It was so exciting when Ella starting learning words. And then when her words grew to cute little sentences. And then her sentences to whole stories. It was fun, I repeat WAS.....
I say this because lately I have been hearing things come out of her mouth that sound really familiar. They are the kind of things that I say to her because after all, I am in charge here.
Ohh, how I wish I could take them back, seriously!!
And so I proceed with the list of things I wish I would have never said:
1. "Do you understand?"
I asked Ella why she didn't want to do something this morning and she told me "I just don't want to, do you understand?? I just don't want to!!"
2. "Now!!"
Ella frequently tells me, "I want my milky, NOW!" (the fact that she calls it "milky" doesn't make it cute).
3. "I hate this!!"
Ella will randomly tell me something that she hates. "I hate meat!" is one of her favorites.
4. "I can't carry you because my leg hurts."
Ella has a broken leg from time to time now, mostly around the time that she needs to put her clothes in the hamper or put her plate in the kitchen. She says, "Ohh, my leg hurts!"
5. "If you do that one more time!" (with the finger point)
When Ella is frustrated with me she will tell me, "One more time!!" And yes, she has got the finger point down.
6. "We have to leave in 2 more minutes."
In my parenting classes at BYU "they" said to give your kids a warning before it is time to leave a task they are enjoying. Well, either this advice is craziness or I choose my words poorly because now Ella just keep asking for "2 more minutes." And it ends up that I am putting on her coat and boots while she is screaming, "2 MORE MINUTES, 2 MORE MINUTES!!"
7. "What did you like the best?"
I thought it would be a good thing to ask Ella what she liked the best about her day but she picked up on the phrase "the best" and now she uses it all the time. Like for example at dinner she likes to say,
"I wanted chocolate the best!"Isn't parenting funny? I thought I had to teach a little girl how to grow up and be a good adult and now I see that I might need to grow up (just a little) too.
6 comments:
I get the same kind of stuff from my Nora (15 months) and her three-year old cousin that I baby-sit. However, the hurt leg is a new one on me!
Quinn and I have recently agreed to really watch what we say, because Nora is repeating *everything*! I'm just waiting for her to yell "Holy crap!" or something similar in the middle of sacrament meeting. She already calls out "AMEN!" during prayers when she thinks they're too long. ;)
Ella is SO beautiful, and looks so like you! What a peach!
I can relate to this. The boys repeat a lot of what I say too... Isaac likes to say to Elliot when he gets hurt, "it's ok honey, you're ok" and Elliot will repeat things that I am saying right then and there. I will say "please stop" and he'll say "please stop" Drives me bonkers sometimes :)
I'm sorry, but it makes me laugh! Of course, I'm not there, no one is pointing their finger at me, and I haven't recently been told by a small person "do you understand"... and so I laugh (but while I am laughing, I am hopeful that you will make it through this stage soon!).
K
It's a tough age... they're full of emotion and don't always have the tools to express it (and no sense of obedience to parental authority!).
My daughter used to do the "my leg hurts" thing, only more like when she was 4 or 5. It frustrated me wildly until I realized that pretty much all little kids do it. It's a way to assert some control. Parenting magazines tend to say things like, "Give them some other way to assert control instead, like, 'Do you want to put your clothes in the hamper now or after you play with dolls?'" It works about as well as you'd think, which is not much at all.
Re: 2 minutes: You could try telling her calmly, "No, we already had two minutes." But I think it has about as much chance of working as the hamper/dolls suggestion.
But take heart. They get over it.
I love this post!!! It's scary when you hear your kids repeat your words and phrases. I'm really, really glad that I don't cuss. Ella's copies make me smile. I'm glad I read this.
I LOVE her little toddler bed!! She's soooooo cute!! (Even if "milky" doesn't make some of her sentences cute.) :)
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