overheard

I can't get enough of what the Little Dude says these days. Ok, that not entirely true, because there are times when I do need to ask him to let someone else (like mommy or daddy) have a turn at talking. He's gotten very chatty these days. Especially in the car. Its just a constant stream of diggers doing this and tractors going there and lawnmowers driving up and down the lawns. And he is absolutely convinced that there is a toy version of each and every piece of farm machinery/construction equipment that exists in the real world, and he is very optimistic about receiving them all for his birthday. Its goes like this:

"See dat digger ova dere, dat cute little orange little digger? We should go to the digger store and buy dat cute little orange little digger, and den I will get it for my birsday!"

I'll get right on that. 

Luckily there are some companies out there that do make realistic equipment replicas, (Bruder, Ertl) though some of them are not up to the strenuous toddler play that the Little Dude is going to put them through. (he broke another hammer on the weekend. A child's tool set hammer that was quite good and made of real wood and metal. I think we might have to buy him an actual small grown-up hammer, because he's broken three children's hammers and at this rate we're going to have to dip into the college fund to keep him in tools) And funnily enough, for all his constant talk of buying this or that toy for his birsday, his most treasured toys as of late are a plastic spoon and a small blue dohickey that has an elastic attached to it, the original purpose of which was to launch a small dollar store airplane, (Thanks Auntie C!) but has now become a permanent extension of L.D's hand, which he uses to lift and dangle and carry any toy or item that has a hook on it. Lately its been a pair of baby shoes that still have the store packaging that hung them on a display wall. So funny.  

But back to the chattiness.

I keep meaning to write down all the cute/funny things that he says. I think someone even gave me a special mother's journal for that purpose, but I can't find it. Typical. Anyhow, I do jot his bon mots down, but it is usually on the corner of the credit card bill envelope that is sitting on the counter by the phone. So I have this funny collection of bits of paper with random kid saying written on them that I've at least got to put in a file folder or something. Its not really ideal. So I'm going to try and write them down here, because at least that way they won't get thrown out with the recycling. And anyways, its often not what he says, but how he says it that is so hilarious. Today Hubs was trying to assist/hurry him up the stairs at dinner time, and it was so funny to hear his sweet toddler voice floating up the stairwell, saying, in a most disgruntled fashion, "Daddy, don't help me so much!" He did not enjoy being rushed apparently. 

And the hand gestures! Oh, its the hand gestures that really get me. To see him describe with his two fingers and two thumbs pinched close together and held up in front of his eyes, how tiny, tiny, tiny that dirt mite that he saw was. Or when he carefully ticks all three of those steam rollers that he saw outside, off on his chubby little fingers. Or the way that he throws his hands up in the air in disbelief when he talks about not knowing how something or other came to pass (like for example how all those apricots got eaten all up). Its is a thing of beauty, I tell you. 

Oh, and the singing. He leaned over the Baby the other day, and between hugs, sang him a song that featured the lyrics "Baby, Baby, My special little boy." And when we went outside to pick a new bouquet of flowers for the kitchen table, he helped by gathering some sweet (though very short stemmed) daisies, all the while singing, "pretty and lovely, pretty and lovely".

Just last week we saw a bunny in the back yard, having dandelion greens for his breakfast. "Look," I said, "he bit that leaf right off that plant." 

"Bunnies don't bite mamma, they nibble." he corrected me.

And after a few minutes of reflection as we watched the rabbit munching away, he added, apropos of nothing. "that bunny needs hands."

Comments

[hannah]

awesome.

[Leni]

There's no doubt about it, he's his Mother's son!! Our little chatterbox of the 1970's has resurfaced in L.D. She talked non-stop, and her many cute sayings and expressions were often the fodder for my journal. And as with L.D., it was the gestures and facial expressions that made all the chatter so delightful.

[brooklyn_codger]

"that bunny needs hands"!!

[finger thumb]

I knew you'd like that.