Telling Santa Claus

Hannah is a talker. The other night, she saw a commercial for "Horton Hears a Who." We don't watch very much tv -- correction -- Hannah doesn't watch very much tv, and typically it's commercial free shows that she sees. As many of you know, Hannah is a big fan of elephants. So, she was very excited -- to the point of coming over to touch me on the shoulder and look me in the eyes. "Elephant on TV." I know. "What happened?" she asked, which cracked me up in and of itself. So, I proceed to explain commercials. As I see a tantrum building, I ask her if she would like Santa to bring her the movie? "Yesh" I suggest that she tell Santa that she would like that. She runs around to the Christmas tree, finds wrapping paper with Santa, bends down to say, "Santa Claus, Hannah want Elephant movie (for) Christmas." Then, she runs back to me and says, "I did it!" (Thank you, Dora.) Lucky for her, I had already told Santa how much Hannah would probably love that movie, so the wrapping paper Santa may be able to do the trick this year! Just so you know, it's not just me who thinks Hannah's a genius... Her day care teachers both told me at separate times that she described a scene about the animals on the wall above the changing table. ("Cat throws ball to doggie.") They had never pointed those characters out to her, nor had the discussed what the characters were doing, so she wasn't just regurgitating information, which she does a lot of. She also told a little boy who was in time out "Make choices." They and I often do say "Make wise choices" a la Love and Logic, but they had not said that to this boy about this incident, so Hannah felt like she needed to add her two cents... When I recounted the story for Daddy tonight, she started talking about the rest of the conversation I had with DD. She doesn't miss a thing! Typically kids this age (including Hannah) reach out and grab what they want and hold on for dear life until they get it. Today, KK told me that Hannah wanted Demi's book, so she said, "Hannah want Dora book please. Hannah wanna read Dora book." KK said she had to help Hannah get the book because how can you refuse such a sweet request? Oh, Hannah! You have us all figured out! I have told you that please and thank you will get you far, and look at you go.

Watch your words -- and your tone!

Hannah has added several songs to her repertoire in the past few days. I finally figured out that she was singing about a bumblebee and asked at day care. All the kids gave me a performance (it has hand motions) as their teacher sang it for me. It was the cutest thing! I hope they have a pageant soon. She also is loving "Up on the Housetop" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." I love it! I admit we've been listening to Christmas music since before Thanksgiving. I couldn't resist!! Mom and Dad came over last weekend to help me get the tree up. I plugged in the lights and was working on straightening limbs when Hannah put her little hand on my shoulder, leaned in to my face with the Christmas lights causing her eyes to sparkle, and said "Hannah so happy, Mommy!" My heart melted right there. Which leads me to the title of this post... Hannah says "right dey-er" because I frequently point out things to her. She also repeats the tone of voice. She tends to tattle on herself when she's done something. She also keeps saying it until I repeat it back to her. When I asked, "Did you just drop your spoon on the floor?" She said, "Yeeeess." like she was all exasperated or busted. She's done it several times now, and she seems to be using the tone of voice right! It's hilarious. I don't even realize half the stuff I say, in general. Hannah has started to say "Oh Gosh," too. At least it's gosh and not god. Anyways, I was telling a student the other day, and he confirmed that I say it a lot which I denied. After our debate, I said "Oh gosh..." I guess little pictures do have big ears! (I always thought Mamaw was saying pitchers, but it made no sense... but that's a whole new tangent I'll save for another day...)