Cats and dogs and frogs

I don't know if I feel this way as a mom or as a linguist, but Amelia's speech always seems to be a good topic of discussion for the blog. One of Amelia's cutest developments is her use of the pet name, "Honey." Amelia was calling her mom "Honey" all of the time for a few days and producing sentences like, "Could you come here, Honey?"

Of course, she also learns phrases that she over-uses to the very mild annoyance of her mother. One such phrase is, "I don't know." Whenever Amelia really wants to say, "No," she instead says, "I don't know." So if I ask her if she's ready for a bath or to eat some lunch, her reply will be an evasive, "I don't know."

After a couple of days Amelia's standard, "I don't know" response developed into "I don't know how to (fill-in-the-blank)." Sometimes this makes sense, but it just sounds silly and non-committal when Amelia says, "I don't know how to eat," or "I don't know how to sit down."

I assure you that although Amelia doesn't eat much or often, she knows how to eat.

Both Amelia and Diana are getting ready for Halloween, which is just around the corner. The girls may even get to go trick-or-treating for the first time this year. Although Amelia already has a couple of pricy outfits that fit her well, that didn't stop her from brousing costume accessories at Target. Her favorite Halloween item was a plastic double-headed ax. When I asked her if she planned on dressing like a princess for Halloween she said, "Yes." I explained to her that Cinderella might look a little funny with an ax, and she finally gave up on the idea of carrying one.

Amelia isn't sure if she wants to be a princess or a witch this year. Diana didn't own a costume of her own, so Amelia and I tried to decide what would be a good costume for her. Amelia thought that Diana should definately dress as Spiderman for Halloween. I didn't think this would be very feminine, but we checked a local store for a baby-sized Spiderman costume anyway. There were no Spiderman costumes in Diana's size...bummer.

Instead, Amelia and I decided that Diana could go out dressed as a cat. Here you can see her in her pink kitty outfit. I suspect she will need something warmer to wear at night, but we'll figure that out when the time comes. Notice also that Diana finally got the rocking frog she wanted for so long. While grandma and I were checking out the store that was the frog's home, we saw that the frog was on clearance. What better reason is there to buy a rocking toy frog?

Bet this is the first time you've seen a cat riding a frog.

Lisa