Things People Say

Since living down south over the past two years, I have melded into this new way of speaking, to some extent. I catch myself saying things like "y'all" and "I'm fixin to..." (do such and such). I also say "daggum" now too.

Haleah is starting to say funny things too. She throws words together to form crazy sentences like, "How the daggum heck does that thing work?" And sometimes Haleah is very contemplative. I guess she has been thinking of events that have taken place over the past couple of days and things I might have told her she was too young to do, because tonight she told me this:

"When I get older I will be able to light a candle, kill a wasp and mow, right Mommy?" I thought that was so precious.

Kaelah is funny too with her words. But of course she is just learning to group words together. Nowadays she is simply learning to assert her independence. When I ask her to do something she'll say, "Do it. Do it. I do it!" Or she'll say, "Nnn nnn. Play," (meaning, 'no, I want to play').

Most of the time I can figure out what my kids are saying, but sometimes I am really thrown for a loop. I remember when Haleah said, "A neat ah mal ah dee dee dahl..." over and over again for about a week back when she was just turning two. And to this day I have no clue what she was trying to tell me. But she said it so many times that I'll never forget the phrase. Perhaps some day she'll clue me in.

Words are funny things. And each day I strive to communicate better with my children and learn to listen to them as they seek to communicate with me and the world around them.