and we proceeded on

It seems, besides the donut post and a few other mentions, I haven't written much about da Shmoo lately. Mostly it's because things are going just as they ought to be. He is two. He is sweet and fun and moody and willful. And silly and talkative and curious and imaginative. Normal, unremarkable two-year-old stuff.

But I do love the specifics of language development, so I can't resist sharing some recent Shmooisms.

"theyselvses"

As we drove home from Meeting last week, we came across the scene of a car accident. No one appeared to be hurt, and two police cars were on the scene. Of course, this was dramatic and fascinating for da Shmoo. We explained that the cars had "bonked" into each other, but no one was hurt. For the rest of the drive home, Shmoo repeated "The cars went 'bonk' theyselvses." At home, he reenacted the scene with his Bucky blue car and SEPTA transit police car, narrating the scene with "the Bucky blue car and the police car went 'bonk' theyselvses."

"to-bout"

If something HPR and I are talking about piques Shmooie's interest, he will ask us "What you talking to-bout?" I think this blend came out of "Who are you talking to?" and "What are you talking about?" He especially tunes in if he suspects we're talking "to-bout" him.

"This happened."

An all-purpose phrase for the out-of-the-ordinary. Such as when cars bonk theyselvses. It seems he uses it both as a question and an exclamation. The pitch must go up with the "HAP" syllable. If I were to ask a follow-up question such as "What happened?" Shmooie's reply would be "This HAPpened, Mommy."

Planning to tell X about X.

One day last week, there was a problem with the first leg of the trolley commute, so HPR and Shmooie had to take a shuttle bus to 40th Street, where they got on the trolley and then transfered to the subway as usual. Shmoo was very excited to tell a good friend at daycare all about it. He said "I will tell Lily that I took the bus, and the trolley, and the train to school today."
    Last weekend, I told Shmoo that Niki and Noah would be coming over. He was playing with his tacklebox at the time and exclaimed "I will tell Noah about the Mommy worm and the Baby worm and the Daddy worm . . . and Noah can play with the fishies . . . and Noah will play with the blue truck and I will play with the green truck, and . . ." When Noah arrived, however, Shmoo's mind seemed to go blank. All he managed to get out was "I took a bath!" like an awkward teenage boy approaching a crush for the first time.

Here's a photo of the two mesmerized by the magnificent marble run.

Comments

[sgazzetti]

Excellent excerpts! And I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg.

[el-e-e]

I love phrases like "to-bout." :) AJ's best right now are, "what this called about?" and "I scary of dat."

It's such a fun age.

[Night Editor]

Your post is so sweet--and timely for me as I prepare to celebrate Timmy's 13th! birthday. He spent most of his first six months at the lake up north, on boats, near the water, and later that fall, when he was learning to talk, he spotted an In-Fisherman magazine with a Lund on the front cover. He threw it on the floor, stepped on top of the slick pages, and cried out in real desperation, "IN BOAT! IN BOAT!" We were mesmerized.

[kilowatthour]

i love it when you can start to see what's going on in kids' minds. toddler talk is the best!

[Cath]

The younger members of the Bay Area Fan Club have requested photos of da Shmoo in his big boy bed.

[Niki]

LOVE the new vocab! I'm having the most fun with two - though it has its trying moments. Thanks for having us over. We had a lovely time. On the way home Noah kept asking me what I thought the marble machine was doing.