Esme quotes - language development

The other night when I got home from work Esme was so proud her hair was getting brown like mine - she would not have yellow hair any longer, and she would NOT have black hair, like Daddy.  Her hair would be brown, and that is the best idea.  *haha*  I told her when she is twelve or thirteen years old she would want it to be blonde again, to be colored yellow again.  She said NO, she was five years old, five - see?  And she is a brave girl.  That was her answer to that.

This morning I was pouring up my coffee and calling to her to get out of the tub and get her towel.  She said something on the order of 'don't say that thing with no eyes'.  Then I walked around the corner and realized she was already in process of doing what I had asked and was mad because I was asking without looking at her first.  She asked me 'the words to say well, how does it say the words?' which was pretty excellent.  We discussed she could say she was already doing that - and for me to come look.  But, that was a hard concept for ME to translate into 'English' from her initial description.

Mark had to cut out a small section underneath her hair for school - and she was very upset that school was closed today after she had done all of that with the tiny holes in her hair and the washing etc....  She did not want me to go to work today because of the ice, told me I needed to call in and tell them it was dangerous.  I had told her last night she could have school with us at home and look at books and learn things but she was not agreeing that school could be at home... we will work on that idea, because we are still wondering about that ourselves and have been talking about what she might be interested enough in to learn about with us at home.

We talked a lot about bats, and caves, and also rivers, volcanoes, mountains and a few new things like crystals, radar, and cliffs.  Some of that soaked in and I will try to cover some more in a few more days.  We talked about the volcano and she asked where it was - was it in Africa.  I said no, it was in Italy.  She asked if Italy was in Africa.  I got a map and showed her where Italy was, and where Africa was, and she already knows where we live - in Tennessee - and where on North America that is, but she thinks the entire continent is Tennessee unless otherwise labelled.  She can count to thirty now, but when Daddy asked her to count to three million she counted '1, 2, 3, million.  there.'  She has told me before that the numbers make children bored, and the brain wants to sleep.  She is 'bored by so many corns' on her plate because they are so many numbers. She has asked me to spell lots of words by asking 'what are the letters give in for marshmallow' or 'h starts with what for horse?' etc.

I brought chips home from the store today and she said those were not her cheetos.  She had written Cheeto on the shopping list the other day.  We have achieved success on getting her to call gummy bears 'gelatinized ursines'.  We are awful on that one, but it is funny, and I think she should learn there are more than one way to say things - which is a lesson I think is sinking in, and all for the better,  I told her I had brought those from the store and a few minutes ago she wanted to go get a package of 'ursines' and Daddy told her the gummy bears were down on the table and she said it wasn't right.  He told her gelatinized ursines were gummy bears and she thought and remembered, then said 'oh yea, right' and agreed.  What is really cool - is she can say that now, and say it well. :)  'I said something in a foreign language the other day and she looked at me and said 'Mama, you are Dora?'in an awe-filled way.  That made me laugh!