Thursday, March 17, 2005

mystery and mispronunciations

What, what, what will this new baby be like? I don't even know if it's boy or girl. Reading Anne Lamont write about her son and his wild activity and destructive force, I wonder what I'll do if I have a boy like that? Kath's son loves to play with war toys and computer games. I want a gentle son. Of course, I want a gentle daughter too, but she's loud, the one I have. She yells "Clue, clue" at the television screen when watching Blue's Clues. She won't let us sleep if she's ready to be awake. (Usually. One day I was taking a nap and she was very quiet. I kept my eyes closed. And another day she crawled into bed with us and worked at being quiet for a very long time. She might have even gone to sleep!) Although I sometimes still hear her whisper words that she knows, she also proclaims things in very loud tones. She likes to identify everyone: "momma", points to me, "baba" points to Hl, "Leila" points to self. She also touches my boobs or belly and says "baby." I wonder how much she understands. She really isn't interested other than that.
This morning Leila woke up around 7:30. Somedays she wakes up very early and gets into bed with us and maybe goes back to sleep. Last night I checked on her and she was in the far corner of her bed against the wall. During my awake time- I had gotten up to pee and then I checked on her and couldn't go back to sleep- I thought I heard her feet hit the floor, but they must have been on the wall, because she was still sleeping.
Leila says so much now. Sometimes I don't know what she's saying. This morning she was talking about "pot". I hope she meant the potty, but I'm not sure. She has a little problem with pronunciation, and she calls clocks and watches "cock". She used to call Scott that as well. The other pronunciation problem that is a little delicate is that she can't say sock, and it comes out sounding like "fuck". Because it's a word she says often and loudly, I'm worried that someone will think we've been swearing around her.
One day she ran into the living room, where I was, scared of a bug in the kitchen. (I don't know why she's decided to be scared of bugs. She even pretends to be scared of her plastic butterfly sometimes. Where does that come from?) I wanted to make her not afraid, so I started talking to the bug in a loud voice: Hey bug, you want some milk? Help yourself, it's in the refrigerator. Hey bug, you want to watch t.v. with us? Leila was in fits of giggles. Now Leila puts her hand to her mouth and yells "Hey Bug" when she wants to play. She also yells "Hey Grandma" sometimes. I must have done that, too.

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