Toddler Tales

My daughter is hysterical. Here are some anecdotes that I’ve been sitting on for a while (interspersed with cute pictures which are totally unrelated to the stories)…

Recruitment:

We were on a morning outing one day while Max was out of town. I think Sylvia was a little sick of spending all her time with me and starved for other company. We spent some time at the playground, and Sylvia was playing with a little boy a few months younger than her. It was time for him to go home, and Sylvia tried to follow him and threw such a fit that we started heading home ourselves. Along the way, a little girl who’s a few weeks older than Sylvia spotted us and called out “hi!” from her upstairs porch. Sylvia saw her and started screaming “Up! Up! Up!”, and Kira tried to squeeze through the bars while screaming “Dowwwwn!” Both girls started crying when I said “bye” to Kira and started to walk away, so Sylvia and I eventually went up and asked Kira’s dad if she could come out to play. We agreed to meet back at the playground in a few minutes. While we were waiting, Sylvia heard a cry from a nearby apartment and ran off straight to her friend RJ’s porch and started chanting “hi! hi! hi!” until his mom decided to bring him out. Kira eventually joined the other 2, and Sylvia thoroughly enjoyed the fruits of her first attempt at party planning.

Messy:

Sylvia and I were going through the grocery store. She was sitting in the cart, holding her little Big Bird doll and her “spill-proof” snack container. I’m going along and focused on my shopping list when I see Big Bird’s head has been shoved into the snack container. Sylvia is saying “yum yum yum” with delight while “sharing” her Cheerios with Big Bird. Sylvia pulls out Big Bird, who brings several Cheerios with him, which then scatter on the floor. Before I have time to react, Sylvia is pulling out more Cheerios and throwing them on the floor. I say, “What are you doing?!?” Sylvia’s eyes get very big. She points at the floor but is still looking me straight in the eye and says, “Messy!”

Baby:

All three of us were at the zoo. I saw a family with a newborn, and I pointed out the baby to Sylvia. She ran over to them, pointed up at the baby, announced “Baby!” and then reached up, obviously demanding that the baby should be given to her immediately. The parents laughed and asked if she was available to babysit. (This was actually a repeat of an almost identical situation with a puppy outside a restaurant, instead of a baby at the zoo. Interestingly, the pet owner was not nearly as good-natured about it as the parent.)

Dog whisperer:

A few weeks ago, we visited family & friends in San Diego. We left early, Sylvia slept most of the way, and we got to Max’s parents house without much drama or hassle. When we parked, Sylvia seemed to recognize the house and to be pretty happy to be there. She ran into the house, went straight for the back door, and immediately found the dogs. She got so excited and ran to them. Once she was about a foot away, she raised her hand, shook a finger at them and yelled “sit down!” This (along with the occasional “ssshh”) has since been her standard greetings for all dogs.