Mojo, Worried Presidents & Egyptian Leprechauns

Mojo
Last night while I was cooking dinner, Sophie asked KC what "mojo" means...

KC: Mara, explain to your daughter what "mojo" is.

Me: (thinking hard) It's like your special energy, or your spirit. It's sort of like good luck, but...

And then I went on for a little, trying to define "mojo". I used it in a sentence. I thought about mentioning the guy on our block who has vanity plates on his Range Rover that say "GR8MOJO" (more like "MEDI0KRMOJO" but that's another story). Anyway, Sophie listened patiently and then...

[pointing at the bottle on the counter]

Sophie: No...what's that Mojo?

Me: Oh. That's just a wine label. Mojo is the name of the brand.

Sophie: Oh.


Worried Presidents
Sophie is a Harry Potter addict.  We read it every night; we've been to the exhibit, and she's now on the 3rd movie. It's very cute and nerdy. 

This morning, we watched some Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban which we started last night.We got to the part where Scabbers turns into Peter Pettigrew and Harry learns the true story of Sirius Black and his unfair incarceration. Interestingly, Sophie laughs through most of the movies. I'm not sure if that's because she doesn't understand what's going on, or because the acting is so hideously bad.  On the way to school, she wanted to talk about it...

Sophie: Peter Pettigrew was funny looking wasn't he?

Me: Yeah. He was a rat face, just like Scabbers.

Sophie: Yeah. He was funny with his teeth and his nails. He looked like a worried president.

I have no idea what she meant by that. When I asked her to clarify, she said, "You know, like George Washington," and then made a weird face.

I was just impressed that she knows who George Washington is.


Egyptian Leprechauns
After we talked about worried presidents, we saw a woman wearing a giant green felt top hat.

Sophie: What's that hat?!

Me: It's for St. Patrick's Day.

Sophie: Oh man! We didn't catch any leprechauns.

[Earlier in the week, she and Tyler made a leprechaun trap so Sophie could steal some gold and buy, "3 kinds of soda."]

Me: Oh well.  Maybe next year.

Sophie: Did you ever try to catch leprechauns when you were little?

Me: No. I wasn't smart enough to figure that one out. I did try to find the end of the rainbow so I could have the pot of gold, though.

Sophie: Did you find it?

Me: Nope.

Sophie: Well that's because it ends in London.

Me: It does?

Sophie: Yes.  That's where leprechauns come from...no wait...it's not London...I think leprechauns started in Egypt. That's where the pot of gold is.

Aha...that explains it.