A Boy, His Yaya, and Bandesco Laloulli

This is a tale of a boy named Ryan. For Christmas, Ryan asked for a stuffed Woody from Toy Story to go with his stuffed Buzz Lightyear that he loved.

His Yaya (my mom) looked and looked but couldn't find Woody in any of her local stores, so she sent Ryan's Mommy out to look for Woody.

When Ryan and his Mommy got to the store, they found Woody! Mommy put him in the cart with Ryan, and what did Ryan do?

Screamed and threw Woody back out. And he continued to do that every time Woody was placed in the cart.

Mommy didn't know what to do, so she called Yaya. Yaya said that we could choose a different stuffed animal if Ryan wanted.

So Mommy told Ryan that Yaya said he could pick another stuffed animal, and he took it to mean that he was buying Yaya a stuffed animal for Christmas. Would she want Spider-Man? Thomas the Tank Engine? Iron Man? Nothing looked perfect!

Then, hidden under some stuffed animals, was the PERFECT ONE! It was none other than Bandesco Laloulli! (Francesco Bernoulli, to those of you who don't speak two-year-old). Ryan loves Bandesco! We put it in the cart, and Ryan snuggled the car, happily telling Bandesco and anyone who would listen that he was going to be Yaya's present.

We bring Bandesco home, and when everyone gets home later, Ryan shows them Bandesco and he has to proudly tell them he picked it out for Yaya. Ryan's brother and sister look at Mommy, thinking Why did we get Yaya a stuffed animal?!?!? Mommy then explains (when Ryan's not around) that it's really for Ryan from Yaya and Poppa, they love it and start playing around.

For the next couple weeks, Ryan sneaks into his Mommy and Daddy's bedroom, stealing snuggles with Bandesco whenever he can:

Snuggling Bandesco for Yaya!

Finally it's time to wrap Bandesco Laloulli! (Please excuse the crazy quality; they were taken with our tablet):

But if I put him in the box, how can I snuggle him?!?

Red and Green bows, cause those are the colors of Bandesco!

High five for a job well done!

Then the day we all waited for is here: Christmas with Yaya and Poppa!

Taking the present to Yaya! He couldn't wait!!!

Reading the tag together

Wait, it's for me??? Are you sure?!?

Is this right, Mommy? Is it really for me!?!?

Ryan was so shocked! He couldn't believe Bandesco was his! He was so happy!!! It made nap time much more enjoyable:

Ahh, I can snuggle Bandesco anytime I want!!!

Ryan is still very attached to his Bandesco. They've even watched Bandesco's movie, Cars 2, together :)

Can you speak Toddler?

*Disclaimer: I do not claim to be, or even pretend to be a linguist!*

When you become a Mom, being bilingual is an extremely helpful, if not an absolutely necessary skill to have.

I'm sure some of you may be thinking "What?????"...but bear with me! When a baby is born, you must speak your native language, which is of course, a given. You'll need a way to communicate with other adults. Makes sense, right? But you'll also need to speak Baby.

Babies cry. A lot. But each cry may mean a different thing. One cry may mean "I'm hungry!" another may mean "HEY MOM! MY DIAPER'S FULL AGAIN!" I have to admit, when Paige was a baby, I could not tell which cry was which; I was often confused and it always took me awhile to figure out what she wanted. Now Pete on the other hand, knew which cry was which, and that meant he'd always get her calmer quicker than I could...no wonder she favors him! I was able to figure out the boys' cries easily (while Pete wasn't), which made the baby stage much easier.

Eventually your baby will become a toddler, and you'll need to refine your Baby language skills in order to speak and understand Toddler. Now Toddler is a much harder language to speak; instead of a few different variables, you have hundreds of things to choose from when they are trying to communicate their needs to you.

An example:

When Paige was a toddler, we were playing Veggie Tales Go Fish. She'd ask for Larry, or Bob, or even Laura (her favorite, cause she's a girl). One particular round was extremely difficult for us -

Paige - "Momma, do you have a matzo ball?"
Me - *thinking how in the world does she know what a matzo ball is???* "Paigey, just ask me what's on your card."
Paige - "Oh-tay. Do you have a matzo ball?"
Me - "I don't know what that is. Do you have Larry?"
Paige - "No. No Lawee. No Bob. A matzo ball."
Me - "Can you show me your card?"
Paige - "NO."
Me - "Is it Laura or Jerry?"
Paige - *frustrated* "NO! A MATZO BALL!"
Me - "Paigey, just show me your card. Mommy doesn't understand."
Paige, showing me her card - "See? A matzo ball!"

Her card had Archibald the Asparagus on it. A matzo ball = Archibald.


Another story:

Eating dinner one night, Paige wouldn't eat. All she wanted was a hankabooger. Pete and I look at each other in confusion. A hankabooger? We asked if she wanted her hot dog, and she was just repeating "hankabooger" over and over again. Eventually we figured out that hankabooger does in fact mean hamburger!

*Side note: One of Pete's favorite quotes from our children was from Paige; one night she spilled her milk all over her plate and hamburger, and she said "Shoot. My hankabooger's wet."

Yet another story:

Last year, we went to the Rochester Museum and Science Center to see the dinosaur exhibit. Nate LOOOVES dinosaurs! While walking around, Ryan would keep going "Seesaw! Hi seesaw! Seesaw! Seesaw!" We had no clue what he was talking about until he picked up a stuffed dinosaur and said "Seesaw! RAAAWR! Seesaw!"

Seesaw = Dinosaur. We bought him a stuffed dinosaur of his own in the gift shop, and to this day we still call him Seesaw :)

So why am I writing about this today? Even though I'm on toddler #3 and speaking Toddler is easier with each child, my skills are far from perfect. Here's the conversation between me and Ryan, who just used the potty:

Me - "Great job, buddy!"
Ry - "Bubble prints?"
Me - "Bubble prints?"
Ry - "No no no. Bubble prints?"
Me *confused* "Bubbles? Did you make bubbles in the potty?"
Ry - *holds up 1 finger* "One. Bubble prints!"
Me - "One ball?"
Ry - "Yeah! One....bawww.....pease!"

Ryan gets a Whopper everytime he pees on the potty. Apparently he forgot how to say "one baww pease" and instead condensed it down to "bubble prints".

Kids keep me on my toes!!!

Have your kids ever used other words for what they're trying to say? Do share!