAJlkjzdIjLBtssioJHdIX81NiGwkwDOAVaL5-1Rd0OzTrYy6LIumMsfjCrLdLwEn51Kxe4KjCJeOIMyexn-AA7bdteIKkd5S0K4m1sJfRQdobnHAO7KOG32vMGTltb9HM0Vk7dXJdnEvOgfFk0G7ZuoFDsj3SRH6t5LtsvQ&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-07-05</a>
[from Ange]

Anna: "Please say 'I Love You, Anna' Lily"


Lily: "What?"


Anna: "Please please say 'I love you, Anna' Lily"


Lily: "I love you, Anna"


Anna: "Thank you, Lily"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWci1FOX82U15MCWaVDY1BSKyWl4ROMn26PDAOC8i9u7lEjriAGGeXxgeaQa3PwGE_Q375tkjIm_Ew4re22YXzfPLr1mQwK4cCQcVxvENx_0ISesfQKL-YdcRNqqyBlV7Eh-TDiMZyiYB7JpqFp-nl-UeKv25vIW7XpPKWNxohBmjDUM-AFzKPag44hdObSTHQ&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R#?aii">2018-07-05</a>
[from Ange]
Trying to convince Anna not to hate the water
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2578783982262802/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZW_iya410drgkVoXK2zZvQQOUKkCPjNenozZDl_2fkvkjl4nQ_8WFkTSrbna54Ifj7n-QI8CcYCifm62Qox2iIV2v3ywsTuDs9sbwrJS3YprMP4gM6JGyuoD7xDr-GwkCjJIZSycb4lS0TGzb1XZDG2GgRW-UkZCRxdgYLXpnVfYqk8HJ0WDkiz--OTAf74h58&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-07-05</a>
[from David]

Lily: "Can I watch two videos tonight?"


Me: "Hmm, is that what I said you could do?" (It is.)


Lily: "Yes yes!"


Me: "Am I someone who does what they say they will?"


Lily: "No"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2579444522196748/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVfiznki4i4J5WMLCjJGpvx2inKo4mM5rU3WaIP50n42aidvnkxB0OLVhuj6cLU-tTT7lFuY_6eFbN2uH1OAuIA6eVPjJRbzWQy-dI3vYS2Jg0-QVSP0RXUQb5X_WqCfeTlS3YvaVYQHimVcOq4hvKtjGrksglAd9_M_wz_sG8MwYRSL94qNx9dxcn8URw6RH9mbHq7InOch1alNHIvwsW8&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-07-06</a>
[from Ange]

Lily: Ange let me see if you have a baby


Me: what?


Lily: let me see... Yes there is!


Me: I'm pregnant?


Lily: yes.. there's something wiggling in there.


Me: when is it coming?


Lily: Tomorrow!


Apparently I'm having a baby tomorrow.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2579617682179432/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZX7RnObRirYPaK700aM_MJMArpCkH7ioc6SMdTFkO5D60uba7HBP__d4YYHW4jqUDK5Odd5EVyD8GjV-n-c1JL-CF_lLFhTBaaSlnHPqzhEOo_uMYrRERHo23DaEyBd73-drRCCS8tN5fHMg2rQ8QbjC9rp2UaaTD7NU-bgm1dZKs3h1UmeasHyg7IRI4BQ_7I&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-07-06</a>
[from Ange]

Natalia: Ok, Anna, your turn. Let's play I spy, what do you see?


Anna: [Points at car] that blue car.


I don't think she gets it yet

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2582350088572858/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVcvFXw7hRYmJwC5WTeuMK_Q1Q1r9QVHVBPYRLsiwB4FQy7xQDUKrNrYXgkxGqraQ4bQt5JTofSOGktLzHC2x4ebjVTY6GmidH-dgvjxEjzKjz3DLejeZUrURwO5QqYifdEZbEXNMFnSTt-TqeNNPzNQq0oEo_74v2WkZUz3Czx_wK09nUlTu5kNFPcykQxU-g&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-07-09</a>

"Them really good, you have to taste them!" - Anna talking about blueberries,
the same breakfast we've been having for over 2 or 3 months

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2585037254970808/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZU6KlKZCFLdvhoFDPuWm0cpg4qiagAqbR3lDa9PF63gcWVgvsdNjttdMgCxWenN6Sz9nMpia_TF70ly5d6-UkUcsTYrVHXfA63HkOey41EMOxMdJmxgctwxnbaUmXeoawiZBUQZNt5FPLgMJnPdLT2hRNCJDFVCVsqv3y367xzrxYN37eVgu2EzgxUC5MfPrq0&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-07-11</a>

Other kid at the playground: "You need to put your shoes on."


Lily: "What?"


Kid: "You're not wearing shoes."


Lily: "What?"


Kid: "You're supposed to put shoes on."


Lily: "What?"


Kid: [gives up, resumes playing with Lily]


Jeff: "I like her method, I'm going to use that next time someone asks me why
I'm not wearing shoes."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2587120678095799/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVMYt_B8OIWpAQmtJG0fOZqoTZSNkB7yGgGzjIj9zu6GIpVCINuExE7HfCipPDuaNpVGM6TT6PY3SYgxrZkfyDncxHU1TL8HHlZUWG-Q24Btw0iw9btuu9Ug0ujfv0_cvuFy300gqTJNHL5l5yWja65e0EfgIA1jfBbtbGvKeM10CE87pxxivU0xCW6QCy1JEU&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-07-13</a>

Lily: Mama, can you give me some of your money?


Me: What do you want to use it for?


Lily: For a job I'm going to do outside. I'm going to set up a tent in my
thoughtful spot and when kids come by I will give them packages and parcels.


Me: What will be in the packages and parcels?


Lily: That's a secret.


Me: What's the money for?


Lily: I'll give it to them with the packages and parcels. Each kid will get
one package and one parcel and some money.


She hasn't raised any capital yet, but has gotten started wrapping up one of
her books and a half-eaten square of chocolate in some wrapping paper. "This
will be a parcel."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWL53vFJp1iiavuWdcYmzop_zF3pYruIa7WAev06spdQ11n_YkugS1-rL2QY3eTV9Gc_PFA-JWx5tAS_oT0NXIw7wO8SDFSWFvSpu9HuKO3kv47ZlIbXKKbFuN1ARvLnSquCl9n0weTtwJFCDGyG52UDHt6upkImojZOhElDJ0yC-6y1nicxko5bc4LR8LxKME&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R#?gih">2018-07-14</a>

It's lunchtime, and Anna is rejecting her quesadilla.


Lily: "Not everything has to be your favorite color, Anna. It's the heart
inside that matters. Just follow your heart and keep smiling."


It's like talking to one of those programs that turns out text that almost
makes sense. One that's been given input from a lot of random children's
books.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2589925497815317/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVxJ95oKwDhl_fRcuTcEhq0WxDkHVF3ttyPxJGxG1kQZg59Y_6wM5Y3cGIZhMC1L0KyKS8iuc3v2DYvjm2rbOwhpIXwO9v1Tt0McXvX3UugNnOov-muqAtvWaVKC5ytRHySI9fjnDNzR9QUkrx19v_xj7RW98yFlasH7duN6QRclJAuAuLxcTb7Pgc-GrPnthw&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-07-16</a>
[from Ange]

Lily: Ange I'm done talking to you. I'm just gonna talk to Anna.


Me: What?


Lily: I'm done talking to you.


Me: You're not gonna talk to me?


Lily: I'm just talking to Anna.


Me: Why are you not gonna talk to me?


Lily: Because... Because I need to rest my voice!


Me: What?


Lily: I'm done talking to you because you're making my voice tired.


