Learning to Express Herself

Here are some excerpts from my 3-year-old daughter, Hannah's life.

1. As most 3-year-olds, she is very inquisitive and often wants more detail from me that what I've provided. So, you think she'd be asking "why" all the time, right? Well, not so much. She thinks "why" is "how" and "how" is "why". If someone were to eavesdrop into one of our many conversations through the day, I think they would think that I was crazy and just trying to frustrate my daughter because I was never actually answering her questions. However, I am answering her questions because as her mother I know when she asks, "Oh, how?", she's really asking, "Oh, why?". So I answer her question with the explanation she wants vs. the explanation she asking for. Do you think this will mess her up in the long run?

2. Whenever my husband and I come home from work or a meeting that only involved one of us to leave and come back, Hannah greets us at the door and asks, "How was work, Daddy?" or "How was your meeting at church, Momma?" This always makes me smile. She's so polite. Yesterday after her greeting she then opened the door for me and said, "Come in and join us." For some reason, that one creeped me out. Like she was inviting me into something that I didn't want to join and perhaps there was a very small part of me that didn't want to join the chaos of the house yet.

3. Hannah is quite the little entertainer. One of her favorite things to do is to give concerts. I wonder where she got that from :). For these concerts, she pulls up a stool and a music stand. Sets a piece of music on the stand, usually upside-down because she can't read it anyways. She places a Flupe (or a plastic flute to you unfamiliar with you language) in either my hand or Grandma's hand...depending on who's available. Then she declares the song that she will be blessing us with and gives the flupe player the count, which is anywhere between a 6 count to a 12 count. Pretty demanding rhythms. And off she is with one of her favorite versions of "Finkle, Finkle Little Star", "The ABCs" (She usually ends this song with the statement "now I wonder my ABCs..." which anyone in the audience would agree with), "Ibsy, Bitsy Bpider", and my favorite "The Bear Song". This is an original composition by Hannah. The lyrics are as follows: The Bear said ROAR. The Bear said ROAR. The Bear said ROOOOOAAARR. The flupe player needs to be on cue to give a special accent to the ROAR.) After her performance of each song she gives a very studious bow and expects a round of applause. It's all very amusing.