Out Of The Mouths Of Babes….

…..over the coming weeks and months I shall be presenting some of Emily’s conversational gems on this blog. Beginning with….

E (while flicking through one of her animal books) “I went to this zoo when I was a baby…..

Me: “Oh really?”

E: “Yes, a tiger bit me on the bottom and I cried……”

It’s kind of hard to know what kind of answer to give to this really…….

A Toothy Issue

Today Emily accompanied me to the dentist for a check-up (something we have been attempting to do now that she has all – or at least nearly all – of her teeth). Our last attempt to do this back in June was met with mouth clamped shut and several shift, suspicious looks, but given the young lady has grown up a great deal since then we thought we’d try our luck once again.

Inititally she told us she didn’t need to go to the dentist (as if we were going to believe that) but managed to persuade her it would be a fun thing to do as she would get a sticker. And so, having comandeered all the books in the waiting room, she trotted happily into the dentist’s room, holding her hand all the way.

And once in there, she did indeed open her mouth – for about half a second, giving absolutely no opportunity for anybody to look at her teeth, then closed it again. And immediately asked, “Can I have a sticker?”

Well, at least she is getting the hang of it…..

A Turn Of Phrase

Quite aside from her ability to charm the socks off everybody she encounters, Emily has also developed rather a way with words in recent months. Not only does this make life a lot easier in ‘terrible two’ terms – the fact she can tell us what she wants most of the time means toddler tantrums are kept to a minimum – but it also provides ample opportunity for optimum cuteness – her little phrases and exclamations (’oh dear me’, ‘what have we got here’, ‘what’s that noise, Mummy?’) would fill a slim volume.

One of my favourites, however, is her uncanny ability to guess how old everybody is. Ask her Mummy’s age, or Daddy’s age, or anybody’s for that matter and she will tell you that they “are 2″. Ask her her old she is however and it’s almost always “I’ll be 3…..”

Does this mean I am younger than my own daughter? Now that would be something…

Now We Are Two

….we are staring impercebtibly into the face of big girl’s beds and potty training.

Which should make for interesting reading in the months to come……

Tummy trouble?

Since Emily started talking properly she has, like most toddlers, developed funny little phrases with which to surprise and amaze us. This morning, for example, we went into her room when she woke up, and when we unzipped her sleeping bag, discovered her pyjama top had ridden up overnight. She promptly pulled it back down, saying to us, “Close tummy…..”

This is, of course, the cutest thing she has ever done. Until the next cutest thing comes along, of course…

Who Are You Talking To?

When you have a child, you’re prepared for certain eventualities. The fact that as a baby, they will wake you for night feeds, nappy changes and general reassurance. That when they get a bit older they may wake you for teething and illness. This is something you learn to accept as part of being a parent.

What they don’t tell you, however, is that your child may also wake you in the small hours by talking in their sleep. Such has been the case with Emily recently. Having become a fan of CBeebies and the many delights it has to offer (favourites including In The Night Garden and Charlie And Lola) it seems that she has now also taken to dreaming about her favourite TV characters.

A few weeks ago I was woken at the less than sociable hour of 5.30am by her shouting ‘BYE BYE PIGGLE!’ (as though having a conversation with Night Garden’s cuddly blue boat-dweller Iggle Piggle) before rolling over and drifting off again, completely unaware that Mummy was now wide awake, wondering where Iggle Piggle was and why he should be chatting to Emily at this time of the morning.

Since then she has told me in her sleep that she is talking to Iggle Piggle’s buddy Makka Pakka, that Mummy is going to sleep and that Daddy is taking a shower. On a number of occasions I have found myself heading for her room convinced she has woken up, only to find her fast asleep.

This week, however, she surpassed herself, shouting ‘CHARLIE LOLA!!!!!!!!!’ about five times at around 2.30am and leaving me to wonder what on earth was going on. Yet she just slept blissfully through until the morning, and when I blearily asked my husband if he had heard her the next morning I was informed that he hadn’t.

Well, I’m sure she said something then. Or perhaps I was the one who was dreaming…

Out of sight…..

I’ve mentioned how over the past few months Emily’s talking has come on – and in recent weeks it’s become even more advanced, with her answering questions, learning more and more words and even stringing short sentences together.

One of her current observations is that grown-ups go to work – with her proudly telling me that “Daddy gone office” whenever he heads off for the day. This has been stretched to cover the full complement of relatives (”Mummy gone office, Bubbe gone office, Grandma gone office….you get the idea”) – but what I wasn’t expecting was for her to take the concept even further.

A couple of weeks back she was looking out of her bedroom window when she spotted a cat in the car park outside. After getting very excited and shouting ‘hi cat’ repeatedly, the creature then ran behind a car. I immediately said to her “oooooh, where’s the cat gone?” She thought about this for a few seconds, then triumphantly replied, “cat gone office!”

Now how can you possibly argue with that kind of logic?

Update coming soon…..

Apologies for the lack of one recently…..in the mean time enjoy the new pictures!

Words Don’t Come Easy

Having mastered the art of walking, which she has now been doing for around a month (toddling along in the way that small children do, with her arms stretched out a la Frankenstein’s monster), Emily is now getting the hang of talking – and as such is learning new words on a daily basis.

Much of this is due to her extraordinary ability to repeat whatever has been said to her (meaning we have to really watch our language from now on since she is too young to understand that ‘Daddy’s special words’ uttered in response to bad drivers really shouldn’t be repeated in polite company), but every so often she’ll come out with something like ‘knock’ (at the door), ‘home’, ‘lunch’, ‘milk’ or ‘top’, and really take me by surprise.

Perhaps the strangest bit of repetition however occurred last weekend. Having been a bit under the weather this past week with a throat infection at the same time as cutting a couple of molars, Emily has been taking a bit of medicine recently, and at one point we jokingly asked her if she wanted Calpol or Medised. To which she suddenly replied ‘Calpol!’

This took us by surprise to such an extent that we then asked her if she wanted Medised to which she replied ‘Medised!’ very triumphantly. And then proceeded to walk round the flat shouting it.

Since then we’ve discovered that if you ask her whether she prefers one thing or another, she will inevitably repeat one of the options – usually the last one. And as such we have discovered she prefers pizza to pasta, TV to radio, cats to dogs, kiwis to pears….the list is endless.

It’s the medicine trick which I am most impressed by however – not even 18 months old and she is already recognising brands.

What Do I Want? Er…

Among Emily’s many new skills (for she seems to be acquiring them on a daily basis now) is indicating that she wants something – at least, sort of. About a week or two ago she began to demonstrate this new-found talent, which basically involves reaching her hand out and making a kind of persuasive sounding “UHHHHHHHH?!” type noise until she gets what she’s after.

Of course, this is fine if you can work out what she’s after (usually something she isn’t supposed to have such as a phone charger, pile of loose change, glass of Coke Zero etc. etc.) but isn’t quite so easy when she just reaches out her hand and gestures vaguely in the direction of the rest of the world.

The other day, for example, I had pretty much emptied all the shelves in her room before it became apparent it was her shoes she wanted, while a similar incident while she was sitting in her high chair having lunch a couple of weeks ago resulted in my moving everything off the living room table and giving it to her.

Surely it can only be a matter of time before the phrase “I want……(add in as appropriate) makes its appearance? At least by the time it does we will have had plenty of practice responding to it.