Out of da Shmoo

Hi. I'm still here. Still pregnant. Feeling huge and awkward; narcoleptic by day and insomniac by night, wheee!

But I want to talk about Shmooieisms. I've been meaning to post them for a while, so some of these stretch back a few months.

HPR and I have been a bit surprised at how verbal Shmooie is/has been. He had such a reserved nature as a baby that we figured he'd just soak it all in and be the strong & silent type. Not so! He is very chatty and quite intentional and exacting in his word choice and conversations. His pronunciation is careful, which is nice for us as I think we've been able to avoid a lot of tantrums just by virtue of understanding what he's saying.

Tip your waiters, folks. Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week.

I've mentioned before his interest in imposing dialog on nonverbal things, like "what does the trolley say to the passengers when they get on?" Or "what does Bucky car say to the fish?" A lot of these sound like joke set-ups; we take turns being the straight man:

Shmoo [loading his Thomas trains onto Noah's Ark]: What does the boat say to the trains?
Me: Umm, all aboard?
Shmoo: No, the boat doesn't have a mouth.
zing! He got me with that one!

Shmoo: What does the cow say when the horse tries to take away its food?
HPR and I, in unison: HAY!

The language police.

One morning he was playing with his train set and I made the mistake of referring to the breakdown train as the "breakdown truck." Shmooie's eyes narrowed with disdain and he said: "Mommy, you're happosed to say 'breakdown train.' Say 'breakdown train.'"

The ever-popular who-has-which-set-of-genitals discussion.

Shmoo says "v"s like "b"s, so there are several daily requests to "watch a bideo." One Saturday, Shmooie and I were going through a few of the YouTube videos we had favorited during his earlier bus obsessions. Later on, at the playground, Shmooie was hanging on my legs on the play structure, then smiled up at me and said "The Bagina Bus." I responded "Are you thinking about the video we watched this morning, the Spadina Bus? "The Bagina Bus," he repeated. I tried to play dumb: "Ummm, the China Bus?" He gave me an I'm-not-letting-you-off-the-hook grin and asked (as he's done hundreds of times) "Mommy, do you have a penis?"

Don't let the door hit your tail on the way out, Loki, he's over you.

One sad thing: our cat, Loki, disappeared as of Sunday. Either we forgot to get him back in the house before we left for the day, or he got out when we got home in the evening. Shmooie helped me call for him around our block on Monday. On Tuesday, Shmoo and HPR called for him as they went to the trolley. Then Shmooie said, plainly, "we will have to get another cat."

The close-talker.

We went to the Strangeafeet household recently to see new-big-brother Noah and meet baby Ray. Shmooie had asked ahead of time whether baby Ray "had wings that flap." He was thinking of Mr. Ray, Nemo's teacher in Finding Nemo. Anyway, Noah, who is Shmoo's same age, has some great lines of his own. We were a bluster of excitement coming in the door and greeting everyone. We had primed Shmoo for the visit and Shmoo was eager to play with Noah's trains Noah. Noah hung back and said "I need to warm up."

Noah had potty sticker charts in his kitchen just like da Shmoo. As soon as he saw Noah's charts, he was impressed "Wow, Noah peed alotta times!"

We often encourage Shmoo to act on his own in social situations rather than filtering everything through us. So when he had a question for Noah, we said he should ask Noah directly. Shmoo went around the table to the not-yet-warmed-up Noah, stood by his chair, and asked him whatever the questions was. Noah seemed uncomfortable and didn't make eye contact. As a result, Shmoo got closer, right up to his face, and repeated the question. That's when we parents intervened and reminded Shmoo that Noah still needed to warm up.

Makes me tired to think of all the social knowledge we impart along with the more intentional lessons for our kids. Good thing most of it just soaks in from the day-to-day.

Comments

[Lainey-Paney]

Bagina Bus!

...that's funny!

:)

[Lori]

"we will have to get another cat." Priceless.

[ThomasT]

Yeah, the b/v thing has happened to several kids I know, including our own. It's cool - most Mexican pronunciation of those characters is like that all the time, so I figure they're just getting a head start on their Spanish studies.

And THANKS for Spadina Bus link!

[SteveO]

I'm sad that Loki is gone. Such a good kitty.

[Night Editor]

Sorry about Loki. And great Schmooisms. He sounds like the kind of kid I'd like to hang around. When M. was about his age, she used to say this to her "imaginary friends": I know what you're thinking but you'll never know what I'm thinking. As a soon-to-be twenty-year-old, I'm guessing she uses that phrase silently with her parents, too.