Dana plays a lot of pretend games. The ones she likes to repeat a lot are scenes from the musical Annie. She would march around mimicking "It's a hard knock life... for us... It's a hard knock life... for us... No one cares for you, a snitch... When you're in an orphanage..."
That would be my signal to do a Carol Burnett and say, "You're hiding something from Miss Hannigan behind your back!"
The cutest scene is when she tries to sing Molly's part in "You're never fully dressed without a smile." I guess she's at that age when they want to mimic almost anything they find interesting.
So, this is another blog entry about a game Dana invented. She calls it "Bili Books." She gathers all her books together in a small bag that has the top open. She fills the pockets on the sides with all sorts of pencils and pens. Then she declares, "Bili Books!"
I am then supposed to come over, choose a book I want to read, and point it out to her. It doesn't matter which book because she almost always inadvertently chooses the book she'll lend out anyway. Haha! So even if I point at say her Counting 1-2-3 book, she'll say, "Oh, you want to read 'Bath Time'?"
Then you'll have to mime handing her some coins. She'll gladly accept them as if that's the whole reason she set up her bookstore in the first place. She picks up your book 'choice,' then proceeds to stamp it. She'll get a pen, one after the other, and point it at the book, sounding each one with a loud "Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!"
After she goes through all her pens, she happily hands over to you your book which you should commence to read in front of her. But before you can finish reading it, she goes, "Time's up!" You'll have to hand the book bag to her. She stashes it back in her bag and then announces, "Bili Books!" For another round of this game.
We repeat the whole thing several times, and I tell you, I don't get tired of it.
Yesterday afternoon, I needed to sleep, and Dana just set up her shop. Veck said, "Let Daddy sleep! He has work tonight." But Dana wouldn't have any of that. She wanted to play with her Daddy and play she would. Veck threatened to bring out the dreaded hanger for spanking. Dana rushed to her mommy and said, "Friends... Friends tayo... no spanking, please."
Oh, it's too cute! So Dana says, "Sad si Dana. Angry si Mommy. Friends lang."
Veck says, "Okay, but you let Daddy sleep. And if you sleep, too, Mommy won't be angry anymore."
"Opo! Dana is happy!" I heard my daughter say. I think they exchanged hugs at that point but I wasn't sure. I drifted off to sleep. I woke up to my phone's alarm and saw Dana sleeping soundly beside me, using the crook of my arm for her pillow.
