Amelie Says

Speaking about the MU farm expo:
     Sam: We're going to a farm tomorrow!
     Amelie: Are we going today?!
     Sam: We're going tomorrow. That's what tomorrow means.

When we were talking about coming to the bootheel for my great-aunt Helen's 100th birthday party, Sam asked Amelie how old she thought Aunt Helen would be. "98!" she answered. I said that was a really good guess, but that Aunt Helen would be a little older on her birthday. Amelie's next guess? "Two thousand!"

Cousin Marlee was doing a puzzle and said (to her mom), "Help me." Amelie yelled out, "Help is coming!" and ran right over.

There's a dragon statue under one of the end tables at Nana Jana's house. James told it, "No bite." And Amelie said, "It's just a female." (!?)

We were stopped waiting to turn left,  and our resident expert pipes up from the back seat, "You can go!" I explained that we had to wait for our turn, and Amelie says, "Sometimes you just have to go in front of the other cars."

She was talking about her alligator costume and said, "The head makes it more ferocious."

While Amelie was eating an apple down to the core, Sam said, "Wow, you're going to eat that whole apple," and Amelie responded, "They're delicious! Kids love 'em!" Sam asked what else kids love and she said, "Candy." Then I asked what adults love, and she replied, "Mosly Chinese food." I'd say she has a fair grasp on what's popular.

Amelie's been playing pretending that she's having a big party and inviting lots of people. A few days ago at our house, she told me that, "The names are all writened down." She told Nana Jana last night that the "Whole entire planet Earth" was coming. Nana Jana expressed some doubt about there being enough cake for the population of the planet, and Amelie said the rest of the people could eat ice cream.

She's still using a few creative verb tenses (like writened!). One that pops up fairly frequently is "I've never sawn that before."

We've been reading two chapters at night before bed, and I ask her what's the last thing that happened just to review before picking the story up again. This is how Amelie summarized part of Little House on Plum Creek, "Pa came back, and then they had that playdate, and then she saw a badger!" (She told the events in reverse order, which is kind of interesting, and to be fair, "playdate" is a pretty good description of what happened, even if it's kind of funny applying the word to something that happened in the 1800s)

And speaking of chapter books, I've been meaning to start a list for Amelie of what she's read.

The Complete Beatrice Potter (I guess this one only kind of counts, since the stories all stand alone, but it's long! We read it all the way through once and have gone back to several of the stories again.)

The Mouse and the Motorcycle (twice)

Mr. Popper's Penguins (twice)

The Cricket in Times Square 

Little House in the Big Woods

Little House on Plum Creek

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle (We read this once and now we're reading it again. Sam accidentally called it 'Piggly-Wiggly,' like the grocery store.)

Hello, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle 

We've started several Roald Dahl books, but had to stop because they were "too scary." I think I've finally learned my lesson and will wait on them for another year or so (The Twits, The Big Friendly Giant, Matilda -- we got halfway through Matilda, but the parents really are awful.)

My friend Amanda shared some reading lists with me, and I think we'll try The Wizard of Oz or Winnie the Pooh next. I'm looking for suggestions for books or reading lists if you'd have them, too.

P.S. I was asking for suggestions from our friends Sally, Matt, Rob, and Stephanie. Rob suggested Game of Thrones and we laughed, but apparently he missed the fact that I was asking about book suggestions for a four-year-old, and wasn't just making a joke.