Well trained

"Pretend you're Sleeping Beauty and I'll kiss you awake," I suggest.

Rachel's eyes light up for a moment before she squeezes them shut and ever so slightly puckers her lips in her feigned sleep.

I lean over, pausing for a moment to watch the corners of her mouth begin to dimple as she holds back laughter, and finally kiss her. Her eyes fly open and she shrieks.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" She slaps my cheek. "Don't kiss me!"

Leave it to my little girl to rewrite the fairy tale.

Is this five?

Anna spent a full twenty minutes today shining a green Tinkerbell flashlight through a glass of water.

First it was a tall glass that had a pattern on it and then she insisted on a short, unadorned juice glass. She walked around the house, turning off lights and holding the glass up to different surfaces. She observed how the reflections looked against the wallpaper, the cabinets and various pieces of furniture. She looked at the patterns in the bathroom mirror.

Finally she returned to the kitchen to ask me, "Is this science?"

So far, five is kind of awesome.

The child has excellent comedic timing

For the last year and a half Rachel has been sleeping with Scooby Doo. The relationship began with an innocent soap dispenser and is described here. When it became clear that Scooby was in Rachel's life to stay, the soap dispenser was replaced with a much more appropriate plush toy who usually stays in Rachel's bed with her three other bedmates: a pink teddy bear, a baby doll and a red-haired doll - all named Shauna.

A few days ago Rachel finds a random baby doll and shoves it with her usual tender grace into a baby carrier. "Mommy, my baby's name is... Chana." This doesn't surprise me, Chana is Anna's Hebrew name.

Minutes later Rachel takes a stuffed kitty toy and squeezes it into the carrier next to baby Chana. "Mommy, my baby's name is Chana and my kitty's name is Chana. All of my babies are named Chana."

Dan and I try our hardest to hide our giggling but we lose all control as Rachel continues. "But my last one is Scooby."