Chatterbox

Wow. Samantha is two years old! More than two, actually. I am apparently not the blogging type. Samantha is turning out to be everything we could ever want in a daughter: smart, funny, pretty, sweet, etc. etc. etc. I even think she's adorable and hilarious when she talks back to me, which is something I have to try very hard not to show her. She's gradually learning her letters and numbers, and she's got shapes and colors down pat. The letters can be slow-going at times:

Me: What's this?
Samantha: Alligator!
Me: Right! What letter does 'alligator' start with?
Samantha: 'Alligator' start with little lamb!
Me: 'Alligator' starts with 'A.'
Samantha: 'Little lamb' start with 'A!'

So she's not quite there with the concept of words starting with letters. But she can definitely recognize most of the letters. Anything she doesn't recognize gets called "E." I want to record here some of the best phrases that have surfaced over the last several months.

(Upon seeing a dead spider) Dirty octopus! Dirty itsy bitsy!
(Trying to talk her grandfather into taking her outside in Colorado) Mittens, jacket, Grandpa, outside, fun!
(Her first full-sentence request) How about a green diaper, please?
(Shopping for her dad's scooter) Mansa (Samantha) needs a scooter!
(Requesting a piece of green apple flavored popcorn) Wanna eat froggies!
(Talking to her future cousin, nicknamed "Poppy") Hi, puppy!
(The day after her aunt Lisa and Uncle Jared left) Ugga? No Ugga. Isa?
(Asking for a kind of cereal first given to her by her grandmother) Want grandma cereal!
(Asking to be picked up) Mommy carry you!
(Trying to push her dad's wheelchair) Too heavy. Help!
(Referring to Mahdad, the coworker who drives Andrew to work) Madaido!
(Her response when told it was bedtime) Playtime!
(Her response when told to come over here right now) I'm still playing!
Wanna watch Sesame Street dot com! Dabu Dabu Dabu dot sesamestreet dot com.
Mommy made a noise!
(Her response when I told her she was little) Big!
Let's go downstairs and get some milk!
Daddy needs a pink shirt!

Words I didn't correct her on (and even encouraged) because they were just so darn cute:
gomurt (yogurt)
coo-doo (computer)
Monkey George

In other news, she's convinced that the profile of Inigo Montoya on one of my t-shirts is a sheep and the settler couple on my Frontierville t-shirt is a daddy and baby. Once she's decided something like that, there's no convincing her otherwise. She's constantly talking (as she always has, even grunting all the time just after she was born). If she doens't know a word she'll make one up. Pronouns are hard still. She'll call herself "you" and a girl "he." One thing that's fun is when I can tell she's working with her own grammar and not just repeating things she's heard. You can tell because she'll get things like irregular verbs wrong because she's following patterns she has heard before.

Overall we are having a blast, linguistically speaking. Now, about potty training...