Words to Live By

I found this old post that I started ages ago (like last August or so) but never got around to finishing. Reading it over was such a good snapshot of what Amanda's language was like then, and how far she has come since, that I decided to go ahead and post it. I've added a few notes in purple to update the post.
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We've been realizing lately how many of Amanda's baby words have already disappeared. Although it's so amazing to watch her learning how to use words and language properly, it makes us sad to realize it means the end of so many of her cute little Amandaisms. Some of our favourites that have disappeared over the last several months...

• Skybow = rainbow.
• Na = banana.
• When we first introduced Amanda to ice cream, after every bite she would put down her spoon, shudder dramatically, and yell "COLD!". Although she still does it occasionally, it's pretty rare.
  

A few that are in transition as we speak...

• Da was Amanda's first name for herself. Although she still doesn't say her full name, she gets closer to it every day. {Now she not only says her entire name - last name included - but our names too!}
  
• Da was also her first word for Canada (she loves to sing "O Canada"...we'll have to get an MP3 of that up one of these days). At the moment it's "Ah-da", always with the emphasis on the first syllable. It gets shouted a lot, since she loves to spot Canada flags from her carseat and yells "Ah-da! Ah-da!" until we acknowledge that we, too, have spotted the flag. {Amanda is still obsessed with Canada and O Canada, but now she pronounces it Adada. Hey, at least it's got the right number of syllables!}
  
• Baby Bugga, her very favourite stuffed toy of all time, has now become Baby Booga, and we suspect will shortly morph into Baby Beluga. {Yep, it did.}
  

And some more recent funny phrases...

• I dood it, which has made an appearance in the last few days. It's usually shouted when we're attempting to (God forbid) help her with something she wants to do herself. {I'd already forgotten all about the "I dood it" phase! That was hilarious! Good times...}
  
• Opucus, which means octopus. She is quite obsessed with sea creatures in general these days, but the octopus is a special favourite for her. {She still says opucus.}
  
• Mummy Bye is what she requests each night I put her to bed...it's her word for "Hush Little Baby", which we sing together as I tuck her in. {As sick as I got of singing "Hush Little Baby" every single night for several months, I admit to being sad that she rarely requests it now. She's moved on to other favourites...will have to post about that one of these days.}
  
• Other favourite songs include Kinkle, Kinkle {hee!} and Baa Baa Sheep. She also calls the alphabet song ABCs, almost always emphasising the B. {Now she usually calls it the alphabet song.}
  
• It's late...now that she's on Daddy's summer schedule and thus often up later, she notices as it starts to get darker outside and tells us it's late, or "it's getting late". But since she knows late = bedtime, she often follows up with "not yet". Last night she gave us a whole story about how it was getting late, but not bedtime yet, because first we had to eat dinner, then it would be time for bed. (And yes, we are delinquent parents for not getting her dinner before it started to get late in the first place!). {And that wasn't the last time, either.}
  
• Last weekend in Home Depot, as we were checking out the paint samples (since several rooms in our house desperately require a paint job), she chose a paint colour and declared she was going to "paint the floor". Hmm, painting the floor of the Home Depot is a pretty ambitious job there, sweetie! Unless of course she was referring to painting the floor with rivers of pee, which she seems to have a particular talent for. (And that is why "I peed" is also a common phrase around our house these days...note the past tense). {"I peed" - still in past tense - is still a popular phrase in our house. But hey - at least we've painted her room now! And put down laminate floors! We've learned!}
  

Catherine Newman, one of my favourite writers on the web, had a great column about this a few weeks ago on Bringing Up Ben & Birdy. We have often looked at each other and wondered exactly the same thing as she: "Does it stop being funny?". Because right now, Amanda is so hilarious without intending it, and it's so much fun to be with her, that we keep thinking the fun has to stop eventually...I mean, who said parenting was actually going to be enjoyable?!?