Update from the Elephant Family

So, here is the deal! This week my child is an elephant! All of us are elephants! If you call her name, she will tell you "I'm not Arianna; I an elephant!"

The other morning, my sister said good morning to her.
Her response: That's not fair. Elephants don't like good morning."

If you talk about her clothes, shoes, etc., they are not her clothes or shoes. They are elephant clothes and shoes!

That reminds me... She is using many words and phrases that she clearly has heard but whose meanings she does not know. This is a bit dangerous! My kid could currently get anyone in trouble! The other day she told me that her grandma is not fair, that she is mean, and that she hurt her (Ari's) arm. She forgot to explain that she wanted to take her cousin's silly band, even though it was not hers and she already had three of her own. See what I'm saying?!

Back to the elephant silliness, I say it's all her dad's fault! Nana is a puppeteer. Daddy grew up with puppets and talking stuffed animals. He has over ten monkeys. Yes, still, right now! They are in front of me right now, all lined up on our love seat! The monkeys still talk to people. They talk to our friends and they even have talked to tenants and coworkers. The ones that talk the most are Momo and Bobo. Ari's first word was Momo, in fact! They have personalities. Momo is an annoying and impish troublemaker. Bobo speaks very slowly and is kind-hearted. He sounds like a pothead!

My child is learning from the best! What can I say?! We're never bored around here!

What silly thing did your child do or say recently?!

It's all about pretend games lately!

We are now well into the pretend phase. It is a lot of fun and very fascinating!

Here are some of the pretend games we have been playing the past month:

On the cruise, Ari and Daddy would sit on the balcony. She would pretend to put her seatbelt on and to help her Daddy put his on too.

The cereal game was created on the cruise, but we are still playing it. We get a bowl, a spoon, milk and cereal. She chooses the color of the bowl, big or little spoon, white or chocolate milk, and the type of cereal. Once she has assembled the pretend bowl of cereal, she dumps it on Daddy! First it was on his head. Lately, she dumps it on his bellybutton!

The shark game was inspired by Nana. A pretend shark shows up, out of the blue, anywhere. We could be at the dinner table, getting ready for bed, in the car, you name it… The shark attacks Daddy and Daddy has to try to get away. The game just evolved last night. Now there is a spray that makes the shark go away.

The other day we were having dinner at Bertucci’s, an Italian restaurant. Bertucci’s is very family-friendly. Kids get crayons and bread dough. Amor Chiquito made herself a bracelet and made a necklace for me. She managed to make a long enough necklace and put it around my neck. Later on, she grabbed my left hand and started wiping it with a piece of dough. Daddy noticed the dough had something red on it (a tiny piece of tomato). We were informed that I had a pretend booboo and she was helping me with it!

See what I’m saying;?!