Kids say the darndest things...

Charlie's language changes on a day to day basis as he learns new things. Today we learned what a pop tart is called instead of just saying, "Uhhhhhhhhhh!". But if this was your first time to be around him, you might be slightly confused by things that we are now used to. "No eyes" means he can't see something or that he would like to see something for further clarification on what it is before he agrees to it (such as food, etc) and is most commonly used if he thinks you are going to make him turn off the TV. "No ears" means he can't hear the TV and would like for you to turn it up. We haven't established words like volume, hear, etc yet. (And no, he doesn't watch TV all day long, although given a choice, probably would.) "Nafgin" means napkin. "Sim" is Sam...which I am sad to admit that it took me a while to pick up on that! And please don't ask him to play a "game" unless you are speaking of the Wii...I've tried to clarify, but he's not catching on yet.

"Tracif" is traffic (hilarious to hear, by the way). And the way we came about "tracif" is that Charlie is somewhat of a back-seat driver. He keeps me well informed of what color the traffic lights are..."Green, Mom. GO!" "Oh, no...red!" And most definitely lets me know if I have run a yellow light..."Slow down, Mom! Yellow!" The other day we were sitting in traffic and the light was green. He was getting quite agitated that I wasn't going despite the green light. I told him there was too much traffic..."Tracif?" Now if we are anywhere near a green light and not moving, he yells, "Tracif!"

And here lately with the trend of overcast skies, we are constantly questioning if it is "Night?" Really, he is just clarifying that he doesn't have to go to bed yet, but it is still funny (and only slightly annoying) to answer the night question 47 times...in one hour!

We also had a little marina life lesson a while back. He thought all fish were sharks. As I tried to explain, we saw a catfish, which I named and pointed out to him. His response..."Cat? Fish? Noooooo...." Okay, okay, it's just a fish! Guess that's too confusing!


Sam still just repeats a lot of what he hears, but has proven to us that he is listening...Now, we he is done with a task, such as eating, watching a movie, or say...pooping, he will say, "Are ya done? Are ya done?" and look at us like he has just made a great proclamation and we should do something about it! I think what he is meaning to say is that he is finished, but is instead repeating what we say to him when he appears to be finished.

The same goes for when he needs help. I have told him over and over, instead of crying to just say "help". The other day he got stuck in his booster seat (it was not meal time, he was playing in it...) and I hear from the kitchen..."MOM! Say help!" I laughed when I got to him and told him, "No, just 'help'!" To which he responded, quite exasperated I might add, "Just help." By that time he was probably thinking just get me outta here, lady!

Everything Sam says is also said very fast and repeated several times before he gives you time to respond. For example, "Mom, mom, mom!" or "Say help! Say help!" or "Cheese, cheese!"...you get the point! "Charlem" is Charlie...no matter how many times I correct him. "Woohater" is water...also, fairly funny to hear. "Tomnjerry" is Tom and Jerry...all one word.

And the gold medal winner..."Shint, Mommy, shint!" The word for bathroom or potty or something equivalent in Amharic sounds something like "shint"...I know, I know...You gotta know God has a sense of humor when He does things like this! So, my favorite is when Sam announces this loudly in public and people think I'm teaching 4-letter words to my 2-year old. Nice. But even in the privacy of our own home...He just yells, "SHINT!" and heads to the bathroom! I can't help but laugh...even funnier is that our little buddy Emma, who is from no where near Ethiopia, has decided to use our new bathroom word, too...I'm sure her mommy & daddy just LOVE that!

And while "shint" is the gold medal winner on the humor side of things, the one that makes Mommy the proudest is that Charlie has learned THREE Bible verses for his Cubbies class at church and can say them to you without hesitation, reference included! (Well, he says them to me...maybe not to you. We are still a little shy!) Now, if that doesn't make you smile, then I don't know what will...!!