baby canada

As a baby, Ada received a stuffed maple leaf with a music box inside that plays the Canadian national anthem - from her Grampa Hicks. When she first received it she liked the music and it seemed to jive with her little bopping personality. Then it was forgotten for awhile but has recently hit a resurgence in the toy cycle.

It started when Elliot and I started singing the lyrics along with the music box. Now Ada will belt out 'Oh CANADA' over and over again at the top of her lungs. Given this new found interest in Canada, Elliot and I decided to use this as a teaching moment. So we showed Ada where Canada and the US are on the world map that is up in her room. Every time Ada starts to sing the 'Oh Canada' song we ask her to point out Canada on the map. She has gotten pretty good at repeating this task over and over again and was apparently bored one day so she started exploring the rest of the map. She stood back examined most of the Western Hemisphere, cocked her head to the side, pointed to Brazil (which is a slightly brighter shade of yellow than Canada is) and said in a very determined voice, "Baby Canada".

Elliot and I (muffling our laughter) quickly corrected her, telling her that the country she had pointed to was actually Brazil. However, Ada persists in her classification of Brazil as Baby Canada. I like to think it is just her loyalty to her secondary citizenship and is plotting for a colonization of Brazil by the Mounties. They'll never see it coming.