Things Mackey Says, Part 1

With all of the things that Mackey has been learning to say, it is really hard to keep up! We're way beyond the days of counting words. It's now a combination of deciphering which book she is quoting, which nursery rhyme she is approximating, or what song she is singing. And while she still has her moments of exuberant gibberish, she is becoming quite the master of phrases and sentences. So here are some things she has been repeating of late, and where they come from. (And I already know I will forget some things first time around, so that's why this is Part 1.)

"S'Read it"

Her shorthand for "Let's read it," which she must say about 10 times a day at least, right before she backs up onto your lap and plops down with a book. I love this one and hope it sticks around for awhile.

"No soot, Tom Thumb soot!"

From Beatrix Potter's Two Bad Mice...the real line is: "Tom Thumb went up the kitchen chimney and looked out the top. There was no soot!"

"Hoo-RAY!"

From two sources, a book called Little Quack's New Friend...the line is "Hooray for Little Ribbit! Our Ribbitty new friend!" and a book called Ten Little Rubber Ducks...the line is "Hooray! He won the race at last!"

"After dinner..."

This is an example of a little cue that she offers, anticipating that I will respond with the rest of the line. In this case, it's from a book we got from my friend Lauren, called A Magical Day with Matisse, which has rhyming phrases set against works by the artist, and tells a story of, well, a magical day. The full line: "After dinner, as our busy day ends, let's listen to music and play games with friends." Of course, Mackey will happily interject some of the other words as you go along.

"Wet, wet..."

With a smile, she winds me up to do a page from Dr. Suess's One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish: "Who is this pet? Say, he is wet! You never yet met a pet, I bet, as wet as they let this wet pet get." And Mackey can nail almost all of the "et" words.

"B-I-N-G-GO!"

She puts a little bit more "GO" in the name of this doggie.

"Twinkle, twinkle little star...how I wonder...whatcha-are."

It's more the cadence that is a delight, as if she's adding a little urban flair.

"He died...s'body, bottom d'ocean..."

Morbid? It's actually part of the bridge in a fun little ditty Ashley plays on guitar by Harry Nilsson, the full version of which is "He died and left his body to the bottom of the ocean. Now everybody knows that when a body decomposes, the basic elements are given back to the ocean. And the sea does what it oughta, and soon it's salty water (not too good for drinking), etc."

"Night, night ladies; Night, night Mommy; Night, night Daddy; Night, night Fish..."

Ashley taught her the song "Goodnight Ladies," and she has started improvising. She put on quite a show in Wichita recently when she sang goodnight to all the family members in the room.

Counting! She is now going beyond 10. Yesterday it continued, "10, 11, 12, 14, 19...25!" And she was especially enthusiastic about reaching that big number.

"Mommy's sticker"

When she pulls her little ponytail holders out of her hair, she identifies them as my stickers. One, because I think I had sticker (some piece of sticky paper remnant) when she was first wearing a ponytail, two, because yesterday when I got a flu shot, I got a Bugs Bunny "sticker" afterward.

"Draw diamond."

This is her signal to sit and draw on the magnetic tablet with her. She'll let me draw a few things before she draws her own "diamonds," which are getting more sophisticated. She now circles the stylus around and says things like "oval" and "spiral." And Ashley is teaching her the difference between straight and curved lines.