I find myself jotting down little things that my kids say at any given moment on scraps of paper - sticking them all over the house like so many leech-y reminders.
So I don’t forget.
I just don’t want to forget all the cute things that they’re saying now - at this moment when they are 4 and almost 7.
All the made-up words that they throw into the conversation with pride.
All the repeated, where-did-they-learn-that-word? words.
All the hows and whys.
The innocence.
This is one of the main reasons I started this blog.
I just want to be able to look back and go, “Oh my gosh, I remember when she used to say that!” Because I have a feeling that I DIDN’T do such a good job at that up until this point.
There are things that others will remind me of that I’ll go, “Oh, I had forgotten that!” Or, we’ll torture ourselves to fits of laughter and sentimental tears get out the old videos, and I’ll think, “How could I have forgotten that she said ’school bus’ like that?”
I guess I am not alone when I say that I take many of these things for granted. That we just pretty much eke out our existence day to day, and imagine that we will remember all of these things.
Simply because we are surrounded by them all the time, and they seem to fill our very being to its core.
How could we forget?
Who knows? But, we do. We move on from this place, and forge ahead to that place.
That place where our kids are not kids anymore, but are doing things like going to school. Dressing and feeding themselves. Having attitudes. Being picky about clothes and hair styles. *sigh*
So, here goes. In the spirit of NOT forgetting - if for no other reason but to make ME smile when I look back upon this - I am determined to do this whenever I feel the need. :-)
Kae first - She seems to be the one that generates the most giggles for her language faux-pas.
*”Mom, come look at the pom-pom tree (palm tree) I colored for you!”
*”TING!” - when she’s finished brushing her teeth, and she is making the farkle sound.
*”Isn’t this moon sand tremilious?” A new word for tremendous, familiar, and delicious? fabulous? Who knows? But, it sounded good to her at the time. She’s good at making up words.
*”I wish those early birds weren’t quite so early! They woke me up with their noisy chirping!” I hear ya, sister!
*She replaces “th”s with an “f” sound - “Fanks” (thanks) ”Grandma Kafy” (Kathy) ”Free” (three) But she’s trying SO hard to work on the “th” sound. So “three” almost comes out as “fthjumblespitree“
Both girls say “toot” instead of…well you know. I’m not even sure how that one got started, because I certainly never used to call it that, but whatever. It’s a little less crass in public (if it MUST be announced, and it always must be).
Noelle is sort of past the stage of saying silly words or repeating things that are silly. She’s too cool for that.
Although, I do recall her replacing the word “hinkle” for any extremity below her torso. You know. Before she was all grown up and too cool to say silly things like that.
Sometimes its the questions about the world or the way things work that really get me. She’s still curious about a lot of things, but she gets very touchy if we even crack a smile over something that we think is cute because of its innocent blunder.
How dare we?
The other day, she was asking me if grown ups had to just choose one job.
“Like, when I grow up, do I HAVE to say, ‘I’m going to be a veterinarian’, but then if I decide that I don’t LIKE being a veterinarian, I can change?”
Excellent question, my dear.
I recall fumbling through some explanation - biting my tongue a lot.
I really want her to feel that she can be anything and do anything. I don’t want to sully her outlook on the world or what it means to grow up.
I so remember thinking, as a child, how much I didn’t want to grow up, because it looked so hard and I didn’t think I could handle it.
Shhh. Sometimes I still think that.
