Caroline-isms

Life has been crazy, to say the least.  Between three preps a day at school, tutoring, keeping the house cleaned, and spending time with my family - I don't have a lot of free time on my hands.  I am so busy soaking up every second of my crazy/busy/awesome/bless life that I don't take the time I should to record what we have going on.  But I just wanted to make a quick list of the things that Caroline is saying and doing because I know I won't remember them and they are precious.

*She calls a spoon a shoom.

*She calls a rhinoceros a moss-ous.

*When we hand her something she says, 'Thank you!' in this high pitched voice and if you say thank you back she says, 'Welcome!'

*She plays hide and seek and she'll put her head around the corner and say, 'Are you?'

*She'll sit down in her seat with a book and say, 'Read it.  Self.'

*She says 'shoom geem' for 'excuse me'.

*She will say something and then nod her head and say, 'Yep. Mmm hmm.'

*She has recently started saying 'awesome' and 'sassy' - correctly.

*She will walk up to something and say a long drawn out, 'Wow!'

*Every time she sees our Christmas tree she says, 'Tree. Cute!'

*She is now aware of stop lights and stop signs.  When she sees a stop sign she'll say, 'Red. Sign.' and I'll ask her what it means and she'll say, 'Stop,' and put her hand up.  When I ask her about green she'll say go and when I ask her what yellow means, she'll say 'fall down' instead of slow down!

*She says 'odher moan' for other one.

*All of her c's are t's right now.  So she is Tarowine, she drinks from a tup, she asks for a tookie, etc.

*She has started to change the teddy bear's diaper and she'll say 'lay back' and 'mediss' like we do when we change her diapers.  (Santa spoiler - she's getting a baby doll for Christmas and she is going to LOVE it!)

*She is getting better about using her manners.  We still have to remind her more often than not to say 'thank you' and 'please', but she is now saying, 'Thank you, Daddy!' and 'Thank you, Mommy!'

*She has also started to say 'Bye bye, Daddy!' if he has to leave before us in the morning.  She'll also get behind us and push our legs and say 'Come on, Mommy!' if we are trying to leave and one of us is being slow.

*She'll grab Jason's hands and pull and grunt to help him up.

*When she gets tired and ready for bed, she'll bring us the Aquaphor and say 'whip' because we put a little bit of the Aquaphor on her lip before bed so her 'daci' (pacifier) doesn't irritate her mouth.  Speaking of bed, she loves going to bed and asks for it a lot of nights.  We give her a hug and a kiss, put her in her crib, close the door and we don't hear from her again until morning.  It is pretty awesome.

*When I tell her that we are about to do something she'll say 'Ok!' in this really emphatic voice.

*A few weeks ago I asked her to give me a hug and it dawned on me that unless I showed her how to really give a hug, she wouldn't know.  So I took her arms and I showed her how to wrap them and really squeeze. Now she gives the BEST squeezing hugs ever.

*When she wants to be picked up and carried she'll say, 'Hold it!'

*When she gets 'hurt' (she is so super dramatic, so hurt would be in air quotes if I could) she'll come over and say, 'Foot. Hurt. Kiss it.' and when we do she'll say, 'All better!'

*She calls nuggets 'nunnets' and says 'nummy' for yummy.

*She calls ice cream 'i keem'.

*The whole time she is in time out now she says 'Listen. Carowine. Listen.'  At least she's got the right idea!

This is just a little bit of what she is doing that is awesome and funny and perfect.  She is a fantastically weird little person and I am so lucky that I get to be a part of her growing up.  She is so smart and she is learning so much every single day.  The words she says and the things that she can do never cease to amaze me.  My sweet little girl is growing up so quickly and I want to remember all that I can!  I love you, whack a doo!

To Ask A Question Or Not, That Is The Question!

It really is true that once you think you've got the hang of things, you get a whole new batch of new things to become the 'master' of.  We are in a new batch of things right now.

It's been a while now that Caroline has been able to say the word no.  It was one of her first few words and it was super cute those first few times she said it.  Fast forward to her sassy 21 month self, and no has taken on every bit of of its intended meaning.  When she says no, she now knows exactly what it means and she is beginning to find out the repercussions of saying those two little letters at the wrong time.  She has gotten her butt popped a few times and she has had her butt put into time out a good few times for saying no to us when we ask her to do something (which begs the question why her butt gets punished for what her mouth is doing!).  Now we, as her parents,  are having to watch what we say - and I don't mean in terms of cuss words.  We have to watch how we phrase everything we say to her and make sure that any question we ask her, she really can say no.  We can't say, 'Hey, Caroline, do you want to go take a bath?' when we know darn well her behind is getting in the bathtub whether she wants to or not.  I had no idea how often I would be inclined to ask her a question instead of telling her what to do.  I guess in a perfect world I would ask her if she wanted to do everything and she would do exactly what I want for her to do every time.  But this world is far from perfect and that isn't the way that we all roll.  So now if I need for her to put the book back that she got out, I make sure to say, 'Caroline, put that book back.'  When we are having dinner, I ask, 'Hey, do you want some strawberries for dinner,' and if she says no, I offer something else.  Granted, I don't give her the option of cookies and ice cream for dinner, but usually when I give her the choice between strawberries and apple sauce, she will pick what she wants and it will be gone in a few seconds!

Do we get this right every time?  Of course not.  I catch myself asking her something and then starting to get mad when she says no, but when I think about it I just asked her if she wanted to do something and no was a  perfectly good answer.  So I try to be aware of it so that she knows exactly when I mean business about something and when she has a chance to pick for herself.  The world is a much better place when she knows I mean business!