don't let the witch hat fool ya

I took photos at O's 'school' today, and it was wild to be there for almost two hours while her teachers did their thing. It was wonderful. They were wonderful. I also noticed the sheer shortness of my daughter next to the other kids, and realize why they all call her 'baby Olive'. Many of the kids, throughout the morning, kept hugging her. I learned a lot-- that she's one of the main talkers (well, duh) especially at lunch and snack ("stAAwbee! bluubee! bEEan!") announcing every food she had and others had that she could name. This is a long long list. She loves loves loves all food. She just met butter beans yesterday and loves those too.

On another note, she will sing anything I sing, so I've been cranking out the songs lately. Her favorite two songs (by far) are 'Blueberry Jello, Blueberry Jello' bloobie double bloobie double and 'Raaaaaaiiiisins are Good' Raaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-N.' She even does daddy's part of "do do do do do " between 'verses'. amazing. There's dances that go with each of these songs, too-- with Blueberry Jello being kindof an excited jig, bouncy thing, and Raisins are Good being much more of a from the gut, soulful wail.

We went to the park today and spent most of the time around one big tree, and next to the big tree was a tiny sprout of a tree that I said was a baby tree. She said, "baby tree". I then started singing "Old Tree, We love you" and she started saying over and over 'Ole Tree Ole Tree Ole Tree'. She's spot on the pitch, which is so crazy. It sounds like a little Amelia voice. So incredible how of course it sounds like me and Andy, but it's just getting so much more clear that she's hearing everything we say, and how we say it, too. Back to the tree, she was picking up acorn tops (I call them acorn hats) and trying to put them back on the giant old tree, so we started tucking sticks that had fallen off the tree and acorns and sticking them into the bark. We touched the scratchy (schtskch) bark and soft (saaaf) moss. We gave the "Ole Tree" it's sticks and acorns back.