donkeys donkeys everywhere

Every now and then we see donkey-pulled carts - carts loaded with people, fruits and vegetables, furniture, whatever. [Please don't get any crazy ideas about us living in the middle of nowhere, cooking over an open fire and getting around on donkey-pulled carts. We live in a city. We usually ride around in a shiny black Volkswagen Santana. But every now and then we see a donkey pulling a cart. It's part of the story, so stick with me.] When she was much younger, Julianna pointed at one of those carts and said, "look, a horse" and Matt corrected her, "Honey, that animal is not a horse, that's a donkey". (The donkeys are pretty rough looking, and "horse" is definitely a stretch - Matt wanted to make sure that Julianna wasn't elevating the donkeys to a level of the animal-kingdom that they didn't deserve to inhabit!)

Well, brilliant child that she is, Julianna concluded that all horse-looking animals were donkeys. We didn't bother to correct her on that one. So when she wears a shirt with the little Ralph Lauren logo she says, "oh, I like to wear shirts with donkeys on them." And I laugh, and wonder what Ralph Lauren would think if he knew that my daughter referred to his famous label as a "donkey".

And my mom sent her a box of "My Little Pony" band-aids. Only thing is, Julianna has never seen or heard of My Little Pony. So she calls them the "donkey band-aids". Again, I laugh, and wonder if the marketing folks missed the boat on this one - my daughter could care less about the My Little Pony theme, what she wants is some farm animal themed band-aids.

We have story books about kings and princesses and knights in shining armor... and, you guessed it, she thinks they all ride donkeys.

So, after months of mis-naming horses, the Christmas season is upon us and donkeys are everywhere! Our advent calendar, nativity scenes, Christmas tree ornaments, all our Christmas story books.... donkeys, donkeys, donkeys! It's fun to finally have some legitimate donkeys around here :)