Mama: Did you play with Chaz today at Jane’s* house?

Tru: No, I don’t like the Chaz.

Mama: Why don’t you like Chaz?

Tru: He be naughty to me.

*Jane is the name of Tru’s daycare provider.

Well, it’s happened… that time when a parent says something, either seriously or in jest, that a wee one should not hear. And, not only should they not have heard it, they repeat it. As we were driving on I-5 north to Tacoma on a Friday afternoon, the traffic was a bit nasty and as the passenger, I jokingly said to the driver, “Suck it up, Brendon.” Then…

“Suck eet up, Bendon” was repeated from the back seat. And as all parents know, when one laughs at something one’s child has said or done, they repeat it again and again for the fun of it.

So until we made it to our Tacoma destination, over and over we heard, and giggled about, “Suck eet up, Bendon.”

Tru has learned how to negotiate. He has inserted “one more time” with an index finger pointed up when he wants another cookie, book read, or whatever he’s focused on at the moment. Where he got this? Again, we aren’t sure. And what’s up with the finger pointing for extra effect? We have started to use it to our advantage. If I’m thinking ahead enough, I do agree to one more time but with the stipulation, “then you’re all done.” The crazy thing is he follows through on our deal 9 times out of 11.

Ahhh… the joys of summers off. Hangin’ with the little dude.

It’s been a while since Bren listed words that Tru says with definitions… as of a couple weeks ago he has ventured into sentences. “I want more soup” was the first official 4 word sentence.

Language acquisition is truly an amazing feat to watch! I can’t believe all the new things he says every day. Today we were playing with a bat and ball and he said, “My turn” when he wanted to play. He’s added “I love you” to his repertoire, but he’s also into saying colors so it tends to sound like, “I lellow.”

On to more tao…

We drive through the country every day to get to school/daycare. We pass several people that have cows, calves and/or horses on their property. I slow the car down so he can see them and say, “Moooo!” (one even Moo’ed back! Oh! What a day that was!!!). Sometimes when we start to leave he even says, “Bye bye mama tao. Bye Bye baby tao.” As soon as we speed up he says to me, “More tao mama, more tao.”

It’s super cute as long as the people who own the cows and (neigh neighs) don’t get suspicious of the white Subaru that stops in front of their house every day.

We knew this day would come… our family is finally transitioning into a working family. Bren starts tomorrow at Fox, I go back to my middle school crew, and Tru segues into daycare. After a laid back, kick back, backpack summer, I think this will be a shock to all our systems

P.S. Tru is really cute. Maybe he could revive A Flock of Seagulls.