Word "ful" Wednesday

Our neighbors have a horse. Danica loves their horse. Last week, our neighbors told Joe that Danica could come by and see their horse anytime and that she is welcome to bring her some carrots if she would like. Danica told me a little bit about it before Joe got a chance to. For a week I heard, "Horses like carrots, mommy" and "you get carrots from the grocery store." I usually responded with, "do they really?" and "yes, you do get carrots from the grocery store." So while talking to Joe one night, I told him what Danica had been saying and he said, "Oh yeah, they said Danica could go see their horse and feed her some carrots if she would like." It seems Danica was trying to communicate to me that she would like to feed their horse some carrots. Well, duh? Way to go mom! I bought carrots this week and took Danica to see her last night so she could feed her. She fed her a cookie, too. I'm sure Danica wants to know whats wrong with me and what took me so long!

When Danica wants more of something she has already eaten, like strawberries for example, she says, "strawberries, some more please" instead of "may I have some more strawberries please". I'm trying to teach her the "may I" part. Sometimes when I try to correct her, she gets it right, but usually will still skip the "May I". She's only 2, so we'll continue to work on that. I think it's cute, though. It comes naturally to me, so it's interesting to watch someone learning for the first time. I'm not a school teacher, nor do I work with kids; so it's really cool to teach Danica language skills. I really enjoy teaching her about letters and sounds, and how to put words together.  I guess we're all elementary school teachers, and didn't even know it!

Danica is low tempered, so it doesn't take long for her to get over something. When she wants something- like the ballerina shirt she just wore yesterday that she wanted to wear again today, she'll say, "I want ballerina shirt." Then she'll cross her arms and legs and stare at me for a moment while batting her eyes and poking out her bottom lip. So I said, "You can't wear that one today because you wore it yesterday and it's dirty. How about this shirt?"  As mad as she could, she said, "No, I want ballerina shirt." So I said, "Wear this one and I'll take you to gymnastics tonight.". "OK", she said. Then she talked about gymnastics all the way to school. I am so lucky her moods don't last any longer than that!

Don't get me wrong, I witnessed a tantrum the other night that resulted in her laying in the kitchen floor- on her stomach- with her head held high so she could look at me-while batting her eyes and poking out her bottom lip. We gave her juice and she wanted milk. I didn't even deny her that time, so I guess it was just taking me too long to get the milk, who knows. I just ignored her, opened the refrigerator door, and poured the milk. Once I closed the door and saw her on the floor I said,  "Oh, there you are. Why are you on the floor? Here's your milk." And she gave me that, "what am I doing on the floor if you are giving me what I want?" look. Exactly!