Kid Talk 2

An earlier entry documented my son’s vocabulary between the ages of two and three. I was still an avid journal keeper when he was between the ages of three and four. My daughter started speaking as well. There’s not much I like better than observing a child’s speech development!

Nathan was nothing if not articulate. Just short of three, Nathan refused to eat a banana before his cookie. The bribe didn’t work, and I ended up giving him the cookie. He let me know he appreciated that: “It was very nice of you to give me that cookie without eating a banana.”

As Christmas approached, we kept a small number of ornaments in the cookie snowhouse. When Nathan wanted to see them, he told me that he was feeling housey, treesy, angely, or candy caney.

Another time, I lay down with him, and he said, “I’m with you. There’s no need to be afraid.”

When he tried to dress himself, he said that he wasn’t very useful with his shirts.

When he started University Preschool, he told us in the first week of school that his teacher was teaching the alphabet out of order. He wondered if that was because we lived in the U.S. where we were free to do anything we wanted.

At 3 ½ years old, he loaded spaghetti on his spoon, saying, “It’s enough to make a person angry!”

Shortly after, Nathan wanted his dad to do something for him. He said, “I encourage you to do it, Dad!”

Just shy of four years old, Nathan made a pronouncement: “Never will I eat crusts again.”

Nathan often tried to experiment. He told me, disappointed, “My invents never work!”

One time, Steve and I were in separate cars, and I honked at him. Instead of saying, “Did you scare him out of his pants?” he said, “Did you honk his pants out?”

Unfortunately, I pushed him on his bike a bit hard and he fell. Crying, he said, “Mom, I wish you wouldn’t ever do that again!”

I asked him where he wanted to go for lunch and never one for brief answers, he said, “My request is that we go to McDonalds.”

Nathan and I were talking about careers. He said he wanted to be a bug doctor, but he’d have to learn how to be nicer to them first.

Rachel stuck her tongue out at Nathan. He said, “That looks like a hog in your mouth, Rachel. It’s embarrassing.” 

When he was five, Nathan had a very high fever. When I told him that we might have to go to the doctor, he said, “Mom, it’ll pass; it always does.” He was plagued with so many ear infections when he was growing up, so, unfortunately, he knew the routine.

When he was still in preschool, he said that if his friend said something he didn’t like, he put his fingers in his ears and said, “Blah, blah, blah.” He claimed, “It really entertains the girls, Mom.” 

More to come as Rachel had learned how to make her presence known  ….

Kid Talk

It’s so hard to know what to write about these days because there are so many topics to cover. I could write about the dismal state of attempts made to reverse Roe and all things sane, the dismal state of “news shows” that spread lies, the dismal attempt to ban books, the dismal art of war, the dismal approach to gun control (or lack thereof), the dismal act of growing older and getting frailer until, like a magician, I perform a disappearing act. (And, considering this outcome, I have to wonder why I get so worked up about all these other circumstances.)

But today I choose to document my son’s vocabulary between the ages of two and three (more to come with the birth of my daughter). And this is something I can talk about with confidence because I used to keep journals.

My son started talking in complete sentences before he was two. Steve used to tell a story his dad told him when he was growing up. It concerned Itsy Bitsy Bamboo Hieroglyphic Pompom Nesia and his brother Joe. Who could say this name at 23 months? Nathan, of course.

He held up two pieces of bread and said, “This is a sea. This is a boat. Do like this.” And he put the boat on the sea. At 24 months, he said, “Baby’s inside Mommy. I can’t see him very well. Baby’s drinking a bottle.” Now, that would be a feat!

I lay down beside him soon after, and he said, “Mommy, you go sleep on your own bed. I have mine.” Of course, that didn’t continue. Although he was a great napper before that time, he started to hate going to sleep at night! And no wonder! The poor kid had night terrors until he was five!

Nathan was very specific when I asked him what he did at Mothers Morning Out: “Play, eat, drink milk, drink juice, wait for our mothers.”

He had his first successful phone conversation at 26 months. In talking to my friend he said, “Hi, Mary Beth. Do you want to come over for a picnic? I just wanted to say hello. Bye-bye!”

At 26 months, he saw a convertible and commented, “That’s a crazy car; it has no lid on it!”

When he was 2 1/2, Nathan was very pleased when I gave him a fork to eat breakfast. He said, “Oh, this is a good-looking fork!”

When my water broke, I prompted Nathan to call his dad and say, “Mommy’s water broke!” On his own, he added, “Can you fix it?” Obviously, there was a gap of about 3 months before I started writing consistently again.

We used to have a teen come over to babysit, so I could study or catch up on chores. One day, I overheard Nathan tell the babysitter, “I don’t know why my parents have to go out of town.” He saw me and said, “Oh! One parents is here!”

At Christmastime, we rearranged his furniture. He took one look at it, plopped his head on the bed and said, “You poiled my whole yife!” It didn’t “poil” his ability to think things through, though. After going to church, he said, “We didn’t cut the Christmas tree off at church.” Not understanding, I said that we decorated it. But he said, “We didn’t trim it, though!”

Nathan loved to drink juice and milk to the exclusion of food. I told him he needed something solid and gave him cheese. He nibbled on it and said, “Boy, that sure is solid!”

I got angry at Nathan, and he said, “I think I lost her temper!” Who could stay mad at a guy like that?!

He expressed surprise when I told him I was once little: “I thought you were always a grown woman!”

Well, speaking as a grown woman now, I have things to do, places to go. More cuteness in future blog entries can be expected.