Fingerpainting with Guacamole

Annabelle set up an elaborate scheme of stuffed animals today around a pet rubber snake she found and befriended. “Mom, do you want to pet my snake? Her doesn’t bite.” she said to me. “Sure,” I said and petted the rubber thing. Henry refused to pet it, however, and ran the other direction.
Then Annabelle pulled the cushion off the bench at the foot of our bed and set it up on her bed and made a “boat.” Henry tried to sit on it with her but he kept pulling the blankets off sending Annabelle into fits. “Henry!” she shouted. “If you’re going to sit on the boat, that’s fine, but you have to get off if you’re going to act crazy!”
We sat down to breakfast and Annabelle said, “Mom, Henry is such a little monkey.”
We both looked at him and he blew a raspberry at us with his mouth full of oatmeal, sputtering chewed oatmeal down his belly.
Annabelle just shook her head.
We went out to dinner tonight with Cynthia, our sitter, and besides Henryfingerpainting with the guacamole at the restaurant, then finding a broom and trying to sweep the floor, and the giant roach that ran across Cynthia’s foot, we had a good time.
I dropped them at the park after and when I went to pick them up, I quietly walked up in time to hear Annabelle telling the little boys they were standing next to a “magic tree.” and they could make it “talk by being gentle to its roots.” She saw me walk up and said “hi mom” without missing a beat and continued with her story.