Favorite Almost Words

We have had a lot of conversations in our house about how to deal with language. We have chosen to go the each one speak one route with Richard speaking to Peanut in English (mostly...) and me speaking to her in Spanish (mostly...). Because the rest of the world here talks to her in Spanish, it is definitely her default option, but she understands a lot of English and pulls out things sometimes that just surprises the heck out of both of us. There is a lot more to be said about language issues, but for now we will stick with a quick list of my favorite Peanut almost words. Or better said, the words Peanut uses to stand in for the words she means until she can get her mouth adjusted a little bit more.

1. Bi-bo (or possibly Bee-beaux, I have never asked) - this comes from Spanish "ombligo" or belly button. When Peanut first discovered her bi-bo she would lift up her shirt every couple of minutes to look at it - perhaps checking to see if it was still there. Then she discovered that other people had bi-bos too, and...well, just keep your shirt tucked in when you visit. I must admit that I love this word so much that I have almost stopped saying ombligo just so it will stick around. Quite frankly I could be happy if we called it bi-bo for the rest of our lives, and even if Peanut does not, I just might. Damn the language stickler gods!

2. Balita - this comes from Spanish "abuelita" or grandmother. It is the name for my mom, and while she could not say it at all for a while, now Peanut yells it out with gusto. In fact, I should probably have spelled it Ba-LEEE-Tah! Mom tried really hard for a while to be "Lita", but as with most facing down Peanut's astounding ability to say one's name over and over and over and over again, she gave in. Balita it is.

3. Cacago - this is meant to be Chicago. Marylen gave her a book called "Good Night Chicago" (part of her PR campaigning), and Peanut loves it. I like the book having lived in Chicago, but it did not strike me as a particularly easy book to identify with otherwise, and yet Peanut asks for it regularly. She even noted that the little girl outside the water tower was also reading "Cacago." Color me impressed.

This is another Cacago book from Marylen (campaigning...).  Peanut opened up to this page and said "PIZZA!" It doesn't take long.

4. Bubby-bee - Bumblebee, obviously. This stemmed from the song "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee" which Balita taught her, but it now goes with eating ware provided by Marylen too. Wait, maybe this post should have been about stuff Marylen gave me...

I think there are actually a lot more that belong on this list, but they have become so "normal" that I don't even realize they aren't right anymore. Boy communicating in the US this fall is going to be fun... ;)

Video Viernes

As you know, Peanut really likes her books. She likes to read all of them, but one particularly stands out because it is actually a book and song combined - a little bit-o-heaven. The book is called Snuggle Puppy of Mine and is by Sandra Boynton. The song, as it is written in the book, goes:

Ooooooo, Snuggle Puppy of mine. 

Everything about you is especially fine. 

I love what you are. I love what you do. 

Fuzzy, little, snuggle puppy, I love you. 

I say, Ooooooooo, Snuggle Puppy of mine. 

Everything about you is especially fine. 

I love what you are. I love what you do. 

Oooooooo, I love you. *Kiss!*

It's complicated. I know. But it turns out that when you are reading the book, it does feel very odd to say the things Ms. Boynton has clearly defined as a song. However, she does not actually provide a score which one might feel compelled to follow. It's freestyle. 

Well, it turns out that Richard and I sing very different versions of this lovely song with our daughter, so we thought we would share them with you. At the beginning you can hear that Peanut say "Ooooooo" because she can now identify this book by its cover (Judge it? Who knows...). And so we present: 

Snuggle Puppy, Act 1.

And Snuggle Puppy, Act 2.

What we are making here is art people. Art.

Book Lady

Peanut also digs books.

She is not as patient as she once was, but even when she is most fussy she will usually calm down when you sit her in your lap and open a book. She is a very good page turner (though without some page lifting assistance the result can occasionally cut a story down from 15 pages to 3), and when she is left on her own she will occasionally start to read the book to herself out loud. (At least that is what I assume she is doing even though "brah dah doo dah doo zwoop bah" is not officially part of any of our stories, not even the Dr. Seuss ones.)

Because of this love of books, and because we got a hand-me-down spice rack from Alice Winters when she retired, we decided to put a bookshelf down at legume level so that she could choose her own adventure, if you will. 

Broadly, I still support this decision.

You, however, have already figured out the flaw in our plan.

The only thing that may rival Peanut's love of books is her love of gravity's effects on books. There is nothing that makes a day brighter than pulling abso-loving everything off of her little bookshelf and making a pile on the floor. There are days this humors me, and there are days that...well, not so much. 

I can only imagine that she too has times when she thinks, "Silly Mama, putting those books back up again. Jijiji (Spanish hee, hee), I will just take them off for her again." 

  

While other times something more like, "Eche! (Let's just call that dagnabbit...) What the? Again with the books on the shelf woman?"

Still, a book lady wants what a book lady wants, and at the end of the day a book mama still wants to let her have it. So we read together - from one book or from many all at one time. And I love it. I can't say I would not have it any other way because let's be clear I would have most of the books stay on that shelf most of the time, but I'm sure my mama will tell you it was not always so...and we all survived. So gravity, shmavity for now. When she's a little older, we'll talk.