High Spirits

I have finally discerned the exact meaning of the expression "high-spirited" in my three-year-old's brain.

She told me one morning that Randall, her "classer" (as she puts it), is "a very high-spirited boy." Naturally I assumed she knew what she was talking about and that Randall must be very energetic, outgoing, extroverted, etc. But when I suggested some other "classers" who might also be described as "high-spirited," she didn't seem to pick up on it so much. Always, it was Randall who was high-spirited, and also Fritz from The Nutcracker.

Well, on Friday when I was driving her to school, she mentioned that our neighbor Eli is high-spirited. Then, after a pause, she told me that the other day she broke a little glass Japanese figurine (which Dada fixed with Krazy Glue) and she observed, "That was a very high-spirited thing to do."

Eureka! All the pieces fell into place. Fritz breaks the nutcracker (OF COURSE); Eli has broken some of Daisy's toys, including a pink flowered flashlight that she mentions all the time; and Randall has dropped something at school and broken it (something she's mentioned offhandedly a couple times). "High-spirited" means LIKELY TO BREAK SOMETHING.