Me: And Anna isnt?


Lily: I need to talk to her because she asked me a question.


[Anna looks confused because she hasn't talked at all in like 10 minutes]

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2590064511134749/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWOL33BY0nnOalLPkjhgmiZv-15H7j-TcKIp6paxKQ6ytVJi9WICE66RfeWOQWu09eTMCOtDE-qZCF5mc1ryuFu-eJwnhYExFMAGe_AsL_o2DBY4AbrsqPLBOGQCBLEjwAMfwfOLzK8SnOsOzalBlMGmuicEfKlSgIHjCgs_bESpIVUBq75NabnaE3j4JFsPS4&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-07-16</a>
[from Ange]

Me: "I'm sad. I don't know Anna, what do you do when you're sad?"


Anna: "I. Step on mud puddle. You bring me home and give me bath and put me
to bed. That's what we do with that."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2595423063932227/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVjTx1h6Wqb8k83SjprZPWXYXD1-jMu-Qw5NlpXX3_iruH4DcNdfTqxqx8W-LU6G_IraRwcFKjWjnYbldDmn7-qzvRriHvx82m_z853-Arpx4_xUXVtE5u7f2JlKurGf8Cp5NDg4a4TjdDCazXz-OJ97JdpfGNOL_u4VezthluoNibmPTrUACpC40oUjEyXj9IDAYBm4GK8MO6cWf27ei5F&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-07-21</a>

Last night after Lily went to bed we heard metallic banging noises, and
reflected that the number of toys in her bed probably needed to be reduced.
This is what I found this morning:

<ul>
<li> Four teddy bears
</li>
<li> toy penguin
</li>
<li> two whisks
</li>
<li> wooden spoon
</li>
<li> 1950s metal teaset from the Middle East
</li>
<li> toy pot with lid
</li>
<li> pretend can of beans
</li>
<li> slippers
</li>
<li> water cup
</li>
<li> homemade mermaid tail
</li>
<li> homemade mermaid hair
</li>
<li> bag that belongs to Anna
</li>
<li> Elsa doll, with one high heel
</li>
<li> pretend slice of onion
</li>
<li> plastic fish
</li>
<li> pretend slice of bacon
</li>
<li> wooden bowl
</li>
<li> wooden cupcake
</li>
<li> toy parrot
</li>
<li> foam "We're #1" hand
</li>
<li> baby doll
</li>
<li> baby doll's pajama pants
</li>
<li> teeshirt
</li>
<li> shorts
</li>
<li> pants
</li>
<li> measuring cup
</li>
<li> rainbow hedgehog a stranger gave her at an amusement park
</li>
</ul>>
Her bed is basically 2 feet by 4 feet.
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2597833117024555/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXuTe_aJtPxNV2zJ7BLStMT1qz1kuuRNQZIDCAZHM9Kbzi2Z-nd0pJOECG8YFUAuQ0xaXZXw6jnRYu0DId55Y668w2HMQo9Tim5lOsRNNqExfbqxn1Dq0azoXSGsh7K0NspLempA41nFRLuc45lUtmjutdqhnJOJYhoWOh6G3yGEApF4UsXoGy5fNESmymHaYk&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-07-23</a>

Anna: I tell you, scary monster story?


Me: Yes.


Anna: It really, scary!


Me: I want to hear it.


Anna: Raccoon hit Papa Bear, Lily Bear. Them's head hurt. Them go them's
house. Them get bandaid.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2598613813613152/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZW3uMTI-hKzo4CmoaQig3Zqo554a9OjfrwDB2Ea18rgsbMGcd8TdbMgu5ZMsQrs4SiHWLlxMz8igXCzsFi1qzBHuaqVjrSx3qAIvMIUeqErEgDxwIy1qrDaxySrZ1AeB2OwMixldcbmbSmLnmDu87VJsHBEjaA4nQWxm4WebHnEcJ_zW2rAYvBms6iCNQ9Y4rk&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-07-24</a>
[from Ange]

Lily: " Anna?"


Anna: "blagh-Sy"


Lily: "Anna-banna?"


Anna: "I'm. Busy."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2600325030108697/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUcrxLh8ahwu1Unq5euiFdsNDvnHmREWq_JyBmrVBbx-iujjW1S-6X-YIHETVwAjMpjlUA83OyiN83JiS7DMRJja6h-o9u25Xe6wu_zBqU550Vhqlk-snvo6oLKUtjEna2iIHXlx8cDLxNqjGiLCzDVgC2nb7BEtvnROEbwJdXPdkFcqY8fAbPF53vRgrLAzTk&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-07-25</a>

Lily told us at dinner she doesn't want to be a girl and wants to be a boy.
We said ok and talked a little about pronouns and what makes someone feel
like a boy or girl or neither. Lily decided on "they" for a pronoun but
looked sad for a while, then brightened, and said, "I'm a girl." We said "ok"
and now she's playing voyage-to-an-island-on-a-towel with Anna.


That was earlier and faster than I was expecting.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZX_wmCj72GzIMG39k_8oVHkS1EDxApy2YMNm8PQ1z4k_NdWn5CcvW0XEo-RDqaLX_S3vqIMPS72R7U7CpEDKoRLV6VQvWNYDAsrQSRuls5ArJGYDAEQY_VA9GCXdpZuRU5FoQaCGIB6gFFUSL4XRn8sEY-tPlgX7NWJ9LGY_cAzShm6-3R_yDe5u1h3FyMSU-w&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R#?hgb">2018-07-31</a>

"Mama, why do you drink wine if it has fluoride in it?"


Um, that's one of the other chemicals we don't want you to swallow too much
of.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2609363889204811/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWmTRiBkIO4JSZwQvdMJwXHTREo5iet4Z1pgof2TJUMMrCz-A-aInAWah6SAB-z9IbF7sYw1OFXsaOj6r5A0Ad2bhysiX5xD_fviy5C-vuD2VcSaKZq9lzgxLPpb5DZO-wHBWwIT3y65k9lCnMdnQXEo4rds03SQAZmfqqHBE4hT_WzVaBwI8rfN5WLtExSu6c&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-02</a>
[from Ange]

Lily: "Anna won, the winner gets first price"


Me: "What's first price?"


Lily: "The longest nap. So you have to wake me up first and we have to leave
Anna in her room for a long time"


I'm not sure this is a good price

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2609791575828709/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXlX8eVr2FW4HWdo5kVS79QtNjU-WF5uZLH-WyZ1nRjBFbczO_NAKSSorj_KWvXjs2eR_zeHrnU3quUp5T28L6I6IdOWqu4UpcWMgQ6kuKlvCkTbwa8C1SMC6mJh0xxUvZfRNGRfoOo7pMeaQBYmidFNpzRPeOu-jYMNosvBVgSkjX23tvSqMlLYn-HqENmI7g&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-02</a>

Tonight Lily gathered a bundle of sticks in our backyard and tried to sell
them to passerby on the bike path, "only one penny!" We walked for about an
hour but she didn't sell any - joggers apparently don't carry pennies or
don't want to buy sticks. She says she'll try again tomorrow.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2610299185777948/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZV_u71h30MGg9EMsWwFc2Wf7pk3YUi-MimlT-AM6z2KIKSj2dhUH7U5nPx_dVRxiy2K_MyA80GF9cWQomCgiHZrawrWSI6kii9CARbpoD29EcjA0MyUtPfEuAOyfxVR9TwlrbpyYuwX1vyNwaHRbK_oKDB8QZiSSNZxopGxu9XxwhhHZnQyBfCI1AanqGFhpgs&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-03</a>
[from Ange]

I took Lily's pretend tattoo off today (she's had it for like 2 weeks because
"it's so beautiful" but it was like, black) I told her that it had to come
off because it was full of dirt. Now we're on the subway and she goes.


