Food for Thought

The other day Mike did some rearranging in the school room (which I was supposed to help finish and didn't...I'll get right on that); from one cabinet in the schoolroom he pulled out a bin that holds old food containers that have been cleaned (or didn't need to be cleaned, but were just set aside) for Math purposes.  Some of the lessons use a grocery store setup to teach about money.  I saved a bunch of cereal boxes, milk jugs, yogurt containers, and other boxes from dried goods or snack foods and stored them in this Rubbermaid bin.

Eliana quickly discovered the box and cried out,"Open!  Open!"  It was urgent, a matter of the utmost importance.  Here was a container that she had never seen before, with things in it that she had never laid her hands on.  As soon as the top was off she was busy unpacking; you know, I could really use that to my advantage, now that I think about it...but we won't go there tonight.  Oh, no.

She pointed to the yogurt carton and said,"Eat that.  Eat?"  Yogurt is one of her favorites.  "'Art-a-art."  Heart-to-Heart, also high on her list of three things that she will eat very regularly.  She was busy for the next fifteen minutes, doing her own rearranging, examining, and opening the boxes that had been packed.

Now, in order to fit as many things as I could in the bin, I put smaller boxes inside bigger boxes, and then put those boxes inside even larger ones.  She came across several boxes that looked familiar, and got excited.  For example,"Crackers!  Yay, crackers!  Have some."  She scooted up onto the couch and got ready for a snack. A box of macaroni and cheese!  Well, not exactly what she thought she would find, but considering it is also one of the few things she likes, she had no problem making the transition... I had to burst her bubble on the mac and cheese, so she moved on to something else... Back to the yogurt...but, alas, it was empty as well.  "Eat?", she says.  Will someone feed this child, please?

While it was fun to watch her dig through this stuff what I enjoyed even more was hearing her comments and listening to her exclamations.  She is talking more and more each day.  She repeats whatever she hears, and then remembers it at a later time, too.  There is all kinds of sweetness, like,"Love you!", or just when she screams,"Daddy," or Michaela's, or Christian's name in excitement.  Then there are fun things like,"Top it!" (stop it), "Move!", or "Have it!" Here is a list of the funnier things she says these days (for the grandfolks especially!):

"Awesome!"

"I-seem"-this can be ice cream, or sunscreen

"Pool!" usually followed by "Yay!"

And I just love the way she says certain words..."boo-t" instead of book (With the same "oo" as in book, not like in boot.  That would just be weird.), "shoe-on" instead of just shoe, "nilt" for milk, "mahr-ters" for markers.  I can already see things changing, too.  I remember when she ended words with an -ee sound, like "opee" instead of open, but now she says it correctly.  I'm savoring the sweet pronunciations while they are still around.  It lets me believe she's still so little for a bit longer...

Comments

[Mindee@ourfrontdoor]

I know. I just love the mispronunciations. It's so sweet.

You should put the empty containers in your kitchen cupboards just to further mess with her. heh-heh!

[Kristina Zirschky]

Yes, aren't the words of little ones so cute. I love listening to Anna. She has already changed Melmo to Elmo. So sad. I loved hearing melmo. I love your most recent post too. So fun and interesting. I love it!