MamaBlogga

Ryan and I were talking last night about how Rebecca didn’t really talk until she was at least 18 months old. In fact, she hardly ever even made noise until she discovered screaming at 8 months. Even her laughter was quiet: scrunching her nose and sniffing.

Yeah, those days are a distant memory now. But with the cute things she says, I guess it’s okay.

Rebecca got her first real haircut!

Just kidding! (Silly you.)

We bought a bag of Reese’s minis for Rebecca as an incentive. “Are dey gowd?”

“Yes, they’re gold.”

“Are dey gowd doub’oons? [Doubloons] . . . No, dey are just gowd.”

Rebecca gets her middle name right about half the time; the other half she thinks her middle name is the same as Hayden’s (a mistake he’s just learning to correct). But she knows Rachel’s middle name, apparently because I say it so much. She even knows what it means:

“Waychew Deana [Rachel Diana] means ‘Come hewe!’”

“Good job, Bex,” I told her as we were cleaning up.

“No, I not Bex. I jus’ one Becca!”

During Rachel’s nap one Saturday, I left the other kids playing on the computer while Ryan went to church for a bit. When I came back from my shower, Rebecca announced, “We take gooood cawe of Wachew, Mommy! We takin’ good cawe o’ ouwsewves.”

Rebecca the ice princess (note the hat and the tiara)

A few cute stories from Rebecca over the last few months:

As we walked through our home airport, after three weeks’ summer vacation at Nana’s and 8 hours of traveling:

“For my birthday, I’m gonna go back to Nana’s,” Hayden proclaimed. “Becca, do you want to come with me?”

“Come wis you? Awe we gon’ get mawwied??”

While we were visiting, my wayward sisters taught Rebecca what to say when she received a proposal of marriage. I didn’t realize how deeply it’d sunken in until we’d been home a few days. Rebecca was rolling around on the floor (for fun, you know) and after a minute, I heard what she was saying:

“Whewe’s my big diamond?!”

Last night, since Hayden was sick, I brought Rebecca with me to his school’s literacy night. She was so well-behaved! I let her draw in Hayden’s notebook and she used the crayons on the table—though not always for pictures. Well, two-dimensional ones:

I asked if it was a house. She informed me, “It’s Hayden’s schoow! An’ dis ownge c’own [orange crayon] is Hayden!” After I took the picture, she added another crayon next to Hayden: “His teachew.”

I was letting Rebecca play in our fenced-in backyard while I put Rachel to bed. “Be careful,” I warned her.

“Don’t wowwy, Mommy.” She gave me a thumbs up. “I wiww be pewfectwy fine.”

“You are so funny,” I told Rebecca.

“Yes, I am.”

I’ve mentioned how much Rebecca enjoys pretend play. She is sharing this love with lots of other people . . . and things lately.

A while back, she insisted “I Buzz!” when we called on “Becca” for our family prayer one evening. We informed her Buzz was not allowed to pray, but Rebecca could. After we convinced her our minds were made up, she stuck out her arms and legs and wiggled them.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I shakin’ off my ‘tendin’ a be Buzz Wightyeaw.”

After the prayer, she mimed pulling on sleeves and boots: “I puttin back on my ‘tendin’ a be Buzz.”

This summer, we’ve crammed in waaay more travel than I’d initially planned. On her first trip, we stayed in a hotel. As we departed for home, Rebecca repeatedly asked if we were going to the hotel (since I guess we said “home” when we said we were going to the hotel while we were there). Finally, she understood that we were driving back to our house.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Hotew was jus’ ‘tendin’ a be ours home!”

She’s used this logic on other nouns as well. When she doesn’t want to go to bed, like tonight, she’ll inform us that “The daytime is just ‘tendin’ a be nighttime.” Or when she was having a little trouble on a playground and I read to her the sign that said the playground was designed for kids ages 5-12, and she told me she was five, she clarified, “I was just ‘tendin’ a be five.”

What funny things did your kids pretend?

I love the new phrases little kids use!

My favorites from Rebecca:

• ackshee . . . (actually)
• s’uw (sure, but without the sh. Or the r.)
• Kudaihav . . . ? (Could I have . . . ?)
• Pe-p’ease? (Pretty please?) (This just recently advanced from “Me-mease?”)
• Mayme we can . . . (Maybe—Rebecca is generating alternatives)
• F’iends (Friends)

But I think the most surprising recent words were this:

Last night at dinner, we were talking about our visit with Nana (my mom). I asked my son Hayden what his favorite part of the visit was. He decided his favorite part was getting new blocks from Nana.

“Here’s the backstory,” he said. And he proceeded to explain in great detail the shopping trip a week ago when we bought the new blocks.

“It’s great on so many levels,” he concluded.

(!!)

What are your favorite kid phrases?

This afternoon, I was struggling with Rebecca, who has recently decided that she would prefer not to have her diaper changed ever again. Hayden watched the writhing and screaming (from both of us) and offered some pointers (he’s already learning how to be a dad! ).

“Becca do not want to be wiped.”

I agreed with his astute assessment.

“You not wipe her?”

“I have to wipe her,” I explained. “She’ll get hurt if I don’t.” Apparently we’ve had the diaper rash discussion enough times before that he accepted this without argument. But after a moment, he offered one more piece of advice to help us avoid future encounters of the #2 kind:

“Becca, stop pooping.”

What incredibly logical arguments did/do your toddlers or preschoolers make?