The Askingest Pigeon Around

I have always, always loved 'The Pigeon' books.  Ever since I found them in college and had them read to me on a day that definitely could have been better.  I still remember being in pjs and wrapped in a blanket, downstairs on the lovesacks that littered the common area of the freshmen dorms.  Levi brought a stack of children's books from the library and read them to me after a full day of classes and not feeling well.  "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" was the only one available at that point and we read it three or four times before moving onto the next book.  Love that sassy pigeon.

We got "The Duckling gets a Cookie" not so long ago and it has become one of Alaska's favorites.  Not because she loves it, but because I love it.  Handsome Husband and I quote it back and forth in conversation and it has become quite the inside joke.  We need more.  Yesterday I got home from a bird release and Steven says, "Alaska is really 'the most askingest pigeon around'"  And I laughed.  Because I knew exactly what he meant.  She's always asking, 'what is this' and asking with a question in her voice, "momma" or "dia-dee" as she points to an article of one of ours.  Or asking for more milk.  The pointing game is one of her favorites and she'll point saying, "Dis?" to a dozen of objects, even if she points to the same object twice.  I always feel like she's quizzing me and I now understand why often, picture books made for little kids have word recognition built into them as each picture on the page is labeled.  They thought that was for the kids.  No.  That is for the parents when we can't think fast enough to name a duck.

My current hope is that even though she's not saying the words after me right now, she's practicing in her head and someday I will be amazed when she points to an object and says its name when she has never said it before.  Right now we are working heavily on colors and I am not hoping so much that she'll be saying the colors, but that she can recognize them.  The words will come soon enough, I am sure.