Snippets from our Day

If I say, "I'm hungry," Jo says, "I hungry, too." So, we end up with exchanges like this:
"What's that?"
"A UPS truck - mail."
"I mail, too."

"Rocks, mommy."
"Oh, pretty rocks."
"I pretty."
"Yes, you're pretty."
"I pretty - Moon. I pretty - Mommy."

Not sure I always get what these things mean - but it sounded nice.

---

At the children's museum in Richmond today, we were playing with my friend Robin with a puppet theater. At one point, Robin and I were in the audience, Jo was behind the curtains with the puppets. The curtain closed. We were sitting there chatting. Then we stood to open the curtains - no Josephine. We looked all around. She had vanished. It was like some awful magic trick. My heart skidded to a halt. Robin found she had run off with the puppets into an entirely different area of the museum - oh - my - goodness -

---

We're driving. I say something, call her "kiddo."
She remonstrates: "No kiddo, mommy. ME."

Right.

---

Went to the children's museum, then lunch, then the Maymont farm and natural center - where I discovered that the fish and turtles that look appealing in books do not carry the same charm in person. "No like it," Jo said of them, recoiling. The otters were great, though. And the owls - which I thought were mechanical, but were real - she was scared of their big eyes, but fascination overcame the fear, and we stood in the dark for a while, watching the horned owl twist its head slowly, blinking.

---

Josephine really likes Robin, who, by the end of the day, was 'MY Robin." (of course, everything is hers, if you give her a chance to say so.) Belated birthday gift from Robin - a red backpack with crayons and dollhouse pieces inside! And on the front, a robot kitty cat.

Highlight of her day was probably at the children's farm, watching the ducks and chickens and peacocks. She went absolutely nuts over them - did her own squawking and quacking. They made her laugh. Chickens are definitely more fun in person than on paper.

---
Don't remember if I've mentioned before, but she's really into pink - pink drinks, pink clothes, pink food, pink everything. She's finally got all her colors down, but it's pink that gets the attention. So, accordingly, she's latched onto very pink Miss Piggy, the pink-shirted Dora, her pink 'my little pony' figure, and her "Pink Billy," her stuffed pink dog. There's exceptions, of course (thank goodness).

But she loves to watch little snippets of The Muppet Show on youtube featuring Miss Piggy. I think she even named her pony Miss Piggy. So, tonight, I found an old clip of Johnny Cash on the muppet show, doing a duet with Miss Piggy. Only, she doesn't appear right away. So there's Johnny Cash, singing, and Jo scowls at him and says:
"You're not Miss Piggy."
Okay - I thought it was funny.

---

She also made me laugh this morning when, on the swingset, which we hit before the long drive to Richmond (she read during the one-hour drive), she started closing her eyes and kicking and making herself giggle. It finally got cold, so she was all bundled up and it made her look like a little pudge ball, even though she isn't.

It was an excellent day. The more I get to know this creature, the more I am enthralled with her!