I've got your nose!

You know that game you play with little children where you pretend to take their nose?  You pluck it right off their face and then stick the tip of your thumb between your your first 2 fingers and give it a little wiggle so they can see you've got it.  Ben occasionally plays that game with Nora and she likes it... for about 3 seconds.  But then she's ready to have her nose back on her face -- thank you very much!  So just as Ben is finishing up saying, "Uh-oh, I've got your nose!" she chimes in with the hopeful command, "Put it back."  Ben lovingly obliges and Nora grins a very satisfied and relieved grin.
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Today Nora and I were running some errands together in town.  It was absolutely freezing so we gladly took advantage of the heated corridors of the shopping center (mall) and warmed our fingers for a few minutes.  We walked past dozens of shop windows, each decked out for Christmas and trying to convince us that we should do all our shopping with them.  There were lights, trees, snowballs, Santa's and snowmen all just behind a bit of glass.  At the clothing shops we saw mannequin after mannequin decked out in sweaters, puffy vests, blue jeans, boots and colorful knit hats, scarves and mittens.

Nora took special note of the mannequins around town this morning.  At Boswells we were looking at hot water bottles to take to bed with us and keep us warm on cold winter nights.  These happened to be  located right next to the hosiery.  "Look dat!"  Nora exclaimed with a bit of concern.  When I turned to see what she was pointing at so high up on the wall, I saw three mannequin legs lined up next to each other displaying 3 different brightly patterned tights (and posed as if they would begin to do the can-can at any moment!)  I laughed.  How odd it must be for her to see body parts hanging from the wall.  What must she be thinking?!  After all, who did these legs belong to?  Were there three people wandering around without their right legs somewhere?  Would they ever get their legs back?  And how on earth could she keep people from taking her little leg??

Later in the morning she stopped to study the long line of mannequins (there must have been at least 12) in the display window at GAP.  Here she found children sporting warm winter jackets and mittens - very similar to the winter coat and mittens she was wearing at that exact moment.  Only these fashionably clothed children had no heads!!  Oh the look of concern on her face!  All she seemed to be able to utter was, "Dat." every few seconds as she hesitantly motioned toward the headless bodies.  Poor girl!  Was someone taking heads now too?!?