She knows her nose and nos

For some reason Rachel really likes Big Bird's Guessing Game About Shapes. I don't really. The pictures don't always seem quite finished and the dialog could be a lot better. It only cost us a dollar though so I suppose we got our money's worth.

Rachel brought it over to me and waved it in my face and then sat in my lap, put the book in front of her, and tapped it with her hands. I have come to understand that this means, "Please read this book to me, mommy," or at least, "Help me turn the pages really fast so I can look at all of the pictures but you can't read any of the words."

We got to the page about triangles where Big Bird asks if they can find a musical instrument shaped like a triangle. The first picture I pointed to was a drum.

"Is this drum a musical instrument?" I asked Rachel.

She shook her head no.

"Yes it is," I corrected her, "Is it a triangle?"

She shook her head no.

"That's right, it's not. What else do we have here? Is the pine tree a musical instrument?"

Rachel shook her head no again. She always shakes her head no.

"Noooo," I agreed with her.

She gasped, looked up at me and pointed to my nose.

This was an easy mistake for her to make. Usually when I say no it's just a flat out "NO!" because she is in danger of being electrocuted, falling down the stairs, or pulling a whole shelf of books down on top of her. When I say nose, however, it's usually because she's pointing to my nose and when she points she leaves her finger on your nose for quite some time so I usually end up saying "nooooose."

I know she knows the word no, though. I know she knows what it means, too, because yesterday when we were dropping some things off at Andrew's parents' house Rachel made a beeline for the ivy on the fireplace.

"Stop, Rachel," I told her. She pointedly ignored me.

"Rachel, don't," I told her. She got a determined look on her face and started crawling faster.

"Rachel, NO!" I snapped. With this she flung herself out on her stomach and started kicking and screaming.

At least she stopped, right? What am I going to do when she reaches the age of two?