Spectacularly spectacular Day!

Today was such a "spectacularly spectacular" day-to quote one of our favorite children's book!

We started a new playgroup this morning. The weather was incredible, with a high of 71 degrees today! After a week of hot and humid days, this was such a blessing. We met at the park, and played all morning. The new group was a hit-everyone was instantly comfortable with each other and we all had lots in common. I am definitely looking forward to more play dates with this group.

We got home around 1, and I let Analese stay up and color while I nursed Mara and put her down for her nap. She hasn't been taking good naps, or naps at all for that matter, so I thought I would try and just give her some down time for awhile first. She sat and colored at her table while I attempted to get some studying done. No such luck. Every few minutes she would say "Hey Mom, come take a look!" and she'd eagerly show me her drawing.
Now I am always careful not to ask what her drawing is, but try to comment on the colors she used, or patterns, etc. But today I noticed something in her drawing, and just couldn't resist. I had to know.

"What is this?" I am not sure what I expected to hear, but I certainly wasn't expecting her to say "oh, that's a cowboy. See his hat?" I did see his hat-that's what I had first noticed. A cowboy hat! Where did she learn about cowboys? My mind raced back to recent Curious George episodes, since she is so enthralled with him right now....I don't remember a cowboy!

She then told me she was going to draw a smiley face, and started talking herself through the steps. Daddy has been showing the girls how to make smiley faces on the bathroom mirror every night after he takes a shower, and I could now hear his words through her voice. I didn't want to hover, and still thought that perhaps I could work on a problem or two, so I left her to her work and went on with mine.

"Mom, come take a look!" Again, I am delighted by what I see. I ask her to describe her picture to me, and she does. "This is my smiley face...here is his eyes, nose, and mouth. Oh-he doesn't look too happy, does he?" She giggles to herself. A line goes across two dots. "that's his glasses". Around her smiley face was a bunch of smaller circles with what appeared to have eyes, noses, etc. So I ask about those, half expecting to hear that these were friends or family..."Oh, those are potatoes". Potatoes? "He really likes potatoes, and they are really nice to him". At the bottom of the page was a circle that was filled with lots of color. What was that? "a pa-pa. It's like a purse for him to carry his things. A pa-pa".

Yes, three may be an intense age, but wow, is it so much fun!