Out of the Mouths of Babes

With age comes new attempts at bigger and better vocabulary. Cody has been making us smile as he shares his unpolished new words and perspective on things lately. I thought I would share a few.

We have never been keen on teaching Cody proper usage of words for things that could possibly embarrass us in public. Besides, there is something sweet to be said of childhood innocence. So it came as no surprise when Cody opened up his Shrek Happy Meal toy from McDonald’s and it let out a rude belch that Cody responded with, “Uh-oh! Somebody opened the can!”, and we are just fine with that. If that is what he thinks it sounds like we will stick with that.

Giving Cody a bath the other morning he made a “noise” in the bathtub. In response, the water rippled, and Cody exclaimed, “Mommy, did you see the bubbles?!” Later that evening we were playing toys on the floor. Cody stopped abruptly and looked at me and questioned, “Did you hear the bubbles?”

While putting sunscreen on Cody before going to the pool Cody kept telling me he didn’t have a “nold.” I was trying to figure out what he was meaning, and then he rubbed his forehead and said, “See. I don’t have a nold like Daddy.” What he was meaning to say was “mole.”

He also surprises us with sweet words. For instance, while shopping at Target before church Cody picked up some stickers from the dollar bin. Shawn and I heard him walking down the aisle saying, “These are lovely stickers!” He also colored a picture for Anna the other day. When he gave it to her he told her it was “bootiful!”

Some of his new phrases are, “You think?,” “Sure enough,” and “I didn’t mean” instead of “I didn’t mean to.”

Even Anna at 16 months is communicating better. The other day, as I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes, she walked off with her cup. I went searching for it but could not find it. I asked her if she knew where it was, and she attempted to tell me with urgent grunts. I took her by the hand and told her to show me. She knew exactly what I meant and walked me over to her toy box, and there at the very bottom was her cup filled with milk. It was nice that she was able to communticate even this way, although the contents of the cup probably would have given itself away very quickly. Anna can say quite a few words now. Her latest attempt was at her name. We laughed when we heard it. She said to us “Ann-Nanna.” In other words, Anna Banana!