2004-08-24
Me: I love Clay!
Clay: I love Daddy!
[pause]
Me: How do you feel about Mommy?
Clay: The doggies love Mommy.
Clay, upon being woken up on Monday morning, cries then says, "You are too close! Get away from me!"
With two-year olds like this, who needs teenagers?
We've been working on manners. Quite a few spontaneous Thank yous but I could count the spontaneous Pleases on one hand. However, I'm happy to report that the slightest lift of my left eyebrow changes "I want more water!" to "More water please?"
We went through a frightening period when Clay was calling me Ma. I like Mommy. I can live with Mom, and will no doubt have to eventually, but I draw the line at Ma. Happily this phase seems to have resolved itself.
Incidentally, Mama makes my skin crawl, especially when used self-referentially by a certain kind of mother, as in "Hip Mama," "Mama Lit," etc. Shudder.)
Having a kid Clay's age around reveals one's verbal tics as perhaps little else does. Apparently I use the "a little on the XXX side" construction with regular frequency.
Walking at the edge of the lake I said, "Be careful. It's a little--" And Clay said, "On the tricky side?"
And B insists that the other night Clay told him he was a little on the goofy side. Which is true enough.
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