I love my kid

"zeontestpilot" (zeontestpilot) 02/25/2015 at 08:37 • Filed to: Parenting

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Sometimes it's easy to forget that your toddler isn't just saying random things, but there is meaning behind each word. Like someone who doesn't know your native language. Case in point.

During dinner last night, while eating turkey tacos, my daughter says "dada!" I looked at her, slightly annoyed because she always does this during dinner. And earlier she refused to touch her dinner unless she had a spoon. Yes Oppo, she wanted a spoon, for turkey tacos....a finger food *sigh*. Of course after we give her one, she proceeded to not eat her dinner and play around with her food. But I digress.

As always, I faithfully respond with "Yes?" She then says something like "ah da ma .....", then screams "AHHHHH!!!" And I just stood stunned, because I knew exactly what she was talking about.

Earlier in the week, ztp jr and I facetimed my mom. My mom asked for "kisses" and my adorably stubborn daughter said "no". I told her "yes". We kept going back and forth, getting louder and louder til we were yelling at each other, all in good fun of course. It was a blast for both of us, and my mom found it humorous.

I don't understand my daughter too much, as I'm still trying to translate her baby talk. My wife is better at it than I am. But it's a nice reminder than she is getting older, smarter, and learning. Watching a child grow up is a fascinating experience, and ztp jr is my kid, so it's special to me.

So afterwards I gave her a hug and kiss, then waited ten minutes and ate her dinner. She wasn't happy about that, but she wasn't going to eat it anyways.

Mattbob > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 08:42

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so what did she mean?

zeontestpilot > Mattbob 02/25/2015 at 08:45

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Something along the lines of she enjoyed screaming with me. Mommy doesn't scream, she has the voice of a church mouse, very quiet, lol.

E92M3 > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 08:50

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Half way thru I thought maybe you were Japanese and she was asking for Edamame.

505Turbeaux > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 08:51

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yeah I remember those days man. At least I knew what they were tlaking about when they were pointing at the driveway and saying "eep" and "yah-wah" and "cedes", beyond that we were pretty good at teaching hand signals

ttyymmnn > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 08:59

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I remember the trips to the pediatrician when the doctor would ask questions about the child's progress. She would ask, "Is he speaking?" And I would reply, "Do you mean with words that you can understand or words that we can understand?" My twin boys were a little late in developing good speech, and we ended up taking them to a speech pathologist (the efficacy of that treatment was undetermined in my opinion). But when we go back and watch videos of them at that age, we can understand them perfectly. Of course, context helps, but we knew exactly what they were saying.

zeontestpilot > 505Turbeaux 02/25/2015 at 08:59

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She likes to point in generic directions, leaving me to guess. Plus, she has her parents stubbornness; she won't say the word you want her too.

After she did her scream speech, she did it once more. I tried to have her tell my wife, but she decided twice was enough..,the stinker...lol.

zeontestpilot > E92M3 02/25/2015 at 09:01

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No, that'll be too easy. I'm pretty sure she makes it intentionally hard for me.

zeontestpilot > ttyymmnn 02/25/2015 at 09:09

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Ha, nice! I can sometimes read her. Like, I can tell, by her crying, if she wants her 'ba', aka bottle. Also her baby, aka blanket. Though this contrasts her baby, the dolls she has. Or the baby, which is the tv. :/.

She will also pick up the word 'bath' and freak out, wanting s bath at that exact moment. She will start shouting 'ba!'. We learned what that works meant after she kept refusing her bottle, and standing outside the bathroom door...or trying to get into the tub. Lol. She's adorable.

ttyymmnn > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 09:11

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Lol. She's adorable.

And then they become teenagers.

Chuckybas > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 09:17

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I have a 3 year old son. My wife and I have realized he's never wrong. Whatever he says is usually true, based on his understanding of thing. He may be ridiculous, but he always has an airtight case for whatever point he's trying to make.

Congratulations on having a tiny miracle in your life that brings you joy. There's nothing else like it.

ArmadaExpress drives a turbo outback > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 09:19

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My wife and I had to start spelling words so that my daughter wouldn't pick certain words out of conversation and get excited like your daughter did for a bath. But as she turned three and now four we have to spell words backwards. She can't repeat what I said, but if I spell Target or Bath backwards she'll always ask us.. "So what were you saying about Target/Bath/ ETC. It still amazes me the things kids pick up.

zeontestpilot > ttyymmnn 02/25/2015 at 09:20

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Ugh, I know! I've been dreading that fact since before she was born. It gets [humorously] worst because growing up, I was the kid who did things secretly behind my parents back. And from what I am told by my dad-in-law, my wife was one of those kids who got lippy and argued back. And then there's jr, our child with our genetic code.

