Dreaming of Alaska

Georgia says funny things.  Sometimes her word choice makes me wonder what kind of commentary she is actually making about MY speech.  For example, today in the car she told me "you need to go the speed lemon so you don't get a ticket".  That got me wondering-- do I talk with a nasal sound?  because how do you get "lemon" from "limit"?  She still calls a crayon a "crown".  This confusion, I believe, must be due to the draw of the Oklahoma accent.  She says "dis" and "dat" instead of "this" and "that"-- perhaps from Rodolfo's accent.  And then, she has these questions-- 3 year olds are full of questions!  Sometimes very difficult to answer questions.  For awhile after Easter she kept asking me if we have bodies in heaven.  I finally admitted that I didn't know and we would have to ask around.  Lately the question has been, "mom, why does it have to be morning, night, morning, night?"  As she says, she would prefer it to be "morning, morning, morning".  And when I tell her she would still have to sleep when the rotation of the day went morning, morning, morning she just gives a rumpled "hmph" for an answer.  I went on to explain that in places like Alaska half the year is morning, morning, morning.  That made her think and stop asking questions for about a week.  Last night she came running in my room, terrified of trolls (she said she saw trolls on a ride at Disney, I don't remember them).  After some time of motherly love and care I got her calmed down and back into her bed.  Then she sweetly said looking into my eyes, "Mom, I'm not scared anymore, I'm going to think happy thoughts."  "Very good", I replied, thinking she meant she was going to remember me and the love I gave her.  "What are your happy thoughts?" I inquired.  Without blinking she replied "Mom, I'm going to dream about Alaska."  This was totally not what I was expecting and really funny to me.  It is funny how their little minds are always ticking and thinking about things you have long forgotten you said.  She must have enjoyed dreaming about Alaska where it is morning, morning, morning six months out of the year because she slept all the way through the night!

Bubble Dreams

Gigi and I have quite a routine for bedtime.  It is not the simple bath, book, bed anymore.  No, it is way more elaborate than I could have ever schemed.  She prefers to select a toy that will listen to the story, then we all read the story together, talk about the story, watch a slide-show of one of 7 princess slides (she received a mini-projector for Christmas last year), then talk, giggle, tickle, lay quietly and then say goodnight.  And her goodbyes remind me of the way French correspondence is formally ended-- with flowery flattery.  Tonight she told me, "mom I hope you have sunshine dreams, princess dreams, candy-dreams AND EVEN BUBBLE DREAMS!"  She took a deep breath before she blurted out the bubble dream part.  It was like it was the absolute highest confectionary honor she could bestow on me for the evening.  It was utterly adorable.

Georgia Girl

Georgia is rounding out and looking more and more like a child and less like a toddler. She has grown about 2 inches since her birthday in August. As such, she has been eating tremendous amounts of food. Every night before she goes to bed she asks if she can have a midnight snack. In part this is her sneeky way of extending her evening before bedtime. But my oh my can she eat when she has this snack. Typically she eats a banana, a pb&j sandwich, water and or milk. She has also been saying funny things. The other day she asked me what a moth eats. I told her they eat clothes and other things... then I added we should look up what other things moths eat. After a few minutes I looked over at her, and there she was, looking up at the ceiling. I asked her why she was doing that and she replied "you said to look up what moths eat, so I'm looking up." Ha! :) Also, for those in the family who get this one, the other day I blew in Gigi's ear and told her "I just gave you goose bumps." She then blew in my ear and said matter of fact "I just gave you bird poopoo." Oh!! :)):):):) I died laughing!

Funny Looks

Georgia's expressions are getting really dramatic. She expresses a lot with her eyes and mouth. Here is one of her looks. I think it means, Mom, why are you taking so many pictures?

Here she is enjoying her afternoon snack (a pear) and Wally looking on with one thought in mind, how to steal the pear from her hand.

Georgia also has been inventing words. I've already told you about her word for sunglasses-- adah. She also has 2 new names for Wally, Leisel (which is not invented, it comes from the Sound of Music) and Mapda. When she wants something but can't think of what it is called she calls the item a "gulpi, gulpi". She also will shout when she is really excited "pat-a-poing". These words, as unusual as they look, are very present and repeated in her vocabulary. I think babies come equipped to invent language and although they learn the ones that they are around my guess is that they could create a complex language system all their own if they were left up to it!

Beyond made up words, she is also putting together some really funny sentences. On Sunday in the car she told me, "Mommy, I need a kleenex, I have some lady bugs in my nose". I gave her a tissue and then she handed it back a little later saying all the lady bugs were gone. Then, on the way home from church she said that she needed another kleenex because her "nose was running away from her". I had to laugh!

Ahdah

Georgia is saying and doing really hilarious things. Today I loudly sneezed twice and afterward she put her hands over her ears and said "Mommy's sneeze blows my ears out". Ha! It is true, I do have a loud sneeze. One time I set off our house alarm by sneezing.

Some words she mis-pronounces. At her school they sing a song before they eat. The end of the song they sing "A-amen, A-amen." However, when Gigi sings the song she says "A-amint, A-amint." This is probably because she and I would eat mint out of our garden this summer. We were always talking about the mint when we were outside.

The word she uses for "downstairs" is "downsteins". The word for "pillow" is "pudd-o" and my favorite, when she wants her sunglasses in the car she asks for her "ahdah". I don't know how she came up with "ahdah" for "sunglasses". The word in Spanish is "lentes" or "gafas". Which, now that I think about it, perhaps she is mixing up the word "gafas", but whatever she has done, I'm pretty sure that she has invented a new word with that one. Here is a picture of her in the car on our way to church a couple of Sundays ago with her "adahs" on!