Cordouroy, Bert, and Calvin Klein

I was listening to an interview on the Diane Rehm show with Toni Morrison the other day. She was saying that the reason she loved certain books was because in them she learned something about herself, others, or the world. I like that statement, and I'm starting to see it come alive in Hadley's day to day life. For example, in the book Olivia, Olivia gets a timeout for coloring on the wall with paints. Hadley can't wait to get to that part of the story and sometimes rushes to those pages so she can see Olivia, covered in paint, sitting on the steps for timeout. I think in Olivia Hadley sees a potential friend who understands how fun it is to color on something other than paper.

It's fun for me to watch Hadley connect the stories we read with her life. This weekend we went to the mall and one of Hadley's favorite things to do there was ride up and down the escalator. She told me she was "just like Cordouroy" while we were on one. In the book Cordouroy, he rides up and down the escalator after the mall closes. I was impressed that she made this connection. However, the next observation was a little embarrassing. Hadley has a book called Happy and Sad, Grouchy and Glad. In this book, the Sesame Street characters illustrate different feelings (hence the title). Cookie monster talks about how sad he is when all his cookies are gone, and Big Bird talks about being grumpy because his birdseed pancakes are lumpy. When it comes time for Bert to talk about his assigned emotion, he is happily doing a tap dance until his pants fall down. "I feel so embarrassed in polka dot pants" he says as he blushes. Hadley and I think this is hysterical and we laugh every time. (It is my fault that she thinks it's funny-I laughed the first time I read it to her. I don't do a good job of teaching my children that someone's pants falling down isn't funny.) But I wasn't prepared for Hadley to point this out in public. We were in the Men's section of Macy's on Saturday, and Hadley saw a Calvin Klein ad (do I need to describe the ad? Can I assume that readers will understand what kind of ad it was when I write "Calvin Klein?"). She said, "Look, Mama! That guy's just like Bert." I didn't see what she was referring to, so I asked her what she meant. Hadley proceeded to run up to the ad and say, "He doesn't have any pants on! Just like Bert!" I responded that yes, he did not have any pants on. Just like Bert. Well done, Hadley.

Here is a picture of Hadley in Banana Republic holding hands with the manequin. When I asked her what she was doing she told me that she was ready to cross the street. I guess I need to revise my statement to, "We hold hands with people we know and who are alive before we cross the street."