Random Acts of Amanda

Although she hasn't seen The Little Mermaid, Amanda is obsessed with Ariel. Now that her hair is getting long, she loves to put her head back and swish her hair back and forth on her back, saying things like "I a Mermaid" and "I have beautiful red hair".

A couple of months ago we bought her a book called Dora's Eggs, about a somewhat dimwitted chicken who is very excited by all her beautiful eggs, but quickly realizes her friends' babies are much more fun than her eggs. Until suddenly - CRACK - the eggs break! She's heartbroken ("My eggs! They're broken!") until one by one, little chick heads pop out. It's really quite a nice story and it has beautiful, simple, colourful illustrations. Amanda loves it, and it seems to really strike a chord with the maternal side she's been displaying lately. One of her new games is to say, while sitting on the potty, "I'm sitting on my nest", then..."My eggs! They're breaking!". She acts surprised at the appearance of her "chicks" and cuddles them, making sure to tell me not to step on them.

So today, these two obsessions of Amanda's merged into one. While sitting on the potty this evening, she started in with the "I a Mermaid...I a beautiful Mermaid Princess". Then, out of nowhere, she decided to add a word. But not just any word, our girl...because we are the proud parents of a "beautiful Mermaid Princess Chicken".

Thank God she didn't put her new identity together with the fact that we'd eaten chicken for dinner...

A new favourite shot...fun in the bathtub: