Toddlers are Terrific

Sometimes I wish I could completely freeze him at this perfect age, but then I’d miss out on all the future fun things he’ll learn how to do!

So, random bits of fun cuteness, courtesy of 16 month old Matthew:

1. He absolutely thinks the dog is underfed.  No matter what he’s eating, he will always share with Murphy – even bacon!  Poor Murphy is very conflicted about this.  He has a choice between running away from the maniacal toddler yelling “dah-dah-dah-dah” (“dah” is Matthew’s attempt at saying “dog”) or risking chokehold hugs in exchange for sharing the contents of the snack cup.

2. He hums.  Like all the time.  Mostly “twinkle twinkle little star” (or the alphabet song, hard to say without words) but also “frere jacques”, “old macdonald” and other unidentified (yet) snippets of things.

3. The organ sound on the digital piano is his most very favorite sound, and he will bang out long, loud, discordant chords and laugh maniacally.  Pretty sure he’s got the whole “mad scientist evil organ music” thing down.

4. When we listen to songs from my latest musical in the car, and they get to that ending chord hit (the “button”) he giggles hysterically.  Piano glissandos ending in a big octave hit cause the same reaction.  He does it *every single time*.  I think it’s like the auditory equivalent to a jack-in-the-box: predictable, but still somewhat surprising.

Minions

I wonder if I should be concerned that the little game Anna has made up with some Hello Kitty squinkies involves the liberal (and correct) usage of the word “minions”?

Though I must say there’s nothing more hilarious than hearing “minions” in a squeaky little three-year-old voice!

Watch Out for Feet-Eating Monsters

It has been unseasonably warm here. Like, open all the windows, do we maybe want to consider the A/C…nah, not yet…, break out the shorts warm. But I’m not falling for it. I haven’t switched to our summer bedding, so for now the quilt stays on…and gets kicked off every night.

Well, Anna saw it on the floor this morning (no, I hadn’t quite managed to make my bed yet, the stinker gets up at the crack of dawn) and became quite concerned. She solemnly informed me that I had better put the quilt back on the bed tonight, because…

“If you don’t have your quilt on your bed, the monsters will eat your feet.”

Straight face, matter-of-fact tone…I’m not sure if she was serious, but man, she’s going to have a tough time when it gets too hot for her quilt every night if she was!

(Now tonight I’m going to wonder if there’s a feet-eating monster lurking under my bed.)

Air Fuzzies

This morning, as I was brushing Carolyn’s hair, Anna was jumping from sunbeam to sunbeam in the hallway, clapping her hands as though to catch something in the air.  She had a look of absolute delight on her face.

Me: Anna, what are you doing??
Anna: I’m trying to catch the air fuzzies!

I like “air fuzzies” much more than “dust motes”.  It sounds less like I really need to vacuum.  ;)

Random Bits of Cuteness

It’s been a while since I posted any of the silly things my kids say.  I feel a bit sad, because all of the adorable learning language things that I made note of with Carolyn, have been lost for Anna.  But, all is not quite lost – she still comes out with mispronunciations and silly things now and then.  So, without further ado…

Heard Friday at the pool:

My brother (Dan) and my sister-in-law (Genevra) were over swimming.  All afternoon: “Uncle Dad! Aunt Ge-evra! Look, I’m pedaling around the pool!” (She can definitely say ‘n’ sounds, so I’m not quite sure where Uncle Dad came from.  And Aunt Ge-evra is just adorable!)

Also.  Carolyn has a pair of “gobbles”.  You know, the things that keep water out of your eyes in the pool?

And then this afternoon at the library:

Little Girl: “Hi!  What’s your name?”
Anna: “Anna.”
Little Girl’s Dad: “Alma?  That’s a nice name.”
Anna: “No, Anna. ‘A’, ‘n’, ‘n’, ‘n’, ‘a’!”

Um.  Well, I suppose Annna would sound just about the same as Anna.  Looks a bit odd.  But, it’s still a palindrome!

Look!

Anna and I took a walk this morning to enjoy the beautiful sunshine. Every few steps she’d say “look!” and point to something. “Look, snow!” “Look! Dir-tee snow!” “Look! Trees!” “Look, mom-ee, look!”

And every puddle in the drainage ditch: “Look, fishy, look, Nemo!” (I didn’t see any fish, but maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough!)

My favorite comment, though, was “Look! Sill-ee!” When I asked her what was so silly, she said “the bird-ee!” and pointed to a fat little robin hopping around on the grass.

Who knew there was so much to look at in a quarter mile of suburbia?

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