Lily: Ange you should take your tattoo off too


Me: my tattoo?


Lily: Yeah, you've had it for months, it's full of dirt.


Me: Mine is not pretend, it's there forever, touch it.


Lily: it feels gross with dirt.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2611724652302068/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXXkPYRBJQQdWqtTgEq_4-i_fPc_ytYpV8LRIf9kyRcH7r--iPH9cFsW9Gpu4Vg2qMFnLENr60JF9HWSGsmDUo60F98u3nhhXXqZijTvsSgo74YAAMZArS4y7ke-4r9Mk6SKDIEX4LHZfu_nQ9QmFHVKYW2XVpxJUTOhewASUDWqCDc0G5e5Mi_f8RpDAASHm8&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-04</a>

Lily: "We're going to catch my scary feelings in my net. We have to wear our
safety clothes. I'm dressed like a bumblebee. Anna wants to dress like a
witch but that is not safety enough."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2611725368968663/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWJNcHPh0TlVejhte810v3Odm-LrnwalgjkQJY3xqNMTfJ7457lrci8Llg-N4a4DhzUcDMrGipHBzux7JDBCE4GY2rdgzrtBF7xrkxz7j1vUY8HalgrEuZ0lBRx02mR2IqyijUMkoDuBxjmBoU9F2q22Wop00VQAa5R5aRPEjIGKlgZYDkW0zM3itlbYGNqKzc&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-04</a>

Anna: I found chocolate chip.


Jeff: You lucky duck.


Anna: I can talk. I not duck or cat.


Jeff: You're a kid? You're a little girl?


Anna: I big. I climb on my chair.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2613249558816244/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUxItmC5bxwNjLAFfsKXYtzdPdF4CiNAfAFhE0WcNqmYPOkZ7WQHVvd41EuncCVLxS0soZCVc_NacMIEtcdSlocyOf8dpQNtc3k_wwfGggHCqapRVZ2BUeLk0i9IbI-8VYIZlMcpgsGgzl_XchPWuXfOZAHBR4xCbDS3zP2bP77lWp_3PmeXZjE05I19cgmv5I&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-05</a>

Lily: "d-die, Papa"


Me: "what's that?"


Lily: "I was saying hello in Australian"


(Her /g/ is still coming out as [d])

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2616228905184976/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZU9lD5Pwlo7tivic8gCTi7jIjoSJzhjiaK0oI_8xDp-2LGi9U8-nmt3vGQkzCtrLeyf9ou1usH9Gf5zWKwJFKncrwBIq-84yebaVcbqVoUcnvT9A8e_4lcQ__PF2HBtwnYRQ0-WEyIRnAKEIhQ5oSruRP-r3sy6Y3olOVLoWi6PlWnXtAcMMwWCblo2U6C9bl0&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-08</a>

Lily is enthusiastic about wishing on stars. We've explained the thing about
not telling your wish, but sometimes she likes to tell anyway. Some recent
wishes:


"A credit card."


"A wishing well and a lot of gnomes."


"I wished that we will have tofu for dinner tomorrow." She hasn't been
willing to eat tofu in about two years, so I asked if she wanted to eat tofu
tomorrow. "No, I just wished that we will have it and other people will eat
it."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2622492781225255/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVptVAJCkZob1hIyXlgEAT2Z6wobWyYLc0mU0IR6rM5wDF8eaqmeiaH1eZQqVWz1RigrYlZV5FGz_O5nsOJVaLQEzwbBQe83SxWwNZnu_5yBsh66JNYJH4787XX8PlzVmbmKqFTOlRh3T0EMAXc0WsBnMxgYh49LQ3zNsQ9vvovOcoBhXQZnCDpOFop2YIvm4vjieUTBbOA_tL7p3l301qX&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-13</a>

Lily went through a long period where she wasn't willing to draw anything
because it would be imperfect. She's finally interested in drawing again, and
happy to reinterpret the results as needed:


"I'll draw the head of the parrot...Actually it's not a parrot, it's a
walking mushroom that's falling over."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2623313711143162/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZV-q8XE9eh4ccrliUi4SAqLNj8RQoUO39C2OHj9V4E2-UESu5n_ldCSVjL_GjG4THaokfeET853EejhaDpleGTgGqUfqC_QFcQzd6W-Y-_4H9Xm_DHYYUB7dfQKt8FcqNcSxGt1Om3Cs45XCFGbrPsC6rRxfEnFOE9hCiWsnkCbVL0jC1atEgNjT-r2OpJslLBW_IL_I89BX0iqSCzcflvhcFrFnL5Wrz4uobtqoKOxSA&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-14</a>

Anna was blowing raspberries during dinner. I told her to leave the table to
do that, and Jeff told her that after dinner she could blow raspberries in
the sousaphone. She was so psyched.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2624718391002694/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUeu3YpyqBKgTF_mqVd0YrD_CKK1loOqdco6wWJ8eC94kmh8ZA1oxoAXRSiNovttiLxrU8126SvrIwfv8wscc8T9J7Xw4sOPJiXLzgBfhecQENzEWhcN71F3xtsKntI6DzOamN_niskv_eCZMfGQaAEvn_gg_hJ2j-XuaHcOkUxbVlwsv34HIv_Kx5QnpmyWNbujUeEGrYT6Jf0SQlQNFSn&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-15</a>

[From Ange]


Me: "Anna, do you like meat?"


Anna: "Noooo"


Me: "Fish?"


Anna: "No!"


Me: "Chicken?"


Anna: "Yeahhh... Chicken from fish sticks."


Me: "Fish sticks don't have chicken!"


Anna: "Fish sticks do have some chicken in it!"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2629748140499719/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUhl_pAd-iKEQCFTmP6FkV5FXHKzYlUQoYW9GYz-_LAsAhOZAu148lOihxvjOpTuUCkLw6uOiGEhjmbWINMOI-fP8cWAp-8hZoifrkYxZty9lpAzg_Xvhqs3RQbW6sG1iABuIFnf65KswxxaWjRm26XzwXb_R8nsE8oBtC9DBx98MLD8KjBjHqX96wl0cc2PEIhxZ2DosZVRjLSLEY_uPbJ&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-19</a>

"I sitted on my baby and Rainbow Bear."


"Why?"


"I wanted to."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2635662843241582/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUaBWvtwjH2L-l7ZyXCgYMvMXp1PEA4eY_lVJwCL_9UkB5oss9O99ovZRe76KDg185C_DA5bLFK7XPhzRII2VR5McMBsA_BYU-MKddTWcxh7r_WxXV3mmeUaE_yEHvWW8yQdj6MXR9cvhzj0GW_85VOICdryh5K6qf65Ox9uW8W8RJ43O8Ldm6KJDcWjpQ4x6uKj09SZGg_nBtZrbnXwR7h&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-24</a>

She played me three songs on her Guiro:


"That was a sad song called 'Forgive me.'"


"That was a sad song about a thief stealing someone's groceries."


"That was a sad song about someone who wants to go far away and they went
across the ocean and never returned and their family was sad."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2636757436465456/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUTt5do1M1qq5eGDheoQq8clvQt-y3zJ6Ri2q0IyI2w42BPKnZ178MrX0Gbge7Q2fXWgWQd02iTTyCKUHigGHREgtZv20f4DckVlKp_rWK8wYqtzpKg4DcdLqzrTrYgC9DX6qtIPkTsNRingWGR80w1wU1DDz9Qibt2q96uO659lWAxeYZy2OTqMhASUoLMZ-PpTlW-oa13GoymIefooe45&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-25</a>

Lily drew a bottle and then drew liquid filling it.


