Expanding Vocabulary

Today after watching Horton, Nicole asked me, "Do I look like a 'bladdering' boob? Or a 'idiant'?" (with a VERY sarcastic look on her face, complete with slanted eyebrows like an adult might do)

She has also hugged me a couple of times recently and said very passionately, "You're the best, Mommy". Sometimes this seems sincere, but sometimes it seems like she's acting out something she has seen. Either way, I'll take it.

Nicole suddenly has a keen interest in Muzzy... the cartoon monster-thing that teaches languages. This program has been around since the late 70's / early 80's I think (that's how outdated it looks, anyway). She saw it when I was looking it up on ebay the other day... I explained to her that we actually used to have it when she was 2 & we were still in Savannah (on 30-day trial, I sent it back because it scared her a little).
She insists that she wants it again and that she is big enough to like it now. She so wants to learn languages, not surprisingly at all. So, I'm trying to win it on ebay right now!

Sometimes she tells me how to say words in 'Spanish' or 'Bulgarian' (with a flourish of rolling r's and lots of emphasis on particular syllables, of course) and sometimes she's absolutely right, but sometimes she embellishes a bit. Especially when she sings a song...usually its a language all her own, and we have to ask her at the end what language it was. Sometimes we don't have to ask because she'll throw out an actual Spanish word in the middle. She's picking up words even if she doesn't know what they mean. And thats not easy considering she's hardly ever around anyone speaking Spanish!

Nicole has a pretty vast vocabulary, as you know, but I love when she occasionally pronounces things her own way. I have a few words of her own to record here:

~ mokin control (remote control)
~ elf-phalant (may have mentioned this one before)
~ ick-streemly
~ bref-kist

She also combines words like this, "Mommy, why did we didn't go to the beach today?"

I think that I'll have to update more later, because I have gone blank on the other words I wanted to add......

Life lately with a THREE year old...

Nicole's favorite new past time is making a string of words that rhyme, and they get pretty funny...they don't always rhyme, either, but usually do have the same sounds.
Today she said, "cat, yak, they sound the same!" and then "Elemag (grocery store here), elephant, elevator, Elouise (character) they sound the saaame!"
Parts of them do sound the same, and I'm very proud.

She also likes to cut and paste, if you've seen the six-legged horse she made in school (her first gluing project) you understand. And I've shown her how to cut things out of magazines (I rip out the page first) and she cuts them out and glues them to a page in a notebook, or a piece of construction paper, and this is AMAZINGLY fun.

She likes to take photos or have photos of herself taken while doing silly things like sticking out her tongue or heiney.

Standing on her toes - preferably in ballerina style shoes - is very very common now and she can even do a spin on her toes, on one foot.

She twirls her hair, like I do, and like my Mom does. hee hee

She is continuously and increasingly interested in all things girly, such as jewelery (she asked for a diamond for her birthday!?!?) accessories, pretty shoes, hair clips and dresses of course.

Her favorite animals right now are horses, dogs, and some cats - usually the ones that "look like girls". (she has lots of "Littlest Pet Shop" toys and will sit and separate the 'boys' from the 'girls' in their little storage containers. She also asked for a REAL pony for her birthday. She loves My Little Pony, though, and that's what she got. hee hee

She LOVES playing "I Spy" and will initiate a game frequently.
She has also become pretty good at initiating conversation, which I LOVE, she will be sitting down and make it very clear that she wants to have a chat, saying, "SOOOO, what did you do in school today?" or "SOOOO, what is your favorite thing to do in the snow Mommy?" (I have asked her these things a few times I guess, to start conversation with her).

She LOVES to push the buttons on the elevators (she's too short to reach ours in our building and so that means we need to put everything down and pick her up most of the time). The ones at the mall are best because she can just run up and push them (up or down, it makes no difference which way we're going!)

We walk a lot sometimes, and we don't have a stroller, so she's always riding on Vladi's shoulders. Everywhere we go, she's the tallest.

She has memorized a few of her books (one of them is Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes - not easy! But this book was EXTREMELY interesting to her with all the descriptive wording and the little mouse's daily change of colorful accessories - like tights and shoes and dresses and hairbows). This amazes me! She'll either say the words with me as I read them or she'll just hold the book and 'read' it to me. And actually, she did that before she turned 3, so let me get it straight. Looks like she'll be able to share her love of books with the baby, if she chooses, even if she can't read!

She already mentions the baby arriving when we're doing random things, like the other day, when she was in the middle of swinging at the park she said, "Mommy when the baby comes, I can hold the baby on my lap so she can swing and she won't fall down." Aww! Thats so heart-melting to me!

Names for the Baby (chosen by Nicole)

Since we don't know if the baby will be a boy or a girl, we are coming up with names for both, and when I say 'we', that includes Nicole! She's such a help, coming up with lots of creative ideas that sound like perfect names to her. Here are some:

Girls-
Smelly Melly(her first attempt, we were still in SAV. She started out at Melly, and when I questioned her where she'd heard that name she quickly finished telling me the WHOLE name - SMELLY Melly, and cackled with laughter at my expression),
Nana(dog from Peter Pan),
Marie(white kitten from AristoCats),
Anastasia (Cinderella),
Perdita(101 Dalmations),
Erika(her Barbie-Princess doll's name),
Poo poo (another attempt to shock me)

Boys-
Pongo (101 Dalmations),
Rafiki (from her book about The Lion King),
Thomas (The Train? or the cat? on AristoCats - more likely),
Evan ["...and then the baby can grow into Evan!" (Wiseman, BFF)],
Lucas (Hunter - whom she sees photos of frequently!),
Rajah (tiger from Aladdin)
Snoopy

Maybe, just maybe I'm letting her watch too many Disney movies...?

