Madeleine Explains It All

Today Madeleine has proven her total awareness of all that is going on around her. As we walked through the Trader Joe's parking lot this morning, we heard the commuter rail pulling into the nearby train station. Madeleine had some really insightful comments on the whole situation:

LOUSY TRAIN: Choooooo-chooooooo!
ME: Madeleine, what do you hear?
MADELEINE: The train!
ME: Is it still a lousy train?
MADELEINE: Yeah, that's just the lousy purple train!
ME: Oh, it is, huh?
TRAIN: Choooooo-chooooooo!
MADELEINE: Mommy, what's that sound?
ME: You tell me. You know what it is.
MADELEINE: That's an OWL!
ME: It's an owl? I thought it was the train.
MADELEINE: No, that's an OWL! It's an owl HOOTING!

Oh. Huh. Okay.

When we got home from errands, Madeleine asked me to resume reading a book we had started earlier in the day. As she trotted over carrying "Disney's Aladdin," my stomach filled with dread. Madeleine's latest trend is to ask unanswerable questions throughout the entirety of any book we read her, and long, wordy books like Aladdin take FOREVER to get through. Here's just a small portion of her endless questioning and commentary as I read to her today:

pg. 1
ME: "When Jafar fit the two halves together, thunder rumbled. In a fl-"
MADELEINE: Mommy? Where's RUMBLED?
ME: Uh, you can't see rumbled. "In a flash of-"
MADELENE: Mommy? Can you just HEAR rumbled?

pg. 3
ME: "The next morning a poor, hungry young man named Aladdin and his pet monkey, Abu, were sitting on a rooftop. They were looking down on the marketplace of Agrabah. Sudden-"
MADELEINE: Mommy? Where's AGRABAH?
ME: This whole marketplace is Agrabah. "suddenly Al-"
MADELEINE: (pointing) No, THAT'S Agrabah.


Agrabah.

pg. 9
ME: "Aladdin took the old lamp and tried to rub off some of the dust. Poof! In a flash of swir-"
MADELEINE: Mommy? Where's POOF?
ME: Uh... I don't... you can't see it. "In a flash of swirling-"
MADELEINE: (pointing) No, Mommy, THAT'S Poof.


Poof.

pg. 10
ME: "Jafar had used his serpent staff to hypnotize the Sultan. The poor-"
MADELEINE: (pointing at page 9) Mommy? Is that his FINGER?


The genie and his finger.

pg. 16
ME: "The moment had come for the Sultan to announce the wedding of-"
MADELEINE: Mommy? Did Jasmine get CLOTHESED?


Jasmine wearing her clothesed.

pg. 18 (almost done!!)
ME: "Jafar was busy enjoying his newfound power when Ala-"
MADELEINE: Look, Mommy! Another GENIUS!


Jafar, turned genius.


I think the REAL genius here is Madeleine, wouldn't you say?