Toddler-Speak 101

We are enjoying this current phase of toddler speak, where almost every word is butchered, but at least we know what they mean most of the time. It's pretty darn cute :-)


The Chatty Cathy's

2012 Toddler Slang Dictionary
According to: Avery and Lauren

A-E = Avery

Why-A = Lauren (don't ask me how they got that one...but they both say it)

Tee-Tee = Taylor

Bubba = Brodie (they originally started calling him BoBo but we QUICKLY made them relearn it as Bubba...we just kept thinking of BoBo the clown!)

LoLo = Grandma Laurel ("Avery, who has chickens?" "LoLo!!")

Chee = Cheese (the most commonly requested food item in this household. Lauren requests it for literally every snack and meal.)

Ah-hee = "hot" anything, although usually in reference to hot dog. Again, how they got Ahi out of Hot, I do not know.
WaWa = self explanatory right?

Gobbee = Strawberry

BooBee = Blueberry

Nana = Banana

Shoes = Shoes...yay!

Yeg = Leg
Ahm = Arm

Mine = Man, also Mine

Yady = Lady

BuhBoon = Balloon

Beeg = Big

Elmo = Elmo :-)

Mo = More (usually Mo Mo, just to be sure we got the request for more!)

Bi = Bike, also Bite

Pay = Play

Plus the usual suspects...mama, dada, hi, bye, yeah, night night, booboo, nose, eye, up, down, off, on, uh-oh, baby, yay (always with clapping), and woah!
Ummmmm....off the top of my head that's all I can think of but they pop up so fast now that I'm sure I'm missing some.

Oh wait...did I mention NO??? Most popular word in toddler history. Ever.

And, if an ear piercing shriek could be translated as a word, trust me I would put it at the top of the list. 'Cause shrieking is a beloved pastime for my girls. Sigh. I guess living through toddlerhood will just make the silence that I will eventually get to enjoy in the oh-so distant future all the more beautiful. Until then, my doting husband keeps me fully stocked up on earplugs :-)




Caught on tape (best video EVER!)

I'm not going to lie. I'm a bit of a schedule nazi. That was one of the things that was drilled into me when I was pregnant, and I really took that advice to heart. Routine is king around these parts, and naptime is a lovely piece of wonderfulness in the middle of my day. Let me tell you, nothing will ruin my mood faster than a naptime gone wrong. Now, ever since we did our sleep training at 10.5 months, we've had a great naptime track record, usually 10 minutes and out. Lately, however, it sounds like a comedy show is going on upstairs. I hear wild giggling and shrieking for at least the first 10 minutes of every nap. Some days, I get two or three rounds of the circus sounds before I finally hear that golden silence I soooo look forward to. Yes, I am happy that they have fun together...but really, go to sleep already!! Yesterday was one of those days. So, on my first "it's naptime lay down and go to sleep" warning of the afternoon, I stuck the camera in there. Enjoy.

http://youtu.be/agP7xyD0Si4

I think my favorite part is the full on pillow fight.
Or wait, no, it's when Lauren looks over her shoulder to see if I'm coming after she throws shit in Avery's bed.
Or... maybe it's Avery climbing on the pile of animals and pillows, getting dangerously close to figuring out that that's her ticket to getting into Lauren's bed.

This video was 13 minutes long originally. I ended up intervening again when they started round two of the pillow fight. I took all but one pillow and one stuffed animal out of their cribs on that visit. In all, it took an hour...yes, an HOUR, for them to finally knock out. As much as I'd really hate to do it, rearranging their room might be in the veeeeerrrrry near future!

Baby OCD

Rob and I like to tease each other about our little "OCD issues". His primary one is comparison shopping (the man seriously cannot stop comparing...even AFTER he's pulled the trigger on something!). If you ask ME, I'd say I don't have any, but Rob might say that keeping the girls things designated to the right girl is mine. It drives me INSANE when he does things like dresses A in an outfit that someone bought for L, or puts L in A's high chair. My defense? As a twin, I know how important it is that some things are yours all the time and don't HAVE to be shared! What we're finding out is that we may have passed some "quirks" on to our daughters. I'm sure this is all in the realm of "normal" development, but we find ourselves joking about their baby-OCD as much as we joke about each others.
Lauren is the "something that is not supposed to be open is open" alarm. Baby gates, bathroom doors, cupboards...if we left it open, she'll find it and let us know. And keep letting us know. Until we close it, and restore order to her world.
Lauren and Avery are also both VERY stuck on making their stuffed animals, dolls, and barn animal set "stand up" like mommy and daddy make them. Damn our liking things to look neat and orderly at the end of the day! Our nightly tidy of their room has taught them that it is NOT ok for the teddy bears to "lay down" in the cubbies, the barn animals have to have ALL FOUR feet touching the barn floor AND the stall doors MUST be fully closed, and the baby dolls must be sitting upright like a real child (and preferably not leaning on something...). This quirk was kinda cute at first. But now I'm moving on to "it's ok if the teddy bear lays down...he's sleepy and wants to take a nap!". (This doesn't work yet, in case you're curious. But I'm trying!)

The way their animals hafta look before bed time. Or else.

Also - if anyone if this household is wearing an item of clothing with a zipper, it MUST BE ZIPPED UP. God forbid daddy should want to wear his jacket open...it's a crisis until he zips that sucker back up! Unfortunately for me, they love unzipping things, but the zip-up process is beyond them most of the time. So they make the "mommy my zipper is undone and it is CRITICAL that it be zipped back up right this second" sound a lot. And since copying each other is a major pastime at the moment, I often have two kiddo's clamoring for a zip up. Sometimes if I don't laugh, I'll cry!

Miss Avery, all zipped up :-)

One last thing - Rob is ordered to remove his shoes immediately upon entering. We are not a no-shoes household, never have been. But for whatever reason, he's not allowed to keep his shoes on. They must be removed, and put away (one by Avery, one by Lauren....all things must be fair!) as soon as he gets home in order for there to be peace.

Ah, toddlerhood in twinland. Such magic times!