I love hearing Natalie talk and see how her language develops. She has a lot to say – and a lot of funny expressions to go along with her stories. Here are a few of my favorite Nat-isms…
“So me”… as in “I like bananas…” “So me!” (“I do too” or “Me too.”)
“Next by to me”…. as in “Sit next by to me” instead of “Sit next to me” or “Sit by me”
And, the rest of these aren’t as much about how her language is developing, but patterns and mannerisms she is developing.
Whenever we read stories now, she adamantly calls out “STOP!” I always need to wait for her to – one-by-one – put each Mousey behind her neck “so I can see better”
When Elliott cries, she runs as fast as she can to attend to him and says “It’s okay buddy.”
Her insistence on being the “line leader” (Clearly, a special privilege learned from preschool).
I’m the line leader! Where should I take you, Jack?
Her increasingly effective negotiation skills. Last night…
- Mom: “Natalie, only 2 more minutes.”
- Natalie: “No 5!”
- Mom: “How about a compromise…. 3 minutes”.
- Natalie: “4!”
- (Insert Daddy chuckle)
- Mom: “Okay – 4 minutes” (The grand thing about this is she really doesn’t know how long 4 minutes is so it was actually much less than that.)
She’s also developing a better sense of past and future…. anything that happened in the past is “yesterday” and anything coming up is “tomorrow”. However, tonight, when she was eating some chicken that Jordan actually made for tomorrow, I asked her if she would like to have that chicken again tomorrow. She got very upset, as she thinks I would take it away from her right then and doesn’t seem to understand we can eat it again the next day. (Our whole life is leftovers… with getting home from work around 5:30, there’s no way I could get dinner on the table if it wasn’t leftovers every night).
Her interest in collecting everything. Besides the growing number of stuffed animal friends (reference the most recent post), she has commandeered a basket that used to be in my nightstand, in which I kept rosaries, ear plugs and my mini iPod. It started with Natalie always going back to use her “phone” (aka my mini iPod)… tonight, Natalie purposefully placed the basket on top of Elliott’s mat, so that tomorrow she can play with the “phone,” rosaries, car, Thomas the Train and who knows whatever else is in there.
Her insistence on wearing her blue “Bella” (the whale dress) almost everyday this week. (Similar to Aunt Leah’s Big Bird Dress when she was 3 or 4…. Natalie actually displays a lot of characteristics that remind me of her Aunt. – I just hope Natalie decides to live closer to me than her Aunt does!)
And, as I may have mentioned before, the justification with why she needs something, “Because I’m 2 and a half.” or “Because I like it”.
I’m being a goof-a-loof!