"It's a bottle of a special kind of juice you only drink on New Year's. It's
wine for kids. The flavors are lemon and grapefruit and....more grapefruit
and wheat and this is cauliflower and this is birdseed flavor but it's not
really birdseed."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2638517166289483/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXaRyMdioVo5-VoP1khGgD-yK2lBGltiolHSwWSRNfVpeup25KHwAWiwOHqQ6oo7l--ajmowyyMmHysunp89DlGPcBMCiI1mHxQTE1VH3dXzo4e5W9NwNzs3VT9hK3RcsUah7P8sMgOiHLOh0aYWMt_B-J13JMf8ge1J7iSSBae_FsbbwfSIF35p1vG-I207miDDEQzWla0fMMr5c9MxZtt&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-28</a>

[From Ange]


Lily: 'I always wish to run away'


Me: 'Wouldn't you miss Anna?'


Lily: 'No, I would bring her with me'


Me: 'so you would wipe her when she goes potty? And cook for her?'


Lily: 'No, I would bring mamma with me'


Me: 'What about Pappa?'


Lily: 'Yes, I would bring him too'


Me: 'Then who are you running away from?'


Lily: 'I'm running away from you'

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2639876826153517/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZW4BI3QmLGgSfyBwZCU_5uOLJyjzDobKaROOQW9kX3x5Fy0UnwtHiKR8ab_GdWhrqRB1Fw91qrw9AYaC4VMJZBnTz_MmU4w_FxPOQeMTN-v4RM9p9eekslTpwrCHXG6SpsTyIAv4TWr5qsLvx4q_FRUjOWtQXpnWhCwx0KWBOVmzN5LirTWAtTIM8u4_gkmfBAiF-0WwthqbCN3fp1f0Nsq&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-30</a>

Me: "There's a full bed, and a queen bed is bigger than that. Do you know
what's even bigger than a queen bed?"


Lily: "...a horse bed."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2640559859418547/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWECSJesWnYEZBqPKabOcH_edxM5n9db8A955fesobl9WywXTYvv0JgTZa4c-KrecYcYoRsCuyAS7EWqXM6IN8EAslTImWkvTCtxo5RK7aC_zAToenNU8cbRBLMwPh6UiE2Z3XiImqBPgWHKqJwf57KJrq0pnXHYomohhRw2RWoc9lhsCIM3pfbq-tlYp_BovLvbGkKPxriqq4DLisXfUc6&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-08-31</a>

[From Ange]


Me: 'am I your favorite Au Pair?'


Anna: 'You're not my Au Pair'


Me: 'but am I your favorite?'


Anna: 'Nooo'


Me: 'why???'


Anna: 'cause you're not cream cheese'

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2641118799362653/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXpGp5ddCFCbzN7URrLi-h2aPODKxFwwXcp_zkIOgCJhr6G2WW65z8FVfUuJ1j7NvkqZZc8_ZM5k9MCFokGIoP-ua8tLYp27W3snYAZ2NIhPF12sVvbIFt8WX7YNRH7p1r89UJFBYaS5z4DGP_srNMW7Do7ob03bwa3oB91eydtPla-GjpqhXfzJYHm3Ic0lgNHwVkafiy5CK4e4ygr3nVqGmKKSK7KAGmljtb93ZPuJw&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-09-01</a>

Lily: "Be careful with the scissors Mama! Be careful not to snip your fingers
so blood starts leaking out. Because I don't know how we would fix that.
Maybe we would have to go to the hospital and they would figure out what to
do about it. They help people who are sick or hurt. Maybe I could go there to
get some new teeth. Maybe they would have a tooth that someone lost, and
maybe they would have something that they could attach it with."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2642282135912986/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVA3BJP0F0LVSEY8Xod656MKkKEGQHLdzPICb2wsq8YsZjR3JdGVXWWYNuceR_pMYryri_GRjGgIX3owI5286kQCvdjwEt1tJksV4tcr5eKB5PHlT6AFXdo3M2jrGBp1DWzVhD3V83Ap2LnDwSQ7HUrqlfJSDASfJem6fkfY0hZ4NrVSIWef997a6WjDCAHzXcZXlX57Wq6W90yzuWw-5Dr&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-09-03</a>

"If someone is mean to me, I'll say, 'The minx! How dare she!'"


Good to know Lily is working on her nineteenth-century insults.


(It was from a <a href="https://www.storynory.com/lapis-sister-friends/">podcast about cats living in Ancient Egypt)
</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2643422369132296/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUT-G92Sar8njUSlaPqh9SYVw3UIliuHM2p1APQ9u9Y4e77oJ7iAn19BsecJXBlNMGMJGnfLyltHH1Q_8a6YbMWrMZHQfk1AYkobtZPZ99rxWg2K3EB1xXQytcoQJTVBmvFpttu_XuqnVT6nU9rnOGQz-G8SaLi2QkmJGp-pe9EPLJGXTkJJtgjyfUibwFrJIzLeJcqXEd-L4sYcSETP5SF&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-09-05</a>
[From Ange]

Me: "Anna drink some water"


Lily: "Do I have to drink some too?"


Me: "Yeah"


Lily: "Yeah cause hibernation is important"


(No, Lily, hydration is what you do in summer, hibernation is what you do in winter)

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2644078475733352/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVNbSqj6vGztsP7Xm4z58dZgQovsUlxjNA9GTKYbU4ehr0Sb6Qbqht9IgxssAAI9DcMhYGd0oS8bOxLucFz4GKRUOBdZyA8OuwiStRragGvdBXj2mmVnJrdza-o6uDx2RfWBUJ6hdBhpyT7nGF2ClquNVy6AZaZZUmJlwD2wmkRhQXmpH_yT2T2TCo3Wpx6Z5QfjaMuW_0dKUcCugyER4d8&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-09-06</a>

[From Ange]


"I'm gonna throw this at Anna's face to scare her into falling in love with
me. That's how it works, you scare people into falling in love with you, but
you gotta scare them good" Lily has some questionable methods

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2650386835102516/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXMpb5prVqVcw70yxBmcUlSvoLeSne4uTlM9POnauWO7hWJ6zOGFf8R15u_xhK5aDz66DBNb2aH1sPZGYaAKsnSXAG3QEjmKWCEdzvq08SY6lYh2nyeBkirdpU2Osj5bkFG4DX_hR4yxeeKcRguA8dTwtn7SXPkqlmAldn-W5mVCaDZfWxpLGDBVdXuNWjYQsLrDe4mKIvgOT0L2Q56ggrBU7c9ucbcwNHNHejF1fOUvg&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-09-16</a>

Lily's been having me tell her knock knock jokes, which she laughs at pro
forma whether she understands them or not. But today I told her "knock knock
/ boo / ohh, why are you crying?" and she really got it. It was fun seeing
her really get a joke.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2653087851499081/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWXHYNwflXcgaYZ3Nmk4ouTfbA3ElmhX1sGWoRMzu-amYQ48LfNW_zApQiiznuB2tc9PrHEYv5-j9OILSyHXNAFARRkZms6QiIHhzOvgmGAHrF-0I7G9wVixq4fOviTML5OkXy9pJ1AnKbVZDb5BZE-gWWYAx6Ft7HG-YY15jVoX6Zp4FOYdmt9eopacPhWljm8ztOfigPhLt5ZGbO1n2N4&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-09-21</a>

Anna, explaining to the nurse at the doctor's office: "I am the little
sister. I am a big sister, but I can't fly yet. I need to get some wings."


