Sunday, March 8, 2009

What are the Cookies Doing?

They say that English is the hardest language to learn.

Over the past couple of years, since moving beyond 2-word phrases, I've been intrigued by many a sentence that Big Brother has uttered. As he continues to "learn how to talk", his syntax and phrasing (particularly for requests) seems to reflect his personality--observant, imaginative, and reserved (well, mostly).

I'll share two of my recent favorite phrases:

1. "What is _____ doing?"

Yesterday we bought some Girl Scout cookies, and he spotted them on the kitchen counter at lunch. With a bashful grin and batting of eyelashes, he asked,

"What are the cookies doing?"

Enjoying a party in the box about which I am unaware? Trying to run away from the hand that's about to grab and eat them? Deciding which of my coronary arteries to lodge into?

Of course, this is his convoluted way of asking, "Can a cookie come out of the box and disappear into my belly?"

Nope, that's still convoluted, I mean "Can I have a cookie, please?"

He repeats this mantra for many things that he wants (but suspects that he probably won't get) or thinks about, breathing life and vigor into inanimate objects and philisophy alike.

"What's that lollipop doing?", "What's Mount Rushmore doing?", "What's evil doing?", "What's Christmas doing", "What's my birthday party when I'm 5 doing?"

Of course, each of these requires very carefully thought out answers.

2. "My Playdoh is sick with a fever. I have to play with it so that it feels better."

I guess we got a batch of Playdoh with a bad immune system?

He loves to ask to do this about 5 minutes before we have to leave for church. I guess Big Brother has picked up on our empathy towards him when he gets a "bug", and is "using" it against us. How could Mom-E or I refuse to let him care for a sick toy?

Again, his creativity in the way he phrases this request makes me chuckle.


And so, now I'd love to hear from YOU! Tell me about the fun ways your children have asked for or phrase things. These should be fun to share.

Gotta go for now. Time to go eat my cookie.

Cheers,
Busy-Dad-E

10 comments:

  1. Those are funny phrases. Kids do say the funniest things.

    Sure, I would love to share one of Kaitlyn's recent thought. Kaitlyn has recently refused to fall asleep in her bed and has been wanting to fall asleep in our bed; she says that there are monsters in her bedroom. Therefore at the moment instead of having complete meltdown before bedtime I have let her do it the last few nights (I know its a bad idea, but sometimes as parents we must choose our battles). Of course as soon as she falls asleep we move her to her bedroom. Well the other morning she actually slept the whole night in her room. I hear her slam the door to her bedroom and run to our bed where we are still asleep. This is what she said when she reached our bed, "Mama, I sleep in my room. I am okay" The way she said it sounded as though she was in disbelief and completely surprised that she survived in her bedroom. It was too cute and pitiful at the same time.

    Rosi

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  2. Thanks for breaking the ice, Rosi. That is really cute. Hope all of you are well.

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  3. Very creative little one you have there. I'm very impressed with the sick playdoh comment. :)

    Our little one is only 11 months old...so the conversation from her end is only caveman speak right now.

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  4. So far in our house, we're just crying when we want to eat! haha...I'm looking forward to many funny phrases in the future! -Aunt-E

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  5. @Isabella: Although its caveman-speak now, two times-around now I've been utterly amazed by the development of a child's speech between ages 1 and 2. Big, exciting changes ahead.

    @Aunt-E: I'm sure our boys will exchange many priceless phrases in the near future.

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  6. Oh, I have a new one for you.....

    Miss Kaitlyn would live outside in our backyard if given the opportunity. She is outside all day long here and the cold or heat does not seem to phase her.

    So, today after her bath I was letting the dogs out and she tells me, "mama, I need to go poop too!" Mind you that she is in the buff (refusing to put on her clothing) and wants to go outside pushing her doll's stroller. Go figure!

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  7. That's too funny, Busy-Dad-E!

    My oldest uses "Daddy, I have a GREAT idea..." when he wants to do something and trys to convince us what a great idea it would be. "Daddy, I have a GREAT idea! How about you take me to Toys-R-Us and buy me a new lego toy? Isn't that a great idea?"

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  8. @Rosiris: That's very funny. Glad that Kaitlyn has moved past the monsters in her room and has tured her attention elsewhere. We've *never* had issues with toddlers at our house wanting to go around naked, *ahem, ahem, ahem*

    @Super Mega dad: Thanks for sharing this. I like it. It reminds me of how every time we go to Target, Big Brother says "Dad-E, I just want to LOOK at toys, okay?" Amazingly, the majority of the time he's content to look, but it's like morning coffee--he needs his fix. It's hard for me not to laugh when our kids use our own logic against us.

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  9. When Busy Mom-E was a little girl, I always used to have her sit on the sofa with me to talk over something that was not going right i.e. misbehaving. One day there was something that she didn't like about what we were doing or something...I can't remember the details, but she said, "Now Mommy, I want you to sit on the couch with me and talk about this"

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  10. @Gramm-E: That's too funny! Busy-Mom-E claims amnesia for that one.

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