Speaking of crude, "not nice" things to say, she has lately been changing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star around (it ends "...like a diamond in the puke") Greaaat.

It SNOWED today!

Vladi took Nicole to kindergarten and I have to tell you the story as relayed by him:
They're driving to school and Vladi is whistling a Dan Zanes song we'd been playing in the house before they left for school ("Evening Time") which inspired Nicole to say, "Lets sing the snow song!" And she began: Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow, snow..." then "We can get out of the plane and play in the snow" (Vladi interjected "we're in the car!") "Oh...get out the car and play in the snow and throw snowballs and that means its snowing!"
Then they arrived at school and were met by a teacher's assistant and the administrator who were both wondering if Nicole was excited about the snow and for a moment they discussed snowmen and snow angels and she told them she liked the snow. The teacher's assistant held Nicole's hand and proceeded to take Nicole up the stairs to class, but not before she turned around to blow a kiss to Vladi and say, "Bye sweeetieee!" (with a completely sweet and not at all joking expression!)

She's growing up before our eyes!

Nicole has started to categorize in this way: "Daddy drinks beers and coffee, and Mommy drinks water and Nicole drinks juicey!" She drinks water too, but is not allowed to have beer or coffee, of course and she knows Mommy doesn't drink them, so I wasn't that surprised when she came to this conclusion:
We ordered a dessert recently which wasn't quite what we expected, and Nicole said, "It tastes BAD. Definitely for mens." Vladi thought it was SO funny, hee hee!

Today Vladi was leaving the house and saying goodbye to us. Nicole said goodbye and then added, "I love you, sweetie!" (Very warmly, very mother-hen-y, just like we say it to her!)

It's been a LONG time!

Vladi asked me the other day, "Why did you stop recording all these hilarious things she says?" and I didn't have an answer! So here I am...

Shortly after we arrived in BG we took Nicole to a great kid's store called Piggy's House, which is like a tunnels and balls play area (think Chuck E. Cheeze, minus all the food and coin-operated games) combined with a children's store with everything from strollers to shoes to baby food and diapers - even toys! And a small cafe with cakes, tea, coffee and other treats. In the parking lot our friends asked Nicole if she wanted to go in, she said "it looks very mysterious" and having just met her, they were unaccustomed to her off the wall comments, and cracked up - so did I. When we left, our friends asked Nicole if she liked it and she said, "OH yes, its my FAVorite!" She seems much older than her years, even her voice is very direct and sure in her answers and opinions.

On Nicole's first day of Kindergarten, she really showed off what she knew during story time. The teacher wanted to be very inclusive with Nicole and paid her special attention, while trying to tie the questions into the lesson from the story (The Little Red Hen: helpers/friendship). I was in the hallway waiting for V to pick me up (out of sight, since she thought she'd already sent me on my way) and so I got to hear it ALL.
The teacher asked her what she would be when the baby comes out of [my] tummy(maybe she was hoping to hear 'helper' or 'big sister' or something I guess?) and she said, "A princess, like Mommy."(hee hee!)
And then Nicole went on to add to that, "Mommy and Daddy got married! And Mommy wore a princess dress! And I was in Mommy's tummy and I came out." Not exactly how I remember it - I thought we'd been married over a year before we conceived, but thats ok, its her story.
"And babies come out through a special DOOR." And the teachers are listening and saying, "Uum hmmm" and kindly allowing her to finish her important story before moving on to The Little Red Hen. And she quickly added, "Babies come out through a special DOOR, its called a VAGINA." And after a surprised noise from the male teacher's assistant, the teacher led right into the lesson with "...and at our school today, we're talking about helpers and..." (so I guess that was the end of trying to get her to bring up 'helpers' on her own).

She also told the assistant teacher that she wasn't feeling very well and that she had been sick and she had to sleep on her side to keep her from getting sick (when she coughs repeatedly we tell her to roll onto her side) and I couldn't hear very well but it sounded like she mentioned fleas? I can't be sure, but if she did I don't know where she heard about them. Caesar has never even had fleas? And she certainly hasn't. I didn't know she knew what a flea was? But as the sentence ended (whatever she was talking about, fleas or not) she said,"And I feel very yucky about that." hee hee!

Nicole is really loving Kevin Henkes books right now - especially Chrysanthemum. She knows it word by word! And can actually 'read' it to us. And its full of words like "absolutely dreadful" and
other such colorful phrases! And being a library book, we have to take it back (can only keep them 3 weeks) but I think I'll order it for her birthday. I was surprised how fast she learned it though - it really fascinated her. I think because they were both starting school and because there are lots of little girl mice in the book, and she's sooo fashion conscious - she always points out their clothes and accessories and shoes. (that's all her own thing - she's always been very 'girly').

On the first day of school Nicole told me in the car that she wants to go to ballet school, like Angelina (Ballerina mouse), not to the regular school we'd been visiting. "Take me to a ballet school Mommy! I want to do ballet!" I told her I would try! (they're hoping to set this up soon at her current school, but I'm on the lookout for a kids ballet instructor that speaks / hopefully teaches in English.)

Nicole has been showing us yoga moves since last Thursday (first time she met the yoga instructor at her new kindergarten). Today she wanted to do yoga and ballet in her long princess dress. It was VERY entertaining! (I have a video clip I'll try and upload)