Annoying Conversational Ping Pong

Elena attempts to engage me in mindless games of conversational ping pong about 345 times a day. The conversations have become so predictable that I can just look at her with a glower and she will spout out the next line. Here is one example:

"Mommy, Mommy, MOMMY?"

"Yes, Elena?"

"Mommy, Mommy, What you doing?"

"Doing the dishes."

"'Cause why?"

"'Cause they are dirty and I need to do them."

"'Cause why?"

"BECAUSE, people have to do dishes to keep them from piling all up. I have to load them into the dishwasher."

"'Cause why?"

At this point, I shoot her the glower and she often says, "'Cause that's how God made us?"

HAHAHAHAHA! I've got her trained now, if she says, "'Cause why?" I just stare at her and she comes up with an answer of her own.

One of my favorite repetitive conversations involves her reading me a book. She starts out telling me the title, which is always "About __________." She has a book with a horse on the cover she got out of the library this week. The story sounds like this:

Elena: "About horses at day and night. (page flip) About horses at night with stars.(page flip) About ponies and horses. (page flip)" The story continues along those lines with her describing each page as she sees it. It's really very endearing.

Last night, she read me a book about cows with spots, horses with manes, and pigs with curly tails. She read the book almost word for word, but added in her own embellishments (in parentheses below).

Who has spots?
A COW has spots! (Elena adds, "course" as in "of course")
Who has a mane?
A HORSE has a mane! ("'course")

I love that she is interacting with books. I will have to get a video of her reading. It's really quite cute!