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)
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.”
Every so often, I’ll hear one of the kids say something hilarious or adorable while I’m sitting at the computer, and straight away I open up a new post to write down those cute things. Here are some recent things Hayden has said:
“Mom, Rachel just smells like some weird vampire. Those guys are funky!”
“If you break this fourf wall . . .”
Hayden was playing with a truck and announced that it sold “Chocolate fondues!” Rebecca asked “I haf a chockit fonnu?”
Hayden pulled up a picture of Disney princesses on the Internet and called for Rebecca to come over to see “your favorite blog!”
I mentioned last week that Hayden rode bikes with the neighbors. Back and forth on the sidewalk. It’s cute how much they loved it. (It’s also been cold and rainy, so they haven’t had many chances to do this). Over the weekend, I walked Hayden and his bike across the street to play with the little girl his age over there. She got her scooter out and again, they rode back and forth on the sidewalk till we had to go in.
He needs a helmet and really likes his friend’s bell, so I started him on an incentive chart. He can get up to 4 smileys a day in each category: no whining/fits, be nice to sisters, obey quickly, and extra/misc. He’s just about got enough to earn his helmet (horrible that I made him earn his own vital safety equipment, I know—we did have one, but he’s outgrown it). Next on the list to earn: the bell!
He’s very excited about kindergarten in the fall. He’s working hard on his letters. We’re learning letter combinations now, including ck, sh, st and more—so Hayden has actually read his first words this month! (It was see, in case you’re wondering.) I’m so proud! He drew a cow (when we were learning “ow”):
I’m also proud of this adorable picture he drew of Rachel’s lovey, a caterpillar named Cally (both shown here).
He loves to create awesome buildings out of his block sets and cardboard boxes. We’re regularly impressed by the symmetry and balance of his creations. Here’s one of his buildings: the sign on the awning was dictated to me and our friend Brianna. It reads, “Hayden’s Toy Story 3 [it's a movie theater, but he and Rebecca insist they're showing Cars 2 on both screens]. Hayden’s Bookstore. Everything is $18. Hayden’s Fanciest Candy Store and Also Necklace Store.”
The gratefuls! Monday:
Our freedoms.
Those who have sacrificed (and are now sacrificing) to preserve those freedoms.
A day off!
Rachel going from hands and feet to just feet without support.
Checking things off my to do list (like this post!).
Putting the kids to bed early-ish.
That Rebecca’s hair will grow. (See last picture.)
Potty training! (And being done!)
Finishing off the cookies we made last night—no more temptation.
Left overs and Ryan reheating them.
Tuna salad sandwiches with celery, making me think of my mom.
Hayden including his sisters in playing with his blocks. And his blogs. But more about that next week.
One day—it was a Friday, but that doesn’t matter—there was a little girl—and that does matter—learning to use the potty. And as she sat on the potty, she perched her fingers on her knees, with her pointer fingers out.
“Dees are my wobots,” she informed us. So these are Rebecca’s Robots:
(Her hands. Also note the plate of shredded cheese, which is pretty much all the child will eat for dinner.)
Her robots talk and help her do all kinds of things (being her hands). They love their mommy robots (my hands) especially.
Some cute things Rebecca has said lately:
Teese neveh wive in cups! Teese wive in bowws! (Cheese never lives in cups! Cheese lives in bowls!)
Wohwa’kates: roller skates
Yeh weww: yeah, well (at the beginning of a sentence)
Beebee: I’m not even sure what the exact translation of this would be (baby?), but it’s something she says a lot when she’s playing with Pinky, her stuffed animal. It’s either what she called Pinky, or what Pinky calls her. Or maybe both.
And some more:
Another favorite game is MontahINK! (Monsters, Inc.) Rebecca is Suwwy (Sully) and Pinky is either Boo or Mike ‘Akow’ki. I’m usually whatever Pinky isn’t, though sometimes Rachel gets that honor. Hayden has played Mike and Wannaw (Randall). Once I was even Wannanoos (Mr. Waternoose).
Her hair, obviously, spends a lot of time in her face, so today I did this (she cried, but she’s come to accept it):
I’m not really thrilled with how I did, but cutting my kids’ hair too short is something I’m good at.
What do you think? What are you grateful for? Isn’t Rebecca pretty much the best little girl in the world?
My kids have a few odd speech habits—”feww” for “smell,” “foon” for “spoon,” and today “ball” for “small” (while crying). But so far one of the most persistent impediments is saying Y for L.
yeyyow
yittle/yiddew (especially Rebecca’s favorite nickname for Rachel, “yiddew baby!”)
yeash (leash)
And my favorite: I yub you!
I also love little kids’ attempts to jump. Rebecca is obsessed with jumping over the cracks when we’re walking on pavement, but her little feet never leave the ground at the same time (though she actually can jump—just not while walking).
What are your favorite learning (yearning?) processes to watch?
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.
MamaBlogga: mom's search for meaning is devoted to helping mothers find encouragement, empowerment and fulfillment in motherhood. It's written by Jordan (MamaBlogga), a professional blogger and, more importantly, mother of three. You can read more about MamaBlogga's mission.
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