Where's Waldo?

Anna has entered the fun stage of knowing enough words that she can go search for different items in the house--which is (or hopefully will be) particularly handy for Mom and Dad, as she's also responsible for *hiding* most of the items in the house. In particular, anything not nailed down.

Lately, we've been practicing. For ex ample: "Anna, go find your banana" (which she left in the office), and off she trots and brings it to us. Neat trick, huh? But every once in a while, we hit a word she's not familiar with yet, like yesterday:

Me: "Anna, can you bring me the remote? Mommy doesn't want to watch Borat." (Anna had found it earlier and changed the channel many, many times. One of her favorite pastimes.)

Anna: Blank stare.

Me: "Anna, the remote is over there, on the couch."

Anna: Trots in direction of couch. Doesn't see it, and screams her little annoyed scream.

Me: (Holding the remote) "See Anna, this is the remote, it was on the couch."

Anna: Bored look (and possibly a little "well, duh" in there, too).

So today, the situation was much the same. Anna had found my cell phone this morning and trotted off with it, making imaginary (but very important) calls to foreign embassies, major corporations, and Grammy and Poppy. When it came time for me to make a call, I couldn't find the darn thing.

After asking Anna a few times "Where is Mommy's cell phone?" eventually she brought me.................the remote.

"Thank you Anna...but where's Mommy's cell phone?" Needless to say, I look forward to finding my phone tomorrow, when I'm trying to track down some other highly valuable and toddler-intriguing item. ;o)