I is Confused, as Usual
It's been quite a while since I relinquished power over the radio in the car and made up my mind to use the time between daycare and home for conversation. With a Toddler. Initially, that was a whole lot like trying to talk to a snide punkass teenager. I would ask a question, she would answer me in one word, using a snide tone that I was hoping to not hear for at least ten years.
That? Has all changed.
Now that the Toddler has discovered just how much fun it is to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk some more, she never quits. I usually get her started by asking her what she did at daycare that day, and I never quite know where we will go from there. For example, we had this conversation today. (I use the term "conversation" very loosely, for what it's worth.)
Me: Who did you play with at school today?
Alexis: I play with Keener and Eva and . . . (She listed about 15 kids. My brain shuts down at four, so I didn't hear them all.)
Me: Did you play outside?
Alexis: Keener push Eva. That's not very nice.
Me: You're right, it's not nice to push. Did you paint today?
Alexis: Um, Dora and Swiper walk and you know the rules.
Me: What rules?
Alexis: We eat peanut butter and jelly and watch bunnies. I swim.
Me: We're having pasta for dinner, sweetie.
Alexis: No, I swim. Keener push and time out and Baby Shell is cute.
Me: Where is Baby Shell?
Alexis: No, Baby Shell. Peanut butter and jelly and apples. Go dat way!
Me: Go which way, hon?
Alexis: That's not very nice.
Me: What's not nice?
Alexis: There's two Rachels and go swimming. I want my book.
Me: We can't go swimming tonight, Alexis. We are going to ride bikes.
Alexis: Bikes go peanut butter and jelly. Let dogs out and go for walk.
If you have absolutely no idea what that was all about? Join the club. I'm all about random, but I'm pretty sure conversations like that are going to lead to my head randomly exploding.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Reader Comments (40)
LMAO! And can I just say how much I love the Baby Shell stories? LOL! My little guy prefers to scream out things he sees...not much of a conversationalist.
My 2 and 5 year old usually say "I don't know" to everything I ask in the car. Real productive. Thanks guys.
Too funny...Oh, and that looks like a lot of hair on her head!
You'll love looking back on this, and remembering how aggrivated you felt. It's always funny when you look BACK on it. ;-)
I promise, the conversations do get better - until they get snarky and snide again....heh
I guess we take what we get, huh?
She is just adorable - I never tire of these stories!
How the CRAP did you write this out?? Good gosh woman, my brain hurts just reading it...
That said, your kid is DARN funny. And I'm pretty sure she's messing with you on purpose. She's probably speaking in code.
P.S. Sorry I'm so behind. AGAIN.
enjoy it while she actually speaks to you.
it's better than no conversation from the wrong side of a slammed door.
Your head will only explode if you continue to invest so much of yourself in the conversations. Be creative and out-random her! :) Something like having snails for dinner and flying to the moon with the dogs. Much more fun and keeps little miss Lellow Car on her toes.
Sounds like me before I have my first Diet Coke of the day!
Hallie
oh, just wait. wait until the conversations and actions jump around so much that your head spins off instead of explodes. I know toddlers don't have much of an attention span, but everything Monkey lays eyes on she wants to play with (or eat, depending). If I am against it, I just wait a minute or two, until she spots the next object of affection. or I wave something shiny at her.
kudos for trying to have conversations in the car! I am just trying at dinner time. I've definitely had similar "talks".
I love "Bikes go peanut butter and jelly." Of course they do!
ciao,
rpm
hmmmm maybe Baby Shell is coming to life after all?
you know, conversations like this are going to make Alexis think you are brilliant! try not to explode.
unless I'm right about the whole possession thing-you may need a priest.
thanks for the giggle though-woke up cranky and this is just what I needed!
yeah, that pretty much sums it up.
