love her so

this is Claire after dressing up and getting ready to go (pretend to) do something the other day.  probably grocery shopping.  she is always going grocery shopping.  she calls the princess dress her "ballet", and she also has a bag filled with wooden train pieces, her pretend orange juice, and a toy giraffe.  clearly, all one needs for a successful trip out to gather provisions.

she was not pleased when she saw that I had the camera.  "NO pictures!" she said.  I am a bad mama sometimes because here it is obvious that I in fact did not listen to her wishes, however simple they were and however clearly they were stated.  bad mama.

these days I am trying to keep up with the things she says, to make note of them and write down the things I find the most amusing or endearing.  or bizarre, there are those as well.  she must have overheard someone saying something to someone about how they loved them more than anything in the whole world, or something along those lines, because lately she likes to say things like (when asked about seeing her friends) "they are my friends of the whole woild" (said with her hands resting under her chin, all sugar and sweetness)  she has also told me "you're my mama of the whole woild".  and I rather liked the sound of that, even though I couldn't be completely sure what she meant.  I think I get the gist of it, though.  sometimes she dances her little hands and fingers around, all interpretive dance-like, when she says these kind of things.  it just makes it more magical, I think.  and it kind of makes her seem like a tiny little sorceress who is trying to put me under a spell.

and of course, sometimes I am.

she also, upon tasting something, will often stop for a second (appearing to be in deep thought) and say "mmmmmmmmm. vanilla!".  these things she declares to be vanilla are quite varied.  I think she said it the other day after biting into a quesadilla.  for example.  the other morning while we ate french toast, she suddenly asked me if I knew that coconut had a lot of vanilla in it.  "did you, mama? did you know that?!"

teaching me new things every day, this girl.




*I was reminded by Claire's dear Aunt Tricia that I should add this, from our recent trip north:
sitting at the table with her Aunt Jen, Claire very matter-of-factly informed Jen that she (Jen) smelled like goat cheese.

thanks, Tricia~ definitely one for the list!