Or something like that. Was I worried earlier this year about how little Auletta was talking? Well, I'm over that.
When Auletta's pediatrician asked at her two-year checkup how many words she knew (vs. like three at 18 months), I said, "More than I can count." Which is about right. And every day she surprises one of us with a new word she knows. Yesterday, we were at the library and she came across a toy elephant and said "Ellphant!" Did not know she knew that.
She counts to ten, sometimes, although for a while she did not recognize the existence of five.
She knows the names of everyone in Justin's family. Thanksgiving was the first time she could name everyone. On every trip to Ithaca for the previous few months she'd pick up one or two names, not necessarily in proportion to how much she adores the person in question--e.g. she learned Soren before Harry, even though she is mad about Harry. But even in Seattle she would just spontaneously be riding along in the car and start chanting HARRY HARRY HARRY HARRY. Despite her love for Harry, she is less exclusive now and no longer spurns her Granny or Papa most of her aunts and uncles. And on my side she loves everyone as well, especially Katie and Gompa. Yes, she continued the family tradition of calling her grandfather Gompa, except on my side rather than Justin's. She also calls his Gompa Gompa. Fortunately the two sides of the family rarely meet, so there's little opportunity for confusion. What is more confusing is when she calls random men over fifty Papa or Gompa, but we're working on that.
And I finally let her watch TV, with predictable results. First BARNEY (ugh) then ELMO then CAILLOU CAILLOU CAILLOU, then PUZZY (Sponge Bob, who is on a puzzle she has), then SIMSIMS, from our DVD collection, and we're hoping she doesn't discover FAMILY GUY or SOUTH PARK. She still simultaneously loves Caillou, Puzzy, and Simsims. Oh, and VeggieTales (TALES).
Early morning at Eastern Market
2 years ago
10 comments:
Hurray for Auletta!
I have never gotten the appeal of Caillou. After a few episodes (watched in Missouri on a visit to Jonathan), I cut them off cold turkey. On the flip side, JT can now recite the "Veggie Tales Christmas" CD (the party at Bob's house) verbatim. Except I have to be around to feed lines to. His favorite songs are "Feliz Navidad" and "Ring Little Bells." He also does a passable sheep in "While By My Sheep" while Alexandra does Junior's part.
The appeal of Caillou is that he's not annoying! There's something kind of soothing about Caillou, almost mesmerizing--at Justin's family's house over Thanksgiving we had a couple of Caillou DVDs on rotation, and even if Auletta left the room there would sometimes still be several of us sitting there watching it in a sort of tryptophan-induced daze. Auletta LOVES Caillou, for whatever reason. In older episodes he's kind of a whiny twit, but in newer episodes he's usually sweet and cute--they mostly show the more recent episodes on PBS and that's what we have on DVD too.
I must have been seeing older episodes, then, because Caillou drove me up a wall. Fortunately, it's not on the local PBS channels any more (though I could access it via OnDemand through Comcast if I wanted), so the kids' PBS watching has been limited to Curious George and Between the Lions. Sadly, they're kind of leaving Sesame Street behind, unless I pull out the Old School DVDs or the old specials (Christmas Eve on Sesame Street). And, of course, they are Muppet Show addicts. Their sense of humor is going to be just as twisted as their parents'.
I forgot, she is also in love with Curious George (GEORGE). Two days a week when I drive Justin to school, we have to leave in the middle of Curious George, and there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Time for a DVR! Or maybe some Curious George DVDs - there are 8 episodes on a disc. Trust me, I know. A whole disc can almost get us to Morton in good traffic.
Yeah, we were at Walmart yesterday and Auletta shouted "GEORGE!" when she saw the Curious George Christmas DVD, so now we own that. Funny how I go there because I think I will save so much money on something like picture frames, and then I end up walking out with stuff I wasn't expecting to get. Shopping online is going to be really handy from now on, I can tell (until Auletta figures out how to use Amazon...).
So, how is the Curious George Christmas DVD? I saw it at Target and briefly considered it for my kids - but they REALLY don't need it. Do you have a review for me?
Hmm, I haven't sat down and watched it with Auletta all the way through (bad parenting, I know), so I don't know what to say exactly in way of a review except that I don't get the impression you need it. We actually don't have any other Christmas DVDs I can think of, and I'm sure you do. The gist of the story seems to be that the Man in the Yellow Hat doesn't understand the wish list George made him, and in the end he's out on the streets Christmas Eve yelling "I UNDERSTAND MY MONKEY!" which I find amusing, probably because I think it should be a euphemism for something.
Christmas DVDs we do have:
- Muppet Christmas Carol
- Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978 edition)
- all the Veggie Tales Christmas shows (Toy that Saved Christmas, Star of Christmas, Saint Nicholas)
- Disney Sing-a-long Christmas songs
- Elmo's World "Happy Holidays"
- A Charlie Brown Christmas
- Mickey's Christmas Carol
Christmas DVD we should get:
- Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas (though I wish that one, A Muppet Family Christmas and The Christmas Toy would all get an unedited release)
I think we'll skip George. "I UNDERSTAND MY MONKEY" sounds vaguely creepy, for some reason. :)
Ok, I think you are set for Christmas DVDs! I'm sure you can live without George. I would like to get Emmet Otter, too--I think that's the one I remember most fondly from my childhood. (Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure we have that and probably several other Christmas shows on VHS, but our VCR isn't even hooked up.)
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