A Reading

Lately, any time I have to reprimand Chica (by threatening to take away the princess dress she's in) her response is pretty much the same:

Step 1: She says to me, "No, it's not." Regardless of context appropriateness.
Step 2: She retreats immediately to either her bedroom or her sister's bedroom to curl up in the rocker.
Step 3: She remains there until: a) I seek her out, or, b) she forgets why she's in there.

Well today, upon just such an occasion, I heard her chatting happily to herself in her bedroom after just a minute or two of decompression, so I decided to check things out.

And what did I find???

Pretty much the CUTEST. THING. EVER.

She was sitting in her chair, reading Five Little Monkeys aloud. And I pretty much died of joy and pride and entertainment, just sitting there watching her, and then I said, "Wait! Mama has to go get her phone!" And I ran off to retrieve it so I could video an encore performance.

For those of you who need a refresher of the words, the story goes something like this: "Five little monkeys sitting in a tree tease, 'Mr. Crocodile can't catch me.' Then along comes Mr. Crocodile and...SNAP! Oh no! Where is she??"

You count down all the way to no little monkeys sitting in the tree. It's simple and precious and adorable when your toddler really gets into the SNAP! bit.

If this is the kind of constructive behavior that comes from Chica's simmer-down time in her room, I'm gonna threaten her with punishment way more often. 

I love my girl. And I love, love, love that she digs her books and retains the words to her favorites so well.

Happy Thursday, peeps!