Anna, the next day in the bath: "I'm a baby whale!" (rolls over and puts a
washcloth on her back) "This is my 'pout."


Kids: the original transhumanists.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2658181287656404/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUGSlRT87jEAYWv0qgmFJCP7TG30xluMFeq45RiTJBBH9xzVe8q8pR6iJtC3xXXBIe5mYvzwjxskyHjhftZWmLKTaqVdIql2RyVe3YiZ2Q4g9wmPerd8Oj17wFxeazHITjRGz-Ol_cljxBS_0hzbPoV0sVmgZz60BO4g3gS5PSPN1gG2PWAHt5hDiUp9OtEOh-NKZ9_WgGx_NN_LrqsctrC&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-09-30</a>

Lily emerges from her room holding her "magic wand." "Mommy, I'm going to
stay in my room because I don't want to hurt people with my powers. They're
in my wand. They're getting stronger and stronger. So I'll be in my room."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2660115770796289/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUsMsEeCus5WLjgqGtYe0vjsninWiNnWH1qAVwoGsjyO9sHx7cfgBuLUjbmMAEyth7uSHyOYAwIpgXBYel2dZMzVhzIHo-GHGuy8rRhvekq3w1ftd6wpElXZlZJtaR7lRPIzLMwNHc3RZlfB3ehyYAtFmv1Cexo1UsGN1PRHVx52MVxJ4tYvDEkDBQ7BaK9AOwxivQn77sJBVuTxoN_dhJ883zKiVCa-PLMz0Z6wf6fcQ&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-10-03</a>

Anna: "This isn't your house, it is my house. I share it with you"


Me: "The house belongs to me and Mama"


Anna: "The house is my house"


Me: "Who did the house belong to before you were born?"


Anna: "It belongded to you and Mama"


Me: "And what happened when you were born?"


Anna: "You guys locked me in a cave"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2661874377287095/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXKk-m3IkMDpNNHG1i7JBXou7N85crpHt0wuwecmBWhtYDwpFas1SzJ3sQ1yGw7T6VkwfeWpbaDpNcFLZzjyAr9ZWGlQa7lxpOXQ93UIkkcZhT3ptQJ8wKi-6GphVxvN09bCokxt8tWnLmvGNeDmhbni_O3sBEdTIU3UHzKRVSunWc1_uu6t5oz-5g_c7gD1HX1NBkbKum2U6swf0Jy-ft9&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-10-06</a>

[From Ange]


Me: "Mine has avocado"


Anna: "Hey! I like! Avocado!!!"


Me: "Do you want some?"


Anna: "And I have seven grandpas"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2665252110282655/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUtoViorrwi7Mcy6MqyYItL__XsW0V1BmIv7HvN38zKEh3FmWI6-Yys1oIePl4lzBpFcGskimEzblsQEV-W5u_OI862ldO08ZwOo_lZ4Ze8Hp5zd5Gmb5MLy_M-tsEIGVrj7l9TGpTMNyLgfedh3Y6qEIe0o7iSfJLkC_jolpz3ptvYiMdAY5OLNcQU3imuVED78ifFP9e-Ctcb5hLF9-Tc&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-10-11</a>

From Lily during bedtime tonight:


"I have a secret hiding place where I put things. It's my pillowcase. I
pretend to be Santa Claus, but I need a Santa Claus costume."


"Sometimes a tear comes out of my eye when I'm not crying."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2665253316949201/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUZ9YMA3i3XGC3f_zR9uEuvoTvgBwiByc4zG7N_ZCfDxsiPkAGTWHQ7VWEvT9PqaZUNWRoBzYF2pHN5PRj6_Ok2gzk7F4H43QsBMRdD9tI1_LTZSLRAl_cvJyjl_e6xH_79ZjxfDZjZn9f2kHxW9RyqC3RXOS3jeGok62BnyaGVR1qvlBGMpzTe1tf-GwiaRzYVXGF1fbMeRrlVM5KVL6Lu&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-10-11</a>

Anna was looking into my face and announced, "There's stuff in your eyes." I
didn't know what she was talking about until she looked more and said, "It's
round stuff. It's circles." I asked if there was a black circle in the
middle, and she said yes. "And there's green parts and yellow parts. And
there's a little bit of white parts." There's that bit of anatomy sorted.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2667529340054932/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZU0TLhIOLz-Up1urA17jyf1TMBzTtBrT9bPc4V5d6a_JxlGhRxHRk9qIrF8MYXa8mvY9H8-JkuajZCbXyF-xEdlmem9aNyqVWIiD8GgE87XKvz4TrhDfPCyYm5xoCnn9xIF32wn4g1n-Z20-MhavsTaQ2amE2Sjjcv4VQ5o921Yi6cov8snl191Fa3FNJMhDJa3HLsmZh-zabSB7vcsvJxh&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-10-15</a>

Anna: "I told you the truth. Then you had some truth. Then I took my truth
back."


I'm sure there are several professions where this approach well be helpful.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2669109059896960/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWAXQXok8v4vLEi-s2S6rAGCmC3P1vhrbkrHiULNtCBfFgy63x28Dv5zBb0hCI-Tl0CWeVtI90HzZOyQqHq9MHeT59gpMtG2GFuc8rbUhJ0-pDfVXbVFFOQYaMtKgbgJqPJmEH6jOrBFBFG_gWQN_UTSpHrabpn_aqjDSeWVMrFDxCpSrzCza2ryOzkGDN2BJeuySbGZzcx07EcTPjpw6UW&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-10-18</a>

Anna sang her giraffe to sleep last night with one of the songs Jeff sings to
her:


"Raindrops on roses


When the cats bite...


When the dogs, when the pigs bite


When I'm feeling...


I like my favorite things!"


(I don't remember quite so many animal bites in the original, but I can see how you'd need some cheering up after that.)

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2678549472286252/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVbkviSAADPNJcG-Sy4xhF6n85nJZw_oZiH2ovkXsh44dyACFM0hR7zUFOu8Zjh1DqnBGlxZigKV0NbiWLUraa1uLGkVpJWT3-iyBvqaZ_UbjOtGtRMRQ9wcNbVZLARPQ-mJiv0QjEZ6jAsR2aUvvwuA37QPE-SYWYRUW9kio0BrMy_tw1oTjcE1NmEbjIV7xTK6mwH4IdnWfzUZ73ybkQz&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-11-02</a>

"My weeds are chasing me! They're wrapping around my feet! Run away fast!"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2680571422084057/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZV9BbgO8uMOfpDXY5yBf67kl3-2AWL6w1C5jUX4TrhetxfO7pgQRvRA3XT124gYu4vgo1L_DB8akpJhPDG_SS3CK_h7XDJlIxNWv7nrf-wTtq6KbKZXaRt8HxpXR8vsoxW0MlL0nR1JqaRpQofzDdnK1dWGKEASzuhf34ZueGhIBN8c-1pm6-BPghttV0luPg65NQwmwBnxsdbfYAqLShgj&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-11-05</a>

We were telling Jeff about the workers we saw cutting down a tree on the bike
path.


Lily: It was rotten.


Me: And they didn't want it to...


Anna: Fall!


Me: On somebody or on somebody's house.


Anna: Or fall on somebody sitting on a bench! 'Cause we would break. 'Cause
we are glass.


Me: ...we're not made of glass. But we would still break if a tree fell on us.


Anna: Maybe wood?


Me: We're not made of wood. What are we made of?


