Monday, June 19, 2006

Speaking

I can’t justify the time to write – so much is “undone” in my house, but there are a few amusements I must get down onto (cyber)paper…

Sami’s vocabulary surprises me constantly now. But some of it is just plain damn funny at this point, and not reacting inappropriately is a daily challenge. Case in point... well, several, in fact:

  • Our “shirt” is her “shook”
  • Our “cars” is her “gorsh.”
  • Our “French fry” is her “fah-fie,” but you must say it very rapidly
  • “Please” remains “piss”
  • “Thank you,” generally appropriately applied, but pronounced “tinkoo”
  • And most notably of late, and I’m sorry here if you lean towards prudishness but I didn’t plan this stuff, but “foot” is “fook” and that’s my polite way of spelling it
  • Coupled with “cock” for “truck” and you have numerous moments throughout your day that require laugh-stifling

I know the instant we react to the more questionable pronunciations that she comes up with, we reinforce that there is something amiss, and we’ll be very sorry. So we don’t react to these markedly funny ones. We mustn’t. And it has been quite effective. But here’s the issue, when we get around my family, how do I get them not to react to them? We’re vacationing amongst my family within a few days, and I know they’ll find it all hilarious and don’t practice even a portion of my well-placed self-discipline. Woe will most certainly be me.

Sami’s really changing and growing now. You can almost see the synapses firing and connecting in her little brain minute by minute. The observations she makes and the things she’s able to figure out truly stun me. One day she’s pushing all the limits and trying my good nature almost beyond that good nature. And then the next she’s all sunshine and cuteness. Go figure.

And then, most wonderfully, she has grown out of her little independent stages exhibited occasionally where she’ll have no part of you cuddling her, and has occasional bouts of cuddliness. Oh my. To have her crawl up in my lap (patting my leg with an urgent, “piss, piss?”) and snuggle up against me and actually – yes – SIT there for tens of minutes by me, asking to have her arm or leg or belly tickled. Oh, it is heaven. I sneak sniffs of her hair, too.

So this is what it is like to be a parent. Wow.