Edamame Puddlejumpers...and other Toddler-isms

We have never had much need to play the "airplane game" with E as a means to get her to eat. If anything, we need to slow her down sometimes. Which is a good problem to have, in my mind. Recently though, she has become a little more picky, and we have been known to butt heads a few times over dinner. One day last week, when she was refusing to eat the pasta that I knew she loved, I decided to try pulling out the old airplane spoon trick and yelling "Open the hangar!" so that it could "fly" into her mouth. Worked like a charm. And now we've created a monster. Now not only does she demand to "Play airplane game!" at dinner, but she's also insisting that we expand our fleet, with "Now helicopter!" The other night she was digging the edamame we were popping out of pods...not such a fan of the spicy tuna rolls...when I had the bright idea of introducing the "Puddlejumper" plane, "splashing" the spoon in for a landing. She loved it. The rest of the night was spent to the soundtrack of "EDAMAME PUDDLEJUMPER!!!" When this girl grabs on to something, she runs with it.

She really loves to say thank you. Every morning I let her stand on the toilet so I can put on my make-up and she can play with all of the fun things you find in mom's make-up drawer. This morning, after getting down safely she said "Thank you mama stand on toilet!" The other day we had to wait for the mall to open in Connecticut, and when we finally got inside she said "Thank you mall open!" When we're at the park and someone is playing with a toy she wants, she waits (usually patiently) until they're finished and then yells "Thank you!" as soon as they walk away from it. Or sometimes she just takes it from them, but at least she still says "Thank you!" as she's ripping it from their fingers. She's nothing if not polite.

She's always grinding Ralph's gears about barking, and now she's even started to frame the poor guy. She'll say "Ralph says, Woof! Woof!", and then goes over to Ralph and wags her finger at him, saying "No barking Ralph!" Sometimes she stands at the door of the laundromat yelling at him while he's tied up: "Ralph! No barking ever, ever, EVER!!!" He's developing a complex.

She has two chores - feeding Ralph and grinding coffee beans - that she performs with exuberance every day. When Ralph was recently on medication she even reminded us every day after putting food in his bowl: "Hey! Medicine! Ralph sick!" She loves to check the mail, she loves to dictate her mode of transportation ("Ergo! Not single stroller, not double stroller, not walking, not car. ERGO!") Or whichever one she's decided on that day. She has loads of sympathy, and says "poor guy" or "too bad" or "oh, mama" all the time for anything from seeing a baby crying at the park to missing a phone call.

And last night she made her first real joke. She was asking Dada what he was doing in the other room ("Doin' Dada?"), when she thought it would be funny to change his name to Baba. Hilarity ensued.

She is wonderful, and I can't get enough of her.