Anna: Ham! We are pink all over.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2680858352055364/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVD6_FBWOZO4AWXTw2bs0wr9scAxKXWatE6JPdV5AQncrS8fnCUkZtx7xHX0gywOQndpLLK7WjqF5gu9msTwy4BEn3fcfe3ymbcwxCx2_nh3LMcGlWi0r6XjfBhWygepYWdc7hlXfTTL3EPzCNMumqCjZnKEpXn7iGClDkZ5PTl8NV9Wf128uxM47zNXpm-VluXgBK2SdVOwXhrMyeAoe-w&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-11-06</a>
[From Ange]

Anna: "I only have one uncle. His name is Charlie"


Me: "But Alex is your uncle"


Anna: "No he is not"


Me: "Alice is your aunt and she married Alex so he's your uncle"


Anna: "When he grows up"


Me: "He's already your uncle, Anna"


Anna: "No he has to grow up!"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2683649098442956/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXaCF0aeN7EwrtfkQ0_wKhKK39SAgZUC-_qGo_lWTI-FC4wT2ZMxZhmcSo5prkg1O6GQ_vc18pY2YTpA3djgRmvzAbXVirCeCacG9lksTUnFdi8dkzfhVPApHlmM_RTchwVEhzh40UPmDx3l6iGmcHFs6f1ZqyKy6a2_dfBzDgqJgaI_koXjoWMYONRyOuUPvCMtIJ83RbWA9PzSsu3Fa_J&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-11-10</a>

After I told her we weren't going to the park right now, Anna
glowers at me. "Mama, I'm MAD. I'm going to go upstairs and . . . "
she struggles to think of something suitably dreadful "...read a book
on my sister's bed!"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2684931874981345/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXozTQjLc2eXEysNTIlucyGNHAVxNakYkR1JKl4i_MQ1vSNFk_NooD3GUuoPRZwCd-kcAScwq8CGPR7iqpGtCOOJwxsC0WoB6dbejc8dAaRTsdtN4p3iZ_pH8wP1dy93Id2cdDAxSMLPCxbzZ_4ZF-AfD2ElXPTiq9k1fiBMRZ-PuEMJZ2rZitCgbmZXNKEzczU7gvov0EYGny4wAeFb4Tr&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-11-12</a>

Today Lily told us that it's bad to pick flowers because one fairy
lives in
each flower, and if flowers are picked the fairy will have a hard time
growing
another one. Then she said she's going to write letters to her friends
and tell
them not to pick so many flowers.


I was not predicting that her first activist campaign would be about
fairy
homelessness, but somehow it figures.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2685746594899873/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZW4Ud7iIyM6HcAK7YYcGOStz_LMXQq2yDe03Je50D6WKQvUQ5sN2DLj1eMuuOhD6UUWa5bTeW-zBVEY0lcVl001nR27eNY-r8S2WUTGygt3IeYKjCUINhKJP69IlweWbMGruTU6dCjcS3scWV0Nc40HCXGgl_EjlmvL3jCKvA4VFDvsov0KrSd9ZGvBi2_cdJqbS9Ri8HEqA7Q8OEamS2bcv7zvDKg-GAKdPKbgxbWFuw&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-11-13</a>

Anna and Lily are still working through their Halloween candy, one piece a day.
Today I talked with them about how they want to handle it when one of their
buckets has run out but the other kid still had candy. They agreed that at that
point they would share the remaining bucket.


(Much better to figure this out when they don't yet know who it is who will end
up being the one who has to share.)


...


Eating one piece a day was also Lily's choice. The night of Halloween
she ate candy until she didn't feel good, at which point she told me
she wanted me to put her candy up on the fridge and just let her have
one piece per day.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2686464218161444/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVP2XFLgZ1DJNJTvcl5vWJB1czntEn8xGsiWwRKsf_w9pupIhnHzop5EJRwPoHNmVafVlq2niVKI55ev8MpBvOhtr1Ghh_xqmuAUWu8Ymx270McngYTGmVJrgjA_c5QCw6TGqLZuFO-EUgxjk-MC4jhzHECNGVyW_RrlQHHB8bthwd2uevBs5RK7GmaFn03wlKGq7G-15YYAUJ9spSt03-vOGdCJ3L50zj39FBziOrP8Q&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-11-14</a>

Anna: "Papa, I don't eat grass. I eat butter, and salt, and shaky cheese, and butter"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2689737384500794/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXdLnERbb-8dWG46HxFSJoFSgJ84poDjGoTCyCS3riAqdKhpD4ObVKZ3Yfmcp4VvurLXAlaYNUfioqthtrQ1Dekv1j51d6bNEX3qkV0Gx-tq36Hn_szHU3BRdQz8_0Yd8VhRVx93pJK-lmxqrVWRVZ_QEGF8p_GcAc9Bnsk8AitIjClWrjj7fv0jiO1on6z1PNn8ToBTYUVmYihYMPvNBrG&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-11-19</a>

The ability of the human mind to generate perfectly rational reasons why it is
upset, none of which is the real reason it is upset, is especially transparent
in preschoolers.


Tonight Lily got set off by a crayon problem and then had several subsequent
meltdowns because

<ul>
<li> her teddy bear told her that he is going home to his family tomorrow and is
never coming back
</li>
<li> she has thoughts about a snowman dressed as a fruit seller who will pick us
all up and throw us in trash cans.
</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2691952834279249/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUeZBvsZWTOgyvmCTQBy8lSKD5yBQc1BbI7xCNzaQSLeZwJjlSACi5rmvHwUPGGM-cbZ9SSQNgz2ukRwonHmo7mlE--hF33fdHD04n4Ij4X_kJMQw7R9eX4Pq6bUiDQ0ZgYPEDpZknrfPgRoZzURf9Dc6VA13YM3Ygbc9UqRnaqzkYgR0SatZtsCqJ2gYvFsFdOSCwhntjtHjFqKrYyb52KHe9htKHSE6G3Y8VIyjtOVw&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-11-23</a>

Anna: "I saw one of your cough drops"


Julia: "Are you allowed to eat the cough drops?"


Anna: "No. Because I'm not a person."


(We've since explained that "adult" and "person" are different things)

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2691953647612501/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZV7banwB8JMSu1Ck4MurUN8Xb6be6_Ms1ahjkmejCypU8iT3PTflFV-5oVeznWOeNrRwADFGXfHbPLGpslrIi-vSmbuCCXiK5bck0e3LNpgm9PjpIcEAHhC7VofEHAkXOzBvUt8YiHGnwm3dog6PtDtsgTTcym_cMCmu5_xZznWbGy-ChMv3yOdrJ43m7r_I_AuXKxxXSYI9MC2-eDwYfLVEGjkl-DsNhsx123FnzxXbA&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-11-23</a>

Me: "Anna, do you want a cuddle?"


Anna: "Yeah!"


Me: [cuddle]


Anna: "Not with you! I was talking about my mom."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2692681977539668/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXubQ19eSVwqOBfu49JPkd9bw4lXUAJnydCsYpeNgZzgQJtKZ7GLKgRnZ-pBTiLIdaRMdANVm7jKGhdXiYtg6erGTtjBWhRqIJSgh6__yLqkA3P1Tc-2AT6VaH8w7qhsckEEPJ-Wc5znkR9SltFVaGxXMei0SFwqeOnH8b8EGflZoG1nNqh70jwZDSdxw7yE0FU9fhDY9n4JgRBlCRUAX0v&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-11-24</a>

Anna has been given permission to start eating the gingerbread house
she made yesterday, but she's overwhelmed by the size of the task and
is just staring at it.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2696466917161174/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUOwQFDwjhUpDmRq6i_lppenGq17tTeakBxTSVKCdKYf4NNRZGEG8lns7zsV_9e0GuxlVL87V84_YgsLRmgL7dD9v6HrYCiMbKSe9ukql7uUmJ6eIRRHSmPoA3tvNPLyJFHV_lEoThZDYt2XAWdVMfiZlv_qY04Fb9j2OZhdseL4fJJOFXfU7ae2oozzduQQ08ExG5cM3kOcH6SBsY5CvkmKlOBatnB_qWBUJhNl5MVEQ&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-11-29</a>

Lily: "I found a bit of Anna's lollypop"


Me: "Did you eat it?"


