Funny and Precious Toddler Moments: Things Toddlers Say

Darah, the other night, exclaimed "what happened" (well, more like "waat happeeeen") after the cardboard toilet paper roll that she was playing with fell off the couch. Now she says it often. Like, for instance, after she puts food down her lap she will say "waat happeeeen" before putting more food in her secret place.

She has just learned to take this command: "Kiss your foot." She will hold each of her feet to her mouth and say "mmmm muh."

I announced to Darah that we were trying to call Gramma Sue, and she sang "tap tap tap" to herself..."tap tap tap" is part of a song that Gramma Sue sings to her over Skype ("Wind, wind, wind the thread...tap, tap, tap...Mr. Shoemaker mend my shoe, have it done by half past two...")

If I say "are you going to sing a song," she will start to sing a song to herself (granted it's usually one that I am unfamiliar with).

She has a tennis-player doll with blue hair named Sue Blue (after her Gramma Sue)that she carries all over the house. She makes Sue Blue climb the floor lamp, ride the pony, sit on the toddler chair, and sometimes she puts her on the table and then looks at me to let me know that she knows Sue shouldn't be on the table.

The other night, we were watching a movie with Darah (she was sitting between us on the couch). It was too scary for her (A Night at the Museum), and as soon as the displays at the museum started coming to life she said "Ut oh, ut oh, ut oh." Well, we turned it off pretty soon after that. She was very anxious about it but could not keep her eyes off of the television. She was very serious about it and very upset. A few minutes after we turned the movie off, she said "ah pooey, ah pooey," which we soon figured out meant "I pooped."

And just now she opened her dresser drawer, took out a pair of shorts, shut the drawer, and walked the shorts across the room where she placed them on the floor. She repeated the behavior, and on the second try the drawer did not close totally so she gave it an extra push. Oh, she just shut her fingers in it. "Ohhh" she whined. She went back for more. She pulled out a pair of pants and said "pint," and then proceeded to put them on her head. She will surely take every item out of the drawer. She loves clothing. We don't have any fun costumes for her (I guess we need to take a trip to the thrift store for some scarves).

Darah's sweet nature comes out so often, especially when she hugs her animals makes them kiss each other (and us). There is a lot of kissing going on in our house. It seems to be a (or The) central experience in our house.

She calls marshmallows and some other things "chimies," for some reason.

She loves clothing, and frequently wears Sandy's bras around the house - petting them lovingly as they hang over her shirt.

She is in the process of figuring out the difference between "all gone" and "all done." Sometimes she gets it, but she definitely prefers "all gone."

During most meals, she blows on some of her (cold) food items and says, "hot." We say, "cold," and she repeats "hot." We are convinced we scarred her when we had a plate of candles burning on the coffee table. I said "No, HOT. Be careful. Hot. Ouch..." when she approached the candles. She was very concerned about the candles after I scared her, and ever since she has been saying "hot" all the time, quite indiscriminately.

Well it's no surprise, but she is obsessed with ice cream. We started buying ice cream for me for dessert. I share mine with her. But now all she thinks about and wants is "iye ceem." If Sandy goes in the freezer for something, Darah starts begging for "iye ceem," saying "pees" ("please") and visiting each of us, frantically. The other night, though, she shocked us both. She took a box of waffle bowls out of the cupboard and brought them to me and said "iye deem?" It took me a second to figure out that she was asking me for ice cream. I didn't know how she would make the connection between the waffle bowl box and the ice cream since she had never seen the box before. But there on the box was a picture of an ice cream sundae covered in sprinkles and the works. She must have recognized the image as ice cream somehow.

She pulls animals out of her pop up books (rips them out) and then frets - "ohhhh" or "ut oh" she says and brings them to me with a very concerned expression on her face. She doesn't know how to NOT rip them out of the book but she recognizes that something bad happened once they are ripped out.

Darah loves to play "Minkey" with Momma Sandy. "Minkey" or "Mink" are Darah's words for monkey. She loves to have Momma Sandy go all out and be a crazy monkey. She giggles and throws her head back. She has trouble when Sandy tries to end the game, though. Before Sandy even finishes her impression of a crazy monkey, Darah is already asking for more. "Moa, Moa, Moa Mink."

Darah is very good at making cat and kitty noises (like "wow," "weo," and "yeeeow,"). She makes other animals sounds, but not as well as she makes her cat sounds. She can do a "ruff" for a dog, an "ah" or "ooh" for a monkey, a "baa" for a sheep, a (very good) "moo" for a cow, and a few others, as well. She loves making animal sounds and reading about animals.

And, impressively (to us) Darah can point to many of her body parts/regions - such as her nose, head, hair, mouth, teeth, ears, eyes, feet, belly button/belly, hands, and fingers. She thinks she is having a baby, though. When I ask her where the baby is, she points to her belly.

Her interest and curiosity is endearing. The other day I was sitting, naked on the bathroom floor cutting my toenails. She started to point to my breasts with great interest. I called them "boobs" and "boobies." I think she thinks I have three boobies, one that is called "belly button" or "be bo." My pregnant belly button sticks out like a third nipple, so I am not surprised by her desire to connect all three nipples. I would think she might have some fixation with my breasts since she loved them and drank from them eight times a day for the first year of her life, but I think she only vaguely remembers them. I wonder what she will think when her sibling is breastfeeding.

While Darah was helping me put the crayons back in the box, she put on in upside down. She then said "ut oh," pulled it out and put it back in, right side up.

Darah is into make-believe and has been for a while. Today, as I was trying to put her down for a nap, she bopped me on the head with Beatrice Bunny. Then she said, "ut oh...chientow (gentle)" and pet my head. It was like she was teaching Beatrice to be a nice bunny.

Darah also managed to figure out how to (try to) open the Pella blinds. I never knew she was around when I opened or closed them (well, I never knew she was paying attention). To open/close the blinds, you have to twist a small piece of plastic that sits at the bottom corner of the windows and doors. Ever since we put the baby pool on the deck, Darah has been obsessed with looking out the window and begging for "Poo." I went to get her during one of her latest obsessive moments and found her, sitting on the floor, trying to turn the knob to open the blinds so that she could see her pool.