It's been way too long since I've commented, but I just couldn't let other junk get in the way anymore. Since the other day when you reported the "Dank you, Daddy"--well, you know what that "Dank you" does to me! I LOVE this conversation, especially the cute Baby Shell. The only suggestion I have is that you keep your part of the conversation to a minimum, since obviously it's all about HER day. BWAHAHAHA...what a kid! Toooo darn cute...
Oh wow, well, at least you kept listening!
Those sound like the voices that go off in my head - only cuter.
I think it's awesome when the kids start to talk so much, for about ten minutes... :)
They start to TALK?????!!!!!
Jeez, and here I was thinking it was pretty cool that mine had figured out how to throw a spoon at me.
OMG, you have JUST described what a conversation with Punkin is like.
When Bubba was little and we'd ask him what he did that day, EVERY DAY he'd say "paint with hands." It's become a family joke now.
I feel your pain. And you only need to worry when you CAN follow a conversation like that. It means you've morphed into a grown-up toddler and can speak toddler-ese. Don't panic. I dink it go 'way.
Umm, I'm a little bit scared because that conversation sounds TOTALLY familiar!
LOL Extremely Cute post. Scary at the same time because if you change to shopping lists, things that have to be done around the house, and going back to school that's totally how random my thoughts are. ~grin~
Oh wow. So this is what I have to look forward to?
Yikes.
Also, the previous post about Baby Shell -- *shudder* Burn that thing quickly.
I have those conversations all the time too. And that's when I end up looking in the backseat, to make sure that there's not some crazy homeless person crouched there talking to me, because it sure feels like that's who I'm having a conversation with.
I can't wait to have conversations. The "goos" and "gaws" are getting old...
I am sending up a Hallelujah prayer to the Little Baby Jesus that it is not.just.my.kid that talks like that when I ask him a question.
*turning into a liquid pool of butter out of relief*
What's not to understand???
Baby Shell ride bikes peanut butter not nice swimming!
oh...and I LOVE that photo! So adorable!
Haha! That's hilarious (and yeah, random).
If she's anything like me (and most girls) the talking will slow down when she reaches pre-pre-teen hood, quit altogether during the teen years, and then start again when she leaves for college.
What a WONDERFUL photo. Absolutely beautiful!
That's hysterical!
And I was thinking conversations would get better than our current ones by the time the Pumpkin is Alexis's age. Here's our current "conversations":
The Pumpkin in a serious voice looking at me intently: ba da dim do ba da da.
Me in a serious voice to cover my complete confusion and internal laughter: Is that so?
Your conversation sounds basically the same as mine!
ROFLOL I understood everything just fine! :)
We are in the "repeat the last word you say to me" stage.
Which can be very, very dangerous while I'm driving. He's liable to repeat something he shouldn't be saying.
Follow my lead: ask a question and have something else ready to think about while she answers. By the time she is about 6, chances are she won't feel like telling you all about her day anyway. So only about 3 years to go ;-)
But if she takes scary Baby Shell swimming maybe Baby Shell could have an accident? Then no more Baby Shell?
I love Random. She'd fit in so well here.
See, this did not show up anywhere on my reader. Damn Google Reader, FeedReader Whatever Reader.
It seems like the daily conversation with Gavin... you're just missing the sound effects.
I feel like you had a conversation with my 2 year old. Except she throw's in a few, ok several, "mama no"s. Complete with holding her hand up toward me. I guess she's telling me to talk to the hand?
This totally rocks! Random is da bomb.
I forgot to say: I tapped you for an http://tinyurl.com/5deh72" REL="nofollow">award!
That is one of the best conversations ever recorded. I can't wait to have a kid and have conversations like that.
Hehehe! That's too cute!
So funny,
it took me years to be fluent in toddlerish and i still get confused. Perhaps I will have it down by the 4th kid.
Not.
Sooooooooo not going THERE.
She is to damn cute. Enjoy her now. My husband reminded me today that my daughter will be out of the house in 11 years.
Dude. I totally understand what she's saying. Uh-huh.