Lily: "No"


Me: "Because you already brushed your teeth"


Lily: "... Let's brush my teeth again, just in case any little bits of food got
stuck in them before and we missed them when we brushed them earlier"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2697348483739684/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUw2GCQaCUf6JfnOJYVC1pVjriIJQX_c700zhchSvMLlE8Ri-Ox6dQuJk1F2tRFnTSgT6aGdTD9aujqf8TkIiJeJ-8WMZWWX3FtI8PnGbQQsIBGDl73pjF5oNe4twFbhOHNLMsZQwc53NP_rBquey2xwFT69IgL_asBZCR2jXs_CIxUFaK9uOgwMBP2uhwYzEYf4MafYWvxxplfC9hT5bb0&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-01</a>

Anna, in my bed:


"Mama leave me alone. I'm a sea monster in my cage. I just need to snuggle down
in the " [voice obscured by blanket]

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2698000480341151/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXnl-xt4ic8jG98QCz9mQLKPpQ2I1OsV6xlIt3JJgaXUYr2PpMudDgqEnGD-dOD2ncXOMJaIiV2DTT_9bw23HYvLICqbU4hM7-Atv0bdcC5M4Hfn26QrO0TZn1Hs37FFHD6I2uRJ_tfTF3g3kTmuNC1FPtVLbOeMeZjlqnkvdQ7RCrIGQqwdQLTU59tyJDp5CmqOKys5Sx3LEFCCnec2tZ2&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-02</a>

Things Lily repeatedly insists are real:

<ul>
<li>fairies
</li>
</ul>
Things Lily has been unsure about the realness of:
<ul>
<li> gold
</li>
<li> crocodiles
</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2698431526964713/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVQktsOT1GKqxco9rPKAs3zJi3hMdlAHdjiXWbnXF61n26PI1Z9qXQpKtAZyM3q_cYT4NaLb2USi8vZ27v9Od6Wg3fQEnE6haFW0UeYTT1qTp_GWNhp_hY38mertcLQsH2e5I7jhOV7hCNpwrIj-hgzNCkvLrGdnmR7VnJRblPco0IgyhyCQybZ2FkHZ4OGMA_RxIXMTaxNFVyR-peScSzS&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-02</a>

Anna: "I want to open the first door of Chanukah."


We have a little more clarification to do about the difference between an
Advent calendar and a menorah.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2699104690230730/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXQ4VeCJrXbcS3EDoxN6mxKBP7XZumgG8yb9jLCUifRHZb8m7JJxhVMoZ_wjoVi5FpkFTmdDyE6yG9oQqoFUdr1XwLtpDzMlDvto6nCnejkzTtzQNFXY5SOE9uws-jghfpKSwx-7ih2PIAgECcOzGqX2hGbZVlZNxZGXm0wsOy2X2THDFoBJiswcV_1ldsz5K2Z8Bu-Qa6ofSut_87CEJdL&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-03</a>

I asked Anna what song she wanted at bedtime.


"How 'bout 'Shake It Off'?"


"...I don't think I know enough of the words to that one."


"You stand on one foot and sing."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2701149176692948/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWUgYr3Y0zPg7Gk4L-SE-Hw27dGvPxaBN8UwvDAAgIFbf1Z4JjmxLoyevxLWFUi7kRpb8azp7F6z3NU__DhiAgOIoeY20-4nL4Zx15SnafeGQz0rijzgsiTFHDugqCAWb07I3Un5EObtlsLKpNWzENKwmpoAFqHcFuCScQHKZvKROGpqYbtPMrM-9wPadQohGNOtED1aWx0SEkjyqIbKpmT&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-06</a>

Me: was it a long time ago?


Lily: no


Me: no?


Lily: I wasn't alive a long time ago

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2701696933304839/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWFYZel74nR3v_gf8D014K9hpEf_HdH0mMFpczPilwgeBqM5ZB13sRfjbIEpOPzUpatidPLnUY2kdM6Wb86Flaeu81HE08Hyzfkv-lgMWIgqrIcdTZ-o20_i59op1r8Bi3vsXzdfe9EKlqpoV-gpWGOl1DwE96YYXkKWDdg3n64pBmoknSlvd2ywHCoDZoIxwAHYbTdea-69UZan_tgJrvd&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-07</a>

Anna, looking at the globe:


(Points to Mongolia) And this is Massachoozzz where we live. (Points to China)
And this is also Massachoozzz where we live. (Points to Indonesia) And this is
MassachoozzCanada. (Points to Australia) And this is Somerville 12345. (Points
to final letter in "Russia") And this is a letter that is for MY NAME!

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2703067896501076/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZWxkGj0DgXtR8o2qEWFQmz9qVVSTLZMAkTb-gvC3wDYoa7U8rEQocHMRaTKBYDyoqK-TtLM8Vlr41jKwrBaaHUSw-JoPRknockzVUHnQKEMUbP1t5xdq6mF-MAMGjFJCwTgOqx7Fg-HMLUdtHRUYIHMqwigCK4Dcdrau0CcgKxPg31MObN5Sp2Z9FzOKlddvlDuBaZdlkyJnwaDQW-YUlYP&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-09</a>

Well, the quadrant of the Christmas tree directly in front of where
the kids happened to be standing when I gave them the box of
decorations is very thoroughly decorated.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2703425106465355/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVRjDUKc3Ky17kO3eQ0kzsMs2sAowSv5C-a2kEwRPrNdCrR_rOyT0jRElP9QHzB6qgZyF95BEbn104sCb9XrXHK6Sl3tX_0i8rnYgZ4BQXyWSF0WaCXPKNwgALoWBES53eo33AEMaMQjVkJGrSXVjAJj-tgXHEVwlzmM6elgSO3shb0413O5iKuy1t17g9HhzuAjOVIOkbAGsGw_ii4lkS3&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-09</a>

Jeff's rule for Lily is that after she's been put to bed he won't come back in
for 10 minutes, and after that she can make specific requests ("give me a hug"
works but "I'm scared" does not.) Thus the voice over the baby monitor which is
currently calmly announcing:


"Papa, I'm cold and scared. And hot. So please come in and hug me and turn on
the fan and then close my door and then sing outside my door."


She got through this announcement a lot of times before the initial 10 minutes
passed and Jeff went into ask her how she was both hot and cold.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2704945376313328/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZX0S4XY0z2K6xELXNJDgnCi3FsUQrBNTkQ521GKnzK7MyC8Nak4dBgS1buU7Nx088_R_Xcce0GJalL8Uhu-onjzbNmTQaaSR-n-NQ13lCgJgjWCtsvSVwS-cAqHadTBMFVgDdRTuwbos_vT1HMkolLmgimew3HiF8VMrFalx8omyGO4CV9NRfdHaXklh6smqOfjKp7OY6JT7E65f8R93HSbwzNqMNgQNloLBjncYOY-0g&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-11</a>

On the bus:


Lily: "what town is your house in?"


Stranger: "Medford"


Lily: "what color is it?"


Stranger: "white"


Lily: "what is your address?"


Stranger: "I don't know"


Lily: "maybe you could try looking it up on your phone?"


Stranger: "I don't think it's in my phone"


Lily: "how about you sit and think for a while, and when you remember your
address you can let me know?"


