Funny Little 'N'

Our little 'N' has turned into a funny "Chatty Cathy" in the past few months. She talks constantly and mimics anything and everything the rest of us say around her. As any parent of a toddler can attest, hearing certain grown-up phrases come from such a small person just makes you laugh! Here are some of my favorites:

* "dat happnz" - After watching Peaches eat a dropped piece of food off the dining room floor, 'N' exclaimed "Peatzez ate da food!". I acknowledged her statement and said, "Yes Peaches did eat the food on the ground." 'N' responded with "Yeah, dat happnz" while gesturing with her hands in the air and shrugging her shoulders. Another time after spending the day at someone else's house, 'N' began telling me how she wouldn't use their toilet. "E's house, tee-tee in my diaper." I acknowledged and re-verbalized her sentence. 'N' replied, "Yeah, dat happnz."

* "un tine" - Every meal at our house is a creative balance on our girls' part to eat as much food as possible and tell as many random stories as possible. Every day I hear a recap from some movie or TV show they watched in the past month. Every meal I hear "Remember when . . . " from one of the girls. They are constantly recounting various events and stories that we've been involved with. (They seem to forget that I'm with them 95% of the time and remember all too well every story they are trying to tell me!) For the longest time this dinner conversation usually involved just 'R' and 'B'. Now little 'N' is in the mix too. She always begins her recap with "Un tine . . . " (that's "one time" for those of you who don't speak two year old) then rambles out a whole string of words (I usually catch a few nouns and can piece together the story), then nods her head knowingly and finishes with "Otay, mommy."

* "not fair" - This particular phrase, while adorable coming from little 'N', is one that will be broken quickly as it is one of my pet peeves. She has picked it up from the 7 year old, who is also in the process of being broken of this phrase. Twice in the last week, when 'N' has wanted to get down from the dining room table and has received instructions from me to eat one or two more bites, 'N' has quickly crossed her little arms, scowled her forehead, and answered "Not Fair, Mommy! Not Fair!"

* "so koot" - Everything these days to 'N' is "so koot". Every dog, cat, or baby we see is "so koot". Today even the clouds and the airplane in the sky were "so koot".

* "what doing?" - Sometimes this phrase is asked in the car and really means "where are we going?" Sometimes it is asked when I am making dinner or working on other chores around the house. Part of it comes from the innate 2 year old curiosity, but part of this comes from the fact that any time I can't see or hear 'N' this same question is asked of her. She's only being fair and asking the same of me.

* "Peatzeez . . . " - This is the way 'N' says Peaches and she is constantly bossing this poor dog around. She knows to slap her thigh and say, "Peatzeez, here" or "Peatzeez, kennel". The best one is when 'N' purposely takes Peaches' bone or ball or whatever she's playing with and then runs away. Of course Peaches chases her with 'N' laughing hysterically the whole time. Unfortunately Peaches is still pretty big on little girl, so she inevitably ends up knocking her down or running her over. Then the phrase becomes "Peatzeez hurt me!"