Bones, Rocks, Dozing Bulls…

Yesterday morning George told Annabelle he was going out of town for a couple of days. She turned to me and whispered, “Mom! Daddy’s going away! Now we can go to the mall!” And then she winked at me with a big smile.
She’s three!! Where does she get this from? And don’t say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree! I have never in my life said these words! I have avoided even saying the word “mall” to Annabelle as I don’t want her to learn it. I’m struggling a bit with her obsession with Hannah Montana. I don’t want Hannah to dominate her play and I think she’s too young to be into the whole tween thing. But on the other hand, I don’t want to impose my views onto her–I want to encourage her to have her own likes and dislikes. And I don’t see a whole lot wrong with Hannah Montana. Her show is not violent or scary or sexy, so I guess it could be worse.
We’ve been talking about different rocks. Annabelle loves to look up different kinds of rocks in her rock book and match the real rock with the photo–tiger’s eye, rose quartz, jasper, fool’s gold. She even named her new baby “Rose Quartz.” I’ve been telling her about the igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary kinds of rocks. She loves scientific words.
We’ve also been talking a little bit about bones. The other night I named off all the bones I could remember from fifth grade when I learned about bones.
Tonight we were lying in bed reading Pippi Longstocking and out of the blue, Annabelle turned to me and said, “Metatarsal! Is that a bone or a rock?” I told her it was her ankle bone and she nodded and smiled and fell asleep.
Henry is having a language explosion and will repeat any word you say. He said his first sentence last night in the tub. He made his own bubbles and then looked at me with his big baby eyes and said “Mama! I tooted.” This of course made me laugh and he kept repeating it with a big smile. Today we were driving to the bookstore to get the new Sophie Kinsella book and I said to Henry and Annabelle “Look at the bulldozers!” Annabelle asked me,”Are they sleeping?” She thoughtI was pointing at “dozing bulls!”
Their world is so beautiful. Henry skipped his nap today and fell asleep sitting up on the couch at 5 pm. I tried to rouse him but his body was like a wet noodle and I put on his pajamas and changed his diaper without him awakening! Is there anything sweeter than a sleeping baby in your arms? They are my bliss.