Corduroy

We read a book at least twice a day called "Corduroy Lost and Found." It's about a toy bear, Corduroy, who decides he wants to give his owner/mommy Lisa a birthday present, so he leaves their apartment to go to find a present. He thinks the moon is a balloon and in following it, he gets into a mishap that ends up with him helping to sell newspapers at a newspaper stand -- and then being reunited with Lisa, who is very worried about him being gone.

Rachel has really begun interacting with the story. When Corduroy rides the elevator and thinks he's in a rocket ship and wants to give Lisa a rocket ship for her birthday, Rachel says, "I want rocket ship for my birthday."

"You know, honey, by the time you're old enough you may very well be able to ride a rocket ship!" I tell her.

When a dog grabs Corduroy's overalls with his teeth and scoops him up for a walk, I always ask Rachel, "how would you feel if someone did that to you?"

"I no like it," she says decisively.

She knows that when Mr. Gonzalez, the newsstand operator, says, "Adios," it means "goodbye." And "muchas gracias," means "thank you." (Rachel, by the way, is saying "thanks," more and more these days -- from when I give her granola to when I give her crayons. I really like hearing it, since I am determined to raise a polite kid).

Speaking of birthdays, I asked her this morning what she wanted for her birthday and she said, "brown."
"Um, brown what?" I said. "You can't just have brown. Do you want a brown shirt?"
"Yes," she said.
"A brown book?"
"Yes."

She did the same with the color orange tonight. She said she wanted "orange!" for her birthday, and I promised to put one in her lunch bag tomorrow.