Anna - Not Quite Three

The child is a wealth of words. People trip over themselves when they learn that she isn't even three years old. It's perfectly natural to us, though. I mean the entire family likes words. Joshua likes big words. I like lots of words. Thomas knows every word. Sarah Grace wants to know what every word means. Elizabeth has words, but is drowned out by her siblings. And so it is that Anna's vocabulary is larger and more correctly used than your run of the mill 35 month old child.

Her learning processes are very much so on average, though. Hilariously so, when you consider how broad her language skills are.

Example 1
Doo-Doo. Enough said. (I wonder how much longer I can allow her to go on with that...)

Example 2
As we were on our way to ballet this week, Anna was talking about cars.

"Is dat a Punch Buggy, Mommy?" (Slug Bug, Punch Buggy, you know the game, right?)

"No, baby. That's a PT Cruiser, like Memum has."

"Oh," she replied. After a few minutes, she pointed out another car. "Is dat one a Punch Buggy?"

"Nope. That's a Honda."

Why she thought it looked even remotely like a VW Bug, I will never know. But she is two.

So later this week, she looked out the window as we were waiting at a traffic light.

"Mama! It's a gween Punch Buggy!!"

"No, Anna. It's not a Punch Buggy. I'm sorry, sweetie."

"Oh... is it a Ponda?"

I giggled as I replied, "Not a Ponda, either. It's a Toyota."

"But it's gween, wight?"

"Yup, it's green."

After several moments of repeatedly mumbling 'Toyota' to herself, she piped up again.

"Does a Toyota bwing toys, Mommy?"

Example 3
We love to sing around here. Frequently, as we drive to and from places, the kids will hum a song and try to get their siblings and me to guess what it is. Anna tends to hum Jingle Bells and the Alphabet Song a lot. So when it's her turn to hum, we can all pretty well guess it in three notes. But today she veered. She hummed the "Oh come let us adore Him" parts to "O Come All Ye Faithful". (What? Your not already singing Christmas songs?)

The other kids were stumped and so I guessed. Since I was right, it meant it was my turn to hum a song. I hummed about half of "A, Your Adorable" before anyone guessed it. The older kids, sitting all the way in the back of the van, couldn't hear as well as Anna, who sits just behind me. She got all excited and blurted out...

"It's A Yowr Dordullbuh!"

I let her have it.