I’m Mad

Nora is at a stage where she is obsessed with certain books. Like, we will go a week at a time reading the exact same three books at bedtime. Then she’ll latch onto another one, so we’ll continue reading two of the original books, but the third is a “new” one, and we’ll read THAT combination of three books for a week.

It’s adorable, albeit tedious for the adults. (I may be guilty of burying certain books at the bottom of her pile so she can’t find them. *ahem*)

Anyway, one of her current favorites is a Mercer Mayer Little Critters book called “I Was So Mad.”

This exact copy was actually mine when I was a kid, which is pretty awesome. Another one of the Little Critters books we have (“Just Me and My Puppy”) actually has my name written inside the cover in my kindergarten handwriting. Such a cool hand-me-down.

A few weeks ago, while reading Nora “I Was So Mad” for the 80th time, I heard her start to say some of the words along with me. Particularly the word “mad.” You see, the phrase, “I was so mad” is repeated multiple times in the book, so it’s easy for her to pick up on, especially when we’re reading the book as many times as we do. So I started making this a little bit more interactive for her, reading to her, “I was so….” and then letting her finish the sentences with “MAD!”

Then, just a couple of days ago, Nora was upset with us about something. I think it was that she didn’t want to sit down and eat dinner with us. So she went off into the corner of our kitchen, arms crossed in front of her, huge pout on her face, and she said, “I maaaaaah.”

Michael and I looked at each other in disbelief. Had she just said “I’m mad”??

She sure had, because she repeated it again. And again, until we acknowledged her emotion. “You’re mad?” She immediately replied, “YES.”

Now, anytime she is upset about something, she doesn’t hesitate to tell us… “I maaaaah.” Last night, I was nearly peeing my pants laughing as she was saying it when I was trying to get her into the bathtub. It is just too cute. I have to say, though, that I am thoroughly impressed that she has learned how to correctly identify and express this emotion from reading a Mercer Mayer book. Reading is good, y’all. ;)

Tonight, we managed to catch it on video. Crappy quality because it was too dimly lit for our flip cam, but I think you’ll get the idea.

It is November, and I am participating in Nablopomo. I am only following the prompts when I need them, because, well, some of them are kind of awful. Or just not my thing. Hey, I said I’d blog every day, not that I’d follow all of the directions. :)