Jo's Hearing Glitch Strikes Again!!

Okay, so... the Impertinent Daughter and I were sitting at the kitchen table this evening. She was sketching and talking, and I was knitting and listening. Somewhere in there, she had pulled out this little toy, one of those little hopper things that you press with the tip of your finger to make it go >pop< and it hops forward a wee bit. She popped it at me and I smiled indulgently as she picked it up, grinning, and turned it over, looking at the underside. Then she laughed triumphantly and said what sounded very much like, "MANGINA!!"


I blinked and looked up, stunned. "What??"


"Look, see?" she said, turning it toward me so I could read what was embossed on the underside of the toy. So I obligingly looked, thinking, this, I gotta see! and wondering vaguely if there was some new, bizarre toy company that someone had named, "Mangina" to make it unforgettable. Kind of like Smuckers for jams and jellies, right?


It said, very clearly and plainly, "CHINA."


That's when I died laughing. I mean, really, I had done so well up to that point, manfully holding my laughter in, because really, the last word in the world that I would ever expect my 13 year old daughter to say would be... "MANGINA!!"


Especially with that degree of relish and satisfaction!!!


*dies again*


When I had calmed down, she said, "Oh, boy, do I even want to know what you thought I said?" Oh, my daughter, she knows me so well!! I did tell her after I'd calmed down from that one, and she was like, "MOM!!! When or why would I ever say that???"


About all I could manage through my helplessness was, "Well... it might just... come up in conversation!"


We pretty much both lost it at that point!!


I have a feeling I'm really going to enjoy my old age!!!