Saturday, December 25, 2010

"My teeth are in my mouse!"


We often have both Nathan and Anna, so they are growing up together in a way. They are cousins, but he is a big-brother cousin and she is a little-sister cousin. Sort of.

Remember back in March when I wrote about Nate learning to say the word banana? It made us laugh for a long time.

When Anna was born, we all began calling her Baby Anna. But Nate soon started saying "Baby Nana." It made us all laugh, of course, but it took almost a month for me to get him to say "Anna." In the process, when I was trying to show him that he could make the "A" sound, I asked him to say "apple." He said it easily. I told him that was great, and if he could say apple, he could say Anna because they start the same way. We'd practice, and he'd say "aaa-Nana!" It was really funny.

He talks a lot, but like any kid his age, there are sounds he doesn't make consistently. He calls Becca "Auntie Butta" and one of my favorite words is "dood!" "How are you today Nate?" I ask him when I see him. "Dood!" he tells me. No gutteral hard c or k or g. I noticed one day last week that he can say "car" though. Instead of Grumpa, he calls Tom "Dumpa." Cute.

This week I decided to work on the "th" sound at the beginning and end of words. He says, "dat" and "dese" for that and these. So I showed him how to stick his tongue out, just a little bit, and say the words correctly. He became frustrated quickly, and walked away, saying, "Oh Nana!" in a disgusted tone. I let it go. He is two, and he is making himself understood quite well. No need to upset him.

A couple of days later, I was giving him lunch. He had almost finished, and was in the high chair. He had one bite left on his plate, and I told him to eat it while I went and put my dishes in the dishwasher. When I came back, I asked him, "What did you do with that last bite of sandwich?"
He giggled, and said, "I put it in my mouse, and now it is in my tummy!"

"Mouse?" I said. "Where is your mouse?"

He giggled again, and pointed to his mouth.

"That's not a mouse," I told him. "A mouse is a little animal with a long tail. Do you have a mouse on your face?"

He giggled some more. "Mickey Mouse!" he said.

"Right! Mickey Mouse. But this," I pointed to his mouth, "is your mouth, not your mouse. Can you say mouth."

"Mouse!" he said, looking solemn.

I thought he was seriously trying. So I said, "Can you say "teeth?"

He said, "My teeth (pronounced correctly) are in my mouse." He giggled again.

"Come on, silly boy," I told him. "If you can say 'teeth' you can say 'mouth.' Let me hear you say 'mouth.'"

He said, "My teeth are in my mouse." He looked serious.

"How about bath? Can you say "bath?" I asked him.

He said, "Bath."

Frustrated, because he can obviously make the "th" sound at the end of words, I spent a few more minutes trying to get him to say "mouth", but it came out as "mouse" every time. I gave up and we went on to other things.

Later that day, when I was getting my coat on to go home, he came running over to give me a kiss goodbye. Just as I was going to kiss his cheek, he ducked his head so I had to kiss him on the top of his head. He is good at ducking kisses, so I told him, "Nope. You have to give me a kiss on my cheek now."

He giggled and pushed his cheek up against mine.

"That's not a kiss!" I told him.

I tickled him. "Stop!" he said, laughing. "Nate kiss you."

"Will you give me a kiss with your mouth?" I insisted, tickling him a bit more.

"Yes. Nate kiss you with my mouse." he said laughing.

"Your mouse?" I pretended to be horrified. "Not with your mouse! I don't want a mouse kissing me."

He laughed harder. He gave me a kiss - a real kiss - on my cheek.

I picked up my purse and lunch bag, and was opening the door, when he said, "Nana! I kissed you with my mouth!" He was grinning.

He is two. Just two years and three months, actually. But I swear, the boy had been teasing me all day. I think he knew how to say mouth all along!