Latest Hits, by E.

"Row, row, row your boat/ Get me down the stream!/ Mewily, mewily, mewily,...[unintelligible] butta....sketty!" followed by hysterical laughter, because the joke is that instead of saying the thing about life being a dream, she's saying life's a bowl of spaghetti.  It's a mash-up of "Row Your Boat" and some song from Dora.  There's maybe a certain philosophical truth to it, too.  Another one: "Knock, knock!" [you say "who's there?"] "Rupping...moooo!  Get it?  Mooo?"  It's her take on the "interrupting cow" joke.  I like the part where she asks you if you get it.

Then there's:
"Spicycle" (bicycle)
"Smustache" (mustache)
"Bace" (her friend Grace)
"Don't pie." (don't cry.  Alternative: "Baby pyin'?")
"I'm really hummy!" (I'm really hungry)
"Ice keem" (tough one to guess)

She has trouble with some words that start with double consonants, as most kids her age do, but Avery never did.  It's delightful, though, seeing the language development the way it typically happens.  It was delightful the other way too, don't get me wrong - there's nothing like a toddler who speaks in full, extremely clear sentences before her peers are even saying "Mommy" to give a parent a swelled head (even though it has very little to do with you).  A friend of ours who's a language buff pointed out that language develops in kids the same way it developed in the human race, so as a language gets older, words shrink and consonants that were formerly separated by a vowel get scrunched together.  Little kids have to develop the physical capacity to say those compacted words.  Interesting.

Questions

"How do fish take a bath? In air?"
"What if someone's name was Cheese Toast?"
"What if it snowed but it was warm snow and we could play in it without coats and gloves?"
"Why are there so many kinds of tomatoes?"
"Do cats have lips?"
"Why are butts funny?"

-Avery

Bellefonte (borough) QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau

Bellefonte (borough) QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau

She's Two!! (Oh, Sh*t)

Recently E. is unstoppable.  In the best and worst way.  A few examples: insisting on helping make dinner every night, knowing where her shoes, socks, and coat all go after we come in the door, fighting tooth-and-nail with Avery over something she's decided is hers, talking in four and five-word sentences, climbing on anything and everything, breaking and entering, burning scrap wood in a bucket out back....okay, kidding about those last two.  But she's a "pistol," as they say.  It's the second-child thing.  They want to do everything the older one does, and they're not as closely supervised.  So it's scissors, scotch tape, toilet paper, tissues, hand lotion, baking soda, oven mits, loose wires, old cell phones, underwear, out-of-season clothes and junk toys from Chick-fil-A....these are the tools of toddlerhood, and they are powerful. 

Concrete Operations, With a Dash of Precocious

Avery is learning the joys of reading oneself to sleep, and is currently into "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish."  Normally she wants me to be her audience for the first few pages, after we've finished whatever chapter we're on of whatever chapter book we're on, then she's content to have me leave her alone to finish the rest.

Tonight we get to the page that reads "From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!"  And the picture shows two road signs: the one pointing right says "There" and the one pointing left says "Here."  Avery asks me why those signs are there.  I say it's so people know which direction to go to get to "Here" or "There."  She was incredulous. "What do you mean?  People already know how to do that!!"  "Really?"  I said.  "How do you know where 'There' is?"  She looked at me like I had sprouted three more heads.  "What?  You just turn around and WALK!"

I burst out laughing. 

"Mom, why is that funny?"

I think about that for a minute.  But all I can say is, "We'll talk about that in a few years, and we'll see what you think then about why that's funny."

"But we'll never remember to talk about it!"

"I'll write it down."

Summary of Recent Developments

Avery - favorite subject in school is art.  Has discovered a love of horses and Batman (?).  Is learning to play chess, taught by Dad.  Getting better and better at reading.  She reads books to little sis all the time. Still wants to take gymnastics, and we are working on finding a way for her to do that.  She and I went to her first ballet, the Nutcracker, a couple weeks ago.  She dressed in finery, and the high


 Elena's new words and phrases are too many to list, but the cutest highlights are: "Dopit!" (Stop whatever you're doing before I put the smack-down on you),  "Go-way!" (self-explanatory), "Wantit!" (also obvious), "Wike-it!" (I don't like it),  "Doo!" (I want one, too),  "Back!" (Put it back, or I want it back).  When helping with the laundry:  "Meents" (pants),  "Gox" (socks), "Doight" (Shirt), "Dacket" (Jacket).  She likes to identify each item of clothing as she pulls it out of the dryer and hands it to me, i.e. "Daddy doight,"  "Lena meents." Singing: "Binkle daw, uhp-ah-bowjah....wike-yeeeewwww!" This is a combination of the parts she knows of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and a song Avery likes from a show on Nick Jr.

Oh, and everyone's current favorite: "Oh bah gosh." (oh my gosh, always said in an incredulous tone).

Sick Kids + No Halloween Party = Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza

There was considerable disappointment about not being able to go to the party we'd been planning for, so we splurged on a few more pumpkins than usual and partied at home.  Avery helped choose the jack-o-lantern designs and got to help Dad do the carving, and Elena helped herself to anything anyone else was doing.

Brains!