Saturday, October 31, 2009

On Pumpkins and Petunias

It was a reasonably successful Halloween. Pumpkin was a horsey and seemed to enjoy that, even though the horse's head was maybe a bit heavy for her. Hubby and my sister took her for a short round of trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. They say that she said "trick or treat" at the right time, but didn't quite get the saying thank you part- she just said "trick or treat" again. She didn't want to stay out long- she came back with five or six pieces of candy in her bucket, and seemed happy with that.

I stayed at home with Petunia, because it was time for her to nurse and then go to bed. She took the occasional interruptions to hand out candy well. The mothers shepherding their kids around were all duly impressed with our cute little baby, dressed in her "Little Pumpkin" sleeper.

--------------------------------

While I sat on the sofa, nursing Petunia and listening for approaching princesses, fairies, ninjas, and firemen, I thought about how much easier it would be next year, and how next year, I'll probably look back at this time when Petunia was so small and easy to handle and think "it was so much easier then!"

Petunia is a fairly easy baby, at least she seems that way to me. I'm not sure if that is because she really is easy, or because she seems easy compared to Pumpkin, or because the second one always seems easier. She fusses, and even melts down sometimes when she is too tired and can't figure out how to fall asleep because she's not nursing. However, some music and bouncing usually sorts that out pretty quickly. She still mostly eats, sleeps, and poops, but she has started giving us more awake and alert time. She likes to knock over block towers that we build for her. I've convinced myself that she is actually playing with us- not just jerking her hand and accidentally hitting the tower. She is certainly focusing on the blocks, and I'm her mother, so of course I think she's a genius and has figured out that she can knock them over already.

--------------------------------

Pumpkin's vocabulary continues to grow, and she is cleaning up some of her pronunciations. I'm sorry to report that "bobbin" has now been replaced by "bottom".

She continues to talk about the things Hubby and I will do when we get little, though. We will ride in her carseat while she drives us around, and she will change our diapers and buy us binkies. And then she will tell us to take our binkies out because she can't understand us when we're sucking on binkies.

She is so verbal that it is easy to forget how little she is, and how much she still doesn't quite understand. I am always taken by surprise when she gets somethign completely wrong- like when she tells us to put Petunia next to her by saying "put she here". She has most of her other pronouns sorted out already. Of course, I'm her mother, so I think she is a genius. But I still want to hold on to "bobbin" and "when you get little" and "baby is crying- pick she up!" I think I will be sad to see each one go.

3 comments:

  1. paola5:15 AM

    An old German ESL teacher friend of mine, who had been living in Australia for years and spoke perfect English was telling me about the 'alfa alfa' she had in her salad. I laughed as I thought she had purposely mispronounced it and she almost died that she had gotten it wrong. The next day she told me her husband was out to get me! Apparently this was the only mistake with English she still made and her hubby had never corrected her as he thought it was so cute! Still wonder whether she calls it 'alfa alfa' at home to please her hubby.

    ReplyDelete
  2. mary d9:45 AM

    My son J talks about what he's going to do when we're little and he's big. He'll drive us around and put us in the shopping cart and carry us.

    He also did the "put she here" thing but I think he's starting to outgrow it -- he's 3 years 3 months now. I miss the way he pronounced things, too. Yeh-yow (yellow), dooop (soup) etc. At least you're writing it down for posterity!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the things she'll do with you when you are little! That's awesome! My girl does not get the male/female pronouns. She constantly calls her brother "she" and says "her." We are working on it, but it is really cute.

    I don't ever want to correct her when she says, "I pick you up!" when she wants to be picked up. I love it.

    ReplyDelete

Sorry for the CAPTCHA, folks. The spammers were stealing too much of my time.