Rule number one of all writing tasks: Avoid cliches. Or so mom has been taught. So while I try not to rack my brain searching for another way to say kids say the darndest things, consider this:
While the age of two is most commonly pegged as terrible (and often reinforced in this very blog), we'd like to revisit our comment and re-label the twos as highly bipolar. This month anyway. As always, Carli and Joseph are nothing less than their outstanding selves, yet we are experiencing a huge pattern of inconsistency.
While enjoying the benefits of being strong enough to climb ropes, Carli loves the big girl behavior to be rewarded with a snuggle in her blanket as "little baby Carli". Immediately after throwing a tantrum, Joseph likes to re-group by cleaning up and reading his favorite book.
While their listening skills are still quite mature, this month they've decided to improve on it; not by becoming better listeners but by thinking outside the mega-blocks. Carli knows that she can only eat her meals at the table while sitting, And no running around with food, but who said anything about drinks? And does one raisin count as one bite? And if you ask for a peanut butter sandwich for a snack, can you run wild with it? Furthermore, if they both do it at the same time and mom and dad are conveniently out of range, did it really happen at all?
Mr. Joseph has decided that third person is a great way to make a point. It took mom and dad a few days to realize that "Doses es nunuh" is "Joseph says NO NO!" And until the moment of eureka, Joseph just looked at us like we were trying to feed him dirty socks. He did however, expect Carli to decipher it immediately, as he so demonstrated by screaming at her and trying to run her over with her toy baby carriage.
All this being said, despite mom and dad's combined exposure (and occasional fluency) in English, French, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, Mandarin and Italian, nothing leaves us feeling more ineffectual than trying to decode our toddlers' lexicon.
But say the darndest things, they do. Joseph's latest offensive move is a loud "AH -neee" (I need). To which Carli usually asks him, hands on hips, "Just what DO you need, Joseph?"
Or when Joseph, who is constantly being bombarded with requests to say, or repeat things, looked at mom one day and instead of saying "mom", as she asked him to, just gave a wink and blew a kiss.
We hope that you are enjoying your summer as much as we are!
We hope that you are enjoying your summer as much as we are!
