Saturday, September 21, 2013

Landry Speak

I love words. My children love several words in particular.  I've already written about Jack's fondness for actually (which has been dialed down lately.)  Cora has latched on to the tactic of repeating the same word over and over to make sure you know what she wants.

CORA-SPEAK

She's a girly girl that likes to play with her bows!
"Wawa" - two different people at her school commented this week, "Wow, she really likes her water." She asks for it repeatedly.

"Da(n)dee" - this means blankie, but to the church nursery workers, they heard "Daddy" and greeted me with "She cried the whole hour asking for her Daddy and pointing to this other child's blanket..."

"Uh-oh" - used when she's made a mistake, when she's about to make a "mistake", or she thinks you've made a mistake, as in "uhoh-uhoh-uhoh-uhoh" and pointing to what she wants you to do for her and which you've obviously forgotten to do.

"Dada" - maybe the first picture she saw was of her Daddy but any man in a picture is "dada" (including Nelson Mandela on the spine of his autobiography on our bookshelf). However, I'm also "dada" in pictures.  She lights up when she sees my wedding portrait and says "Dada!"  She will correctly say "Dja-dja" and "baby" for Jack and herself, but I remain "Dada."
 
"Ah dee" - means all done.  It may actually mean she's done, but it is also used to signify an empty plate after she's dropped every bit of food on the floor.  She will also put it on REPEAT when she's done but you haven't gotten the message, as in "Ah-dee, ah-dee, ah-dee" with a waving hand to knock the piece of food you are offering also onto the floor.

"Uh-uh" - means NO! and she will just keep saying it until you listen.  She's a feisty one these days!

"Dja-dja" (said with a twitch, hands making fists, and arms stretching out) - she is always so excited when she sees her brother!  Her teacher loves to tell me how she does this whenever Jack's name is mentioned.



I think a parent probably never gets over thinking their firstborn is so clever.  I mean they are the one hitting all the milestones first.  Plus when you're in love with someone, you think everything they do is cute :)  So on to brother Jack:

JACK-SPEAK

"quite" - as in "I can't quite remember."
"triple superlatives" - as in "the biggest, most biggest game of Memory ever!" or "the biggest, most biggest game of Hide and Seek in the world!"


And this kid has his quirks too.  He now HAS to cycle through the same list of requests every night before bed.  If you leave before he's done or if he forgets one, he calls you back (or cries).
"Mommy, will you tell me when it's morning and tell Daddy to tell me when it's morning and will you give me a kiss in a little while and will you tell Daddy to give me a kiss too?"

Also: if you say "Jack, you have 2/5/10 more minutes" he without fail responds:
"5 more LONG minutes" to which you must respond or else he'll keep asking

This comes up in parks and playdates and before most transitions, but amusingly the other day his friend was told to share his bike with Jack in three more minutes, to which Jack responded "3 more SHORT minutes, okay?" 

Why would you want to leave the park when you are having this much fun!?






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