Punny

Emmy: "What are you doing, Mommy?"
Me: "I'm putting mascara on, Honey"
Peter: "It's called mascara because it 'masks' the 'scara' parts!"

Sound Bites from a Three Year Old

Emmy's increasing verbal skills are a source of wonder, amusement, astonishment, and, rarely, embarrassment and/or frustration. Most of the time we're just in awe at how fast her mind works - how quickly she picks up language and modifies things she hears to suit her own purposes.

Here's a small sampling of what we're hearing lately:

1) "I don't WANT to!" (heard entirely too frequently for Mommy's and Daddy's taste)

2) After time out in the "naughty chair" and an explanation of why she was put there:

Emmy: "I want to say I'm sorry to Mommy, Mommy."

Mommy: "OK, sweetheart."

Emmy: *gently pats Mommy's shoulder and says in woeful voice* "Sorry, Mommy!"

3) "Mommy, I'm scared of the scratchy monster!" (stalling technique used at bedtime)

4) "I miss you SOOOOOO much!" (how adorable is that? Mommy can't resist that kind of thing)

5) Given the chance to talk to Grandma on the phone tonight - spoken all in one breath: "Grandma, I have ouchy toes! I took a bath with Daddy, Grandma! I drew pictures on the bathtub, Grandma! Mommy has an itch! I make Mommy laugh, Grandma!"

Favorite word mispronunciations:

1) con-CU-ber (computer)

2) um-DUM-bra (umbrella)

3) tel-uh-BIH-jun (television)

4) be-MEM-ber (remember)

5) kuh-SPLORE (explore)

Lately she's displayed a real affinity for silliness (those are pants on her head in the photo above). She loves to make up silly rhymes and modify the words to well-known songs. On one of her favorite shows, a character was having a hard time remembering the word "star" while performing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and substituted other words and made up verses to rhyme as follows:

"Twinkle, twinkle, little . . . little . . . ants! I've got purple underpants!"

"Twinkle, twinkle, little . . . little . . . hippopotamus! How I love your big gray bottomus!"

She thought that was HILARIOUS. Now she's taken to inserting a random word in place of the rhyming words at the end of each phrase. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Sigh" ("How I wonder what you sigh" etc.) is her current favorite - God only knows why.

You probably had to be there, but we just about died laughing the other night when at a critical point in the song "Jesus Loves Me" she inserted the word "poop." I don't want her to encourage her to continue to sing it that way, but the unexpectedness of it caught us completely off-guard, and we couldn't help the hysterical laughter that burst forth. We'll try to control ourselves next time.

Emmy delights in making us laugh. Here are a few of her favorite jokes:

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Cargo.

Cargo who?

Car go "Beep, beep!"

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Dwayne.

Dwayne who?

Dwayne the bathtub, I'm dwowning!

(Peter taught her that one - I love it!)

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Orange.

Orange who?

Orange you glad I didn't say banana again?

(an oldie but goodie)

I know I'm forgetting some priceless things she's said - I'll try to be better at writing them down from here on out.

Our Olympian

Emmy's reaction to watching Nastia Liukin perform her floor exercise routine in the all-around competition this week:

I wonder if I ought to get her enrolled in a dance or gymnastics class?