Butt Hat

Noelle is 2.

Her little brain is processing language like mad. She just mastered her colors, and now she can't turn them off. Everywhere she looks, she sees colors, and she is compelled to name them all...out loud.

A few weeks ago, every color that she couldn't readily identify was 'pink." What color is the sky? Pink. What color is the green couch? Pink. What color are mommy's blue jeans? Pink. What color is your hair? Pink. Get the picture?

But now, it's nonstop - "Blue kye. Yeddow fower. Bown hair. White moon." And as we're driving in the "gray van," she has to name the color of every car we pass. It's cute but maddening, and I revel in moments of discovery like these.

She recently had another epiphany of language discovery. We have this set of chunky farm animals for toddlers.

There are actually three more animals to the set, but they're currently MIA. I picked the set out 'specially because they're soft, chunky, and best of all they don't have an air hole, so we can use them in the tub without them getting that gunky, black mildew inside.

So one evening the twins are enjoying a bubbly soak. You can't exactly call it a bath, because that would imply that I actually rubbed soap on them and washed their hair. But doing so can be akin to slow torture for Mommy, so sometimes they get away with a prolonged sit in soapy water. Hey, it's better than nothing...

Noelle and her farm animals are having a grand old time. They are swimming together, diving under the bubbles, talking to one another, etc. And then Noelle takes the cow in hand...


...and turns it over. She sees this...


...which makes absolutely no sense to her at all. She doesn't know how to process this. All her synapses are firing as she struggles to make sense of what she's seeing. I can literally see the wheels spinning.

She says to herself, "Turtle?" and then dismisses the idea. Why would there be a turtle on the cow's belly? That's just crazy talk!

Then she wonders, "Hat?" Yes, that must be it. "Hat." And with absolute finality, she declares, "Butt hat!"

And with THAT out of the way, she continued her play happily.