Stranger: "ok, I'll think very hard"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2706307636177102/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVXpT6tA3sE4B5C2RQcP4aUEHFNHDaSK7QFc4TXsXycw27B6vmFZ5UTbMq5vlodHkpwb4QUAeS76iJFLnAsBrJmX4CrPkXrq0glV43irgM46OGciBUA4YsJoc06i9wM6CcaA4RW37cMTDQUVAtpAKkY0wiVTKdh8dFlUlRTgFIJI5LputyMmfOUbtWS_lpDFFnVAgnKgoBlvP0THlmXD-7H&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-13</a>

Lily: Anna, I'm trying to read that!


Anna: Well that's not my problem

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2710481242426408/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXh192JaxOLBGnLFD35D2_oO-G61JbTFeHHwKO0LLZnmMdxcI1HkstNtvV1fbPkjFwH7hYICBfGpdOpbNssrkxFhGTa0r_PwETlCK8RqVRuMSqmOPdGpHolE0R63LtTyvNkwQozD-NXfq8A5TZxYknQsXuHw82Is5LVqbuvzwWRkTQmkYaEwWAWDHDzDI9AoizVPOtE6ullRCg7BieMJh8n&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-19</a>

Anna's in her room talking loudly to her crib.


"Crib!


Are you my friend, crib?


Yes, crib!


No, crib!


No way, crib!"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2712959328845266/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZV3raaFDmjqguiKeapKcPp-yNyB2TxBtLa6f1JhMRitys6V-jBKQmDm8q2v-PX7jSpTohmFHUfKYht1cewoEDuA6-FW4ADZDjUH1rGAjnt-H6DzlF1bSy3io2Nhf2nJVTbZ1KVgB_maRxIhAvrY-HDHY4iSn79TOMG7Tzcau-jfYYGWdQkBbgokAW26TtyOFgEGYGuQcVj_3LKFl2viA_j_&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-23</a>

Self-defense by Anna:


"If a scary person comes to our house to play with me, I will say, go away! And
I will go to my room and get my pillow and BAP them."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2713066105501255/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUHyUUvb8BVdt9S85AMtSSQBcO5lOj9EE5oe8EJWVKfVKlZw50s4eBXuhWxdHY_KoxADihum7vFI4VtEzwAHO-qZYLMBmBaywwZhbI73jTKQorM2KP7BUpyvKXRaGYgdKmUG4LU3P59n6r6uvXrMX8GBtJSneDk2jdQgxqMUG-elND3L9f0PGc_4Uy5FobJUG9a1VsrUcZ26FgqXd28k2PDi99rKOIn_DPKeizztwTOkA&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-23</a>

Anna: "I didn't punch Lily. I just close my hand inna fist and push into her
belly"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2715751491899383/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXs4FlYMNFMUFRXgNgGIOdIfpKrqDNgys_615eSuwgBjbqz4G6qWMPH01S7pLtbdD89Dc_TZg5qREwfJ1rZ3aEDXzGzzTj4F210oWqDZAcSbJpEKtV1ENew-3PWkREL3Bpj1eMGSTbWoJE_jCrL9NERAOzmDJf7TZNL7jp4aUZAKfAbPsBUAV4pjDN361ur8y1QvrpvT3aADgH6tnothi_E&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-27</a>

Lily pulls out the ethical stops at 10:20 pm as I'm about to close her bedroom
door. "There's something that is not fair," she tells me. I ask her what.


"Killing animals."


I dither for a few minutes. She eventually determines that she will eat bacon
and dairy but not ham. This is what she already decided two months ago. (She
decided around the same time that she no longer likes peanut butter, so it's
not clear to me that the exclusion of ham was ethically motivated.)


She got a good four-minute delay out of the topic, I think.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2716682978472901/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZXqmtbk0R3xkbZsLdFBv_UcyeXynvgmCvNhbZKkSO3igLEDONYnANAhDhZvOPXXerdVvHcKpSnrThOeMvsmpamXd1cJXkK1XXip_LqVySsTsZdvxtclt5gj8rWmkJB5kQUd6m1jNKtGO9Sr7Mp8V93OZ_CZU_YI_UMAjjRbDEOvKvgM682eovyqF6ID8Jm5JoWyh-vix8T6HHWkVWJE6nytFEiebRlwsC1V5_A70IdoRw&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-28</a>

Anna: "Papa, when I'm bigger than you I will say 'Papa, I am a grown-up'."

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2717342488406950/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZVzxetmJKHyOKUdbRgxZehF6jhH06gWBwGARy9Cd2prNG8UAGZgMZvTLg85u63KwOBkd4y8OTbHw0E2gz0e4dqx0k2uinGh_9b7WZsGcJGztR7oZqOuuc6uEPh55Hj5GZUOpbz3lK-JYm8tcPKe-kFwYIiFWm9bzFPmB68JbnJKR7gZZ-gbIOUK7ZxD_9EW5kyCq3XCxgnmvt131kQ7DDcHJKS2obNLw498FHi7hwXHGg&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-29</a>

Anna: "I wish I were a steam shovel. I would have a big bucket to carry dirt
around"

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2718104028330796/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUSxB1cY_DwPKhw0e4R1dKJPHXgp3FkxNGVeQm3IKKBwRVToTndAoyMh_azKgkxXNapTqeqzhDZK5Hbke0Ser1KMTibnrGHTbBVzg1yVW53SLE-nhJC7wAb6jWmiQoijNJjI4as7ZcBEa_ugKXXbHec93PaRlv9xTOETMRn1_-CqRlaC1EjAhfv659nC98zrVhiaxW342GRPE3K506GzWG5&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-30</a>

I zoned out while the kids were eating snack, and when I started paying
attention again they had gotten married and were lovingly holding hands and
gazing at each other.


Lily informed me while continuing with her snack, "Mama, me and Anna have
decided to always be sisters and always be friends. And we will never fight and
never yell at each other." Anna was interested in marrying Lily again, but Lily
wanted to go bring cheese and crackers to Nathan.

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/2264685517005985/posts/2718984004909465/?__cft__%5B0%5D=AZUzG6yKQXmQNNo7sEwfqKBBD6lfeSky_lHkEEdbCvLpcmAUvYVm7JZmFvkFk1yiWMBJeEFZ7Z6E0No1mvfqBE5RhKH2FeqeAiplC18NothfHOyAAZX0GatRH849JvTXbpIZKcKMrz77dxab40rFOjWdVYOsuHxWfWPCID9zmZ4p0l-AAliTRkSlw6nW4JPo7AYSct5TH646rZpIJYMWqs5i&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">2018-12-31</a>

"It is always midnight in the ocean."


Lily, trying to make sense of my explanation of time zones and how 8 pm is
midnight somewhere.


Comment via: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/pfbid033dA2Aea4kF2zvc3NReqHKiynPMrqr4CD9tpDF4inNCPwZ3gqVRoqcv9a6VaqZWFCl">facebook</a>, <a href="https://mastodon.mit.edu/@jefftk/113532341999751266">mastodon</a>, <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/jeffkaufman.bsky.social/post/3lbmjnprdns25">bluesky</a> <a href="https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/PsFuEFbfZMqGeicB8/text-posts-from-the-kids-group-2018#comments">Discuss</a>]]></description><link>https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/PsFuEFbfZMqGeicB8/text-posts-from-the-kids-group-2018</link><guid isPermaLink="false">PsFuEFbfZMqGeicB8</guid><dc:creator><![CDATA[jefftk]]></dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 23 Nov 2024 12:50:06 GMT</pubDate></item></channel></rss>

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