Ah, parenthood. Am I right?

ttyymmnn > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 09:26

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You're right indeed. I've got a 12-year-old teenager and two 9-year-olds. It's crazy. I like to say that parenting never gets easier or harder, it just gets different.

zeontestpilot > Chuckybas 02/25/2015 at 09:29

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Dang, I might devastatef if my kid is always right. My wife already is, so two of them will be too much! Lol.

And thanks, she's an adorable stinker, who i love, :).

zeontestpilot > ArmadaExpress drives a turbo outback 02/25/2015 at 09:35

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That's funny. We say cupcake time instead of bath time. Then moments before it is bath time, we say "want to take a bath?" she then gets all excited. Lol

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > Chuckybas 02/25/2015 at 09:37

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My son's 2 and this is a very wise realization.

This is why he went to daycare today saying the classic pickup on his shirt was a "dump truck"

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 09:38

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Haha nice.

I'm torturing myself for Lent, I'm not allowed to eat food prepped or purchased for the baby.

My need for Goldfish is escalating....

(and I almost ate his left over tacos the other night too haha)

zeontestpilot > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 02/25/2015 at 09:51

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She eats at the table now, so she likes to feed me her food. I wouldn't mind... but it means she isnt eating her own food. And as of late, she's been stealing my food...off my plate...right in front of me. It's one if those "child of mine....." moments. Or where you tell your spouse "do you know what your child just did?" Lol.

Does your kid only eat the marshmallows in the cereal?

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 09:54

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He hasn't had that kind of cereal.

Not that I'd keep it away from him, but he's a huge fan of waffles (easily toaster ovened) or microwave pancakes lol.

He recently started eating bacon, when I heard "MORE BACON", I knew he was mine lol

Luc - The Acadian Oppo > ttyymmnn 02/25/2015 at 10:01

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I have a my first on the way that is still 7 ish months away and this is already my greatest fear on earth.

I love kids greatly but I'm not so fond of teenagers. I guess I'll just have to cross that bridge when I get there.

ttyymmnn > Luc - The Acadian Oppo 02/25/2015 at 10:07

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I generally don't read parenting magazines, but my wife reads them to me sometimes. One quote I remember is, "You have to love your kids, but you don't always have to like them." My 12-y-o is driving me crazy, and sometimes I just have to leave the room. I still love him, but there are times I really don't want to be around him.

You'll do fine.

zeontestpilot > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 02/25/2015 at 10:14

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Ha, I had a similar experience. I love jelly, not crazy about butter. She really likes jelly. Plus her desire to eat certain foods actually stems from...me, :p, lol. Growing up I was a notorious picky eater. I didn't like trying new foods, and it's becoming evidently with her and her love of picking out certain items and leaving the rest, like the cereal, lol.

ArmadaExpress drives a turbo outback > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 10:37

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keyword replacement is a good idea. hadn't really thought of that.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 10:39

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Haha. What was real funny is I predicted "Boy" while my wife was pregnant because every one of her cravings was food that I liked and she used to hate.

Red meat cooked medium/medium well (while not pregnant she orders hockey pucks and can't even handle a tiny bit of pink)

All the barbeque she could get

Haha, I was like - BOY. Her tasted when back to normal right after the pregnancy hormones went away.

zeontestpilot > ArmadaExpress drives a turbo outback 02/25/2015 at 10:45

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I made it up on a whim. I was facetiming my parents when they said "bath", and I replied with "don't say that! Do you have any idea how she will react?! Let's just call it...umm...cupcake time from now on". And thus, I created it. Cupcake, for some reason, was the first word that came to mind, lol.

Chuckybas > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 10:49

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Oh yeah. The wife's always right too. The little guy is just always right because of the way his little logic system works. He's open to suggestions though. It just means more learning.

zeontestpilot > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 02/25/2015 at 10:50

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My wife had no weird cravings at all, which I feel like I missed out on something awesome. I really wanted a boy, but God has a weird sense of humor and gave me a girl. The only reason I wanted a boy was because it'll be easier to relate to them growing up. And I'm still struggling to understand the enigma know as 'female', lol. But I love my girl nevertheless. I can tell she's my child, :).

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 10:57

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The biggest problem you're having is trying to understand, that's mistake #1 every time hahaha.

And if the cravings don't go your way, it can take a terrible turn. I got lucky on the cravings matching what I like to eat. It could have been terrible!

zeontestpilot > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner 02/25/2015 at 11:09

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My wife is a very beautiful, gorgeous enigma, lol.

RallyWrench > zeontestpilot 02/25/2015 at 14:53

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So much fun. My 2 year old now says "These are not the droids you are looking for" at random times. It's hilarious.