You betcha!

Tonight I set the table for dinner. When I turned around, I saw Henry toddling out of the kitchen with the placemats on his head. After they ate their Angel Hair pasta, they climbed on top of the dinner table and started dancing and singing. Annabelle kept yelling that she needed her polka dotted skirt so she could dance better. They were hilarious today. This morning I asked Annabelle if she wanted to make m & m cookies. She said, “You betcha!” and winked at me. She’s going through some kind of 1930’s newspaper boy phase with her outfits and lingo and winking. She says she gets it from Hannah Montana? I don’t know.
A little later, Annabelle really wanted to go out and play. But the damn bank called with pressing business for me and I told her I needed to take care of some business for a few minutes and then we could go out and play. This didn’t go over well, and she proceeded to cry and yell and pull on me during my whole conversation with the damn bank. Finally, I told her to stop. She said, “Mom, I know you’re mad at me, but sometimes things are important to me too.”
Excellent point.
Her play is just as important as my business. Everything ended up getting done of course and we decided to take a late afternoon walk. The air was sparkly after the rain, and Henry pushed his pink stroller with Baby Marcher in it of course, and Annabelle pretended to be Cathy. She kept telling me she was going to take my picture and where I should stand. Then, she pretended Henry was her dog and her skirt was full of dog treats. She kept offering them to him. At first he was confused when she said “Do you want a treat?” and proceeded to put her fingers to his mouth with nothing in them. I said, “They’re pretend-treats Henry.” He said, “Tend?” And then he got very into it, taking the imaginary treats from her and panting for more. (It was her suggestion that he pant like a dog.) We had just seen a woman in her yard with her giant gray poodle enacting this whole scenario. It’s amazing how much these kids take in and imitate! It makes me think twice about my own behavior!