relationship advice, and other mix-ups

Lately Esther has been combining lots of ideas in her little head, with...interesting results.

An example.  We have been trying to find "family movies" that we can all watch together.  One of our recent successes was Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.  I explained the kidnapping part ahead of time, and Esther did not seem too disturbed by it.  She loves the music and dancing, and "the part where the barn falls down."  So from time to time she will go around singing snatches of one of the songs.  Recently her favorite lyrics have been, "Goin' courtin', goin' courtin', sing a song of Jesus!"  Not bad advice, actually!  (The real lyrics are, "Goin' courtin', goin' courtin', always sets your senses in a whirl; goin' courtin', goin' courtin', dudin' up to go and see a girl...")

Then the other day she was paging through my Chinese book, shortly after a discussion of childbirth.  She told me, "I have to find 'kumbilical cord, your sins are forgiven,' page 92."

And THEN she tried to serve communion (bathwater in the cap of a detergent bottle) to her toy stingray!  (She was originally going to serve it to me, but I declined.)  She told it, "Stingray, this is the blood of Jesus!"  I hope that's not sacrilegious...but actually, I think that at this age, the fact that she is thinking about communion and exploring it through play is a way of valuing it, not devaluing it.  (Esther has seen us take communion a few times, and is fascinated by it.  She really wants to take communion herself and doesn't get why we won't let her yet--she keeps asking me, but isn't satisfied with my answers!)

Esther has also had some interesting word mix-ups lately.

For example, soda, which she consistently calls Minnesota.  ("Daddy, I want some of your Minnesota!  Pleeeeease!")

We were discussing ethnicity, and I told her I am European-American and she is Chinese-American.  She heard the word "your" in European and asked, "Myapean-American?"  Likewise, when we went to the police station to notarize some documents, I heard her murmur something about "yesarize."

She heard somebody talking about a baby shower and was shocked and amused that somebody would give a baby a shower.

And when she tried her first local gymnastics class (which went great, by the way!), she immediately noticed the other girls' cool outfits.  I told her they were called leotards, but she didn't quite catch the unfamiliar word. She told me, "I wanna tarp!  I want one a dose!" (pointing to the ones hanging up in the lobby available for purchase).  I checked out the prices on the ones hanging up and told her she might get one for her birthday.  But this morning we checked a consignment store and scored two leotards, one of which fits and the other of which is only a little too big!  She is thrilled, and alternated wearing the two of them all day from when we brought them home until bedtime.