Random Bits of Cuteness

Carolyn wants a ladybug cake for her birthday. This morning I was doing a bit of cleaning up after breakfast, and she dug out one of my Wilton books and declared that she was going to find her ladybug cake. She looked through all three that were on the shelf, and then said, “Mommy, do you know where the ladybug cake is? Because I looked and I can’t find one anywhere!”

I’m amazed by the changes in her grammar recently. Just in the last few weeks she’s been using much more sophisticated syntax and more complete (and correct) sentences. It’s fascinating to me how the human brain acquires language – in less than three years Carolyn has learned an unbelievable amount of vocabulary and grammar, just from absorbing the world around her. She can recognize upper and lowercase letters, understands that those letters can be put into certain sequences to form words, knows how each letter sounds, and is starting to sound out words. She’s even starting to write somewhat recognizable letters. It’s pretty cool.

And the ladybug cake? She’s right, there are no pictures of ladybug cakes in my Wilton books, but really…how hard can it be?

I wish I could have caught on video all of her commentary as she flipped through the books. “Look, there are lots of ghosts and they have a gingerbread house!” as she was looking at a picture of a haunted house cake. “Oh, there’s the Cheese Man, and he has a cake with cheese on it and is eating it all up!” for a picture of a SpongeBob SquarePants cake. “Oooh, look, a Cinder-grella cake!” At least I have a few backup possibilities if the ladybug cake doesn’t work out!

Denis took Carrie out tonight. They went to the mall and rode the carousel and then had dinner at Friendly’s…where they had ice cream for dessert (of course). Halfway through her ice cream, Carrie said, “Daddy, this ice cream is making my tummy giggle!”

…Lie Lay Sit Kneel.

We went out to dinner with Lisa & family tonight, and at one point the conversation turned to silly names. Denis said his name was “Slartibartfast“, and the three kids started laughing as though that was the funniest thing ever. I’m sure the rest of the restaurant didn’t really appreciate the giggling, but I certainly did.

What was even funnier was on the way home, Carrie decided that we had to sing the “Slartibartfast” song, where she just repeated the word over and over to a made up melody. Or, well, tried to. It’s a hard word to pronounce, after all…

Carrie wanted to play outside in the rain today. So I let her put on her rain boots and rain coat and play with her sand table on the deck while I kept an eye on her from the kitchen. (I really need rain boots and a coat for myself!) I wasn’t watching her every move, so imagine my surprise when she came up to the deck door crunching on something…

She decided to see what sand tastes like.

After I helped her rinse her mouth out, I asked her what she thought of the sand. She thought for a minute and said, “food is better!” and agreed that she wouldn’t try to eat sand again.

Oh, and while I was brushing her teeth extra well this evening to make sure there was no sand still hiding in there, I realized that her third two-year molar is in. Now we just have to wait for tooth number 20 and we’ll be done, done, done with the teething thing. That molar probably explains some of the recent lack of sleep!

We went to a very fancy restaurant for dinner tonight. Considering how long the meal was, and the distinct lack of grilled cheese or mac & cheese on the menu – oh, and cups of milk with straws! – Carrie did fantastically. After the salads and before the entree, the waitress brought out small dishes of orange sorbet. Carrie pronounced it “DELICIOUS!!!” When we asked her what it was, she thought for a bit and said “zoe-oak”. I asked her what “zoe-oak” means, and she said “it’s the Spanish word of the day!”

Do you think she watches too much Sesame Street?

Carrie loves Little Einsteins. But before her complete obsession with them, she would alternate between watching Blue’s Clues and The Wiggles. The Wiggles, while completely and utterly annoying to watch, have some great songs, and the concept – having children get up and dance and sing along as long as they’re going to be watching TV – is hard to argue with.

So lately, she’s been singing “Rock-A-Bye Your Bear”. Except, she hasn’t quite figured out the right lyrics. She sings:
Everybody clap (clap, clap, clap)
Everybody sing, la la la la la
Bow to your bottom* (at this point she bends way over, puts her hands on the floor and touches her head to the ground)
Then you turn around, yippee!
Hands in the air, rock-a-bye your bear,
Ant’s now asleep*, shh shh shh

Denis and I almost passed out from laughing last night, as she sang this over and over while we were trying to get her ready for bed. Most. Hysterical. Misheard lyrics. EVER.

* “Bow to your bottom” is supposed to be “bow to your partner“, and “ant’s now asleep” is supposed to be “bear’s now asleep” – for those of you who do not have a Wiggles-obsessed toddler in your life.

Apparently, Carrie’s imaginary friend Mimi has another small friend. His name is Bipsy, he’s 2, and he has blue hair. Oh, and he likes pizza.

Should I be concerned that Carrie’s imaginary friends all seem to be junk food fanatics?

I’ve never read about this anywhere, so I’m not sure if this is a normal thing or not, but just in the last couple of days, Carrie has become super agreeable and cooperative. I mean, she literally says “OK” to any request I make and then actually does it. And I’m talking about things that used to result in a big, emphatic “NO!” and a meltdown:

“Carrie, it’s time to go inside, we’ll garden some more later.” “Oh, OK. Let’s go inside!”
“We don’t have time to watch TV right now, we have to get ready to leave.” “OK Mommy, I need shoes!”
“Sorry sweetie, we have to eat dinner before you can have a cookie.” “Oh, OK! I eat dinner first!”

I’m starting to worry…

Quite a few funny toddler moments these past few days:

We watched Sammy on Tuesday afternoon, and the kids were playing follow-the-leader around the house. When I asked Carrie what they were playing, she said “We playing fun!” And then they proceeded to “play sleepy!” where they laid down on the couch, covered themselves up with a blanket, and pretended to snore.

When Denis walked in from work yesterday, we were playing with play-doh. Carrie announced, “Daddy, look! I playing play-doh with my friend Mommy!”

When I was getting ready for band last night, Carrie said “I go to band with you Mommy, PLEEEEASE?” I said she could when she’s bigger, and asked her what she wanted to play. Her reply? “Drums! And a cucumber.”

And then this morning I was trying to get Carrie downstairs so I could have a cup of the brown elixir of life (aka coffee) and she ran back into her room. She was shouting, “Mommy, there’s a monster under my bed!” I started to panic, thinking she was already starting the nighttime fears thing – despite the fact that it was already morning – and then I realized she’d dug out “baby monster”, the one-eyed plush critter I bought for her at Starbuck’s around Halloween. Maybe when she’s older, “baby monster” can live under her bed full-time to chase away the other monsters?