toddler speak

[smileswhf]

In most things, DG has lagged a little behind where the other babies are at. She had so much gastric distress as a newborn that J & I didn't push the belly time as much as we should have. She was a little slow on the sitting. Definitely slow on the rolling over. Of the 10 babies born in July, she is the last of them to walk.

The women that I took birth classes with have all kept in touch and we get together every 3 months to chat and look at these 6 amazing babies. Last month we met up at the local park. DG couldn't go because she was contagious with strep, so I went by myself. One of the moms asked about words and everyone universally said "mama & dada." In this one instance, DG seems to be a bit ahead of the curve. DG has said at various times: mama, da, mih (milk), ba-ti (bathtime) and bk (book). A couple of weeks ago I started bike-commuting to work again. When she saw me putting my pannier on my bike and getting ready to go, she said "bye-bye" and waved, then blew me a kiss. It was so cute. She hasn't said it since. It's her MO. She will say a word, get it right. J & I will reinforce it, applaude, make a big deal about it and that's it. She won't say it again for weeks. My mother complained about me doing similar things as a toddler. I suspect she has some similar wiring going on. And, like, whatever. She is clearly learning language at a phenomenal rate. J & I both had wacky learning curves as kids. She's entitled to be just as wacky. The down side to being accepting and relaxed about her lack of speaking is that I don't actually expect her to say things.

Last night, she was starving and just couldn't wait dinner until J got home from work. I did the right thing and fed her. She was happily wandering around, playing with toys and generally introducing more chaos into the house while J & I had dinner. At some point, she came round and was hanging on the base of her high chair 6 inches away from me when all signs indicate poo. I say to her, rhetorically, "Are you having a poo?" She replies, "yeah." Wait, what? Not long after that, dinner is finished, the diaper is changed and we are sitting on the floor reading. I turn the page and say "A cow says..." Before I can finish, DG says "moo." And then in the next book, the cow said moo again. And then in the third book (why are children's books rife with farm animals?), the cow was still saying moo. I expect the cow will say moo again in another month or two.

What I would really like to know is where are the books for suburban kids? And what does the leaf blower say?

Comments

[chuckvideo.livejournal.com]

Ha! I see an untapped marked for children's books.
The UPS man says ... "delivery!"
The man at the TV repair shop says "sorry, waiting on parts."
The auto mechanic says, "whoowee, I haven't seen a leak this bad in ages!"

I remember watching a skit by comedian Brian Regen where he's reading a children's book to his kid,
Holding the book on his lap and reading the title, "Tick Tock"
Turns the page, "The clock says tick tock."
Turns to the next page, "Tick tock says the clock."
Turns the page to the back cover, "twelve dollars."

That cracked me up to no end.

[smileswhf.livejournal.com]

Hah! So true.

I have been thinking about trying my hand at writing some children's books. Most of them are so devoid of content, it's hard to do worse. I'm not much of an artist, but in this day and age of mixed media and computers, I could probably come up with something. I could start with my neighborhood -- the leaf blowers and the lawn mowers, the neighbor washing the sidewalk with the pressure washer hooked up to a compressor, the boyfriend of the teenage girl across the street honking the horn on his truck right outside our dining room window when he picks her up on a date. Ah, home.

[cwendy41.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the dog that starts barking at all the noise, and the old man who yells because he's trying to take a nap.

[chuckvideo.livejournal.com]

Of course the instigator in me says "go for it!" And as you mentioned with the ability to create and use media with a computer, it should be rather easy to come up with pleasing, "child friendly" graphics. I mean how hard was it for Matt and Trey to come up with those South Park characters?

I think it's worth at least an outline, and then take the next step ... and the next ...