I am obsessed with good bargains. This is what lead me to Mamabargains.com and Eco Baby Buys, and this is what led me to The Jungle Grapevine alphabet flash cards. They are pretty and whimsical, and I couldn’t resist them. And they were a bargain, of course. Azita loved them almost instantly. She points at each card and babbles, mostly incoherently. Most of the animals are pretty exotic after all. Like Xenopus Toad. Or Yellow-billed Stork. Roger and I can barely pronounce the names of these creatures.
Azita’s favorite is a monkey called the Uacari. She gets really excited when she sees it. Very excited. She points at it, and laughs. And she says “Maman!” as she’s pointing to it.
Maman.
Apparently I remind her of a red-faced monkey.
Uacari
I don’t know. I guess I can see the resemblance.
zahra, September 9th 2010 |
Tags: alphabet, funny, learning to read, monkeys, talking, toddlers
Posted in Parenthood + Childhood, Short + Sweet
Lately I’ve been talking like a baby. Actually it’s more than just lately. It’ been going on for about 6 years when my sister’s oldest son started talking. There’s something about the way babies butcher words that makes the words themselves so much more entertaining than when they are said with proper pronunciation. Now that both my sister and I have toddlers things have gotten really bad. I swear we could have a conversation in English and no one but us and our two babies would know what we are saying.
Rather than fix up our language, I think it would be easier if I gave the world a vocabulary lesson. Also, maybe someone can tell me how these girls think any of this stuff sounds like the actual words.
- Beandeh = Phoenix
My sister has a cat named, Phoenix, who is called Beandeh by my little niece and now the rest of her kids, her, her husband, and me.
- Ehnendeh = Tinkerbell
My niece, Ava, loves Tinkerbell, whom she calls Ehnendeh. Personally, I think Ehnendeh is a much more awesome name than Tinkerbell. Remember that weird guy who thought he was Peter Pan and became an Internet sensation. He had this whole website about his quest to find his very own Tinkerbell. Well, if he would jump on the Ava bandwagon, he could be on a quest to find his very own Ehnendeh. See? It sounds funnier does it?
- Orsies = Horses
Let’s face it. Orsies has a much nicer ring to it than horses.
- Magbog = Maggie
Maggie is one of our cats, and Azita calls her Magbog. I’ve decided to officially change her name to Magbog. She hides under something every time I call her that, but I figure she’ll eventually come around.
- Bow = Buzz or anything other than Maggie that is furry and moves
Azita has always loved Buzz the most. When she was just a few weeks old she would follow him around the room with her eyes and smile. In the past few weeks she’s been saying “Booowww” over and over. It finally dawned on me that she was looking at Buzz when she was saying it, and then I realized that she was calling any dog or cat, except for Maggie, Bow. And also, squirrels and pictures of furry animals. Now take a minute please to say out loud “Boooowwwww.” It’s fun, right? So, you understand then why I now choose to call all animals with fur “Booooowwwww.”
- Moh = Milk
This one goes way back. In fact, it’s the first thing Azita ever said, other than Mama and Baba. My favorite part of every day is when I hear her bare feet slapping against the floor with those teeny tiny footsteps towards the kitchen, where she stops by the fridge and repeatedly smacks it’s door, saying “Moh?’ She always says it like a question, with her voice rising up at the end. It’s so freakin’ cute that I almost always have to duck down and give her a giant, smothering hug while I kiss her little nose and those little chubby, rosy cheeks.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t support baby talk. I know better. I usually talk to Azita with proper English. Usually. But I can’t help myself sometimes. Beandeh made me do it.
zahra, April 19th 2010 |
Tags: baby talk, milestones, talking, toddlers
Posted in Parenthood + Childhood
My life has been very hectic as of late, and things just seem to be going awry at every turn. Coincidentally, one of Azita’s favorite things to say lately is “uh-oh.” And she says it a lot. I accidentally send an email to the wrong person. “Uh-oh.” I realize I’ve been walking around with broccoli in my teeth all day. “Uh-oh.” She has an uncanny way of saying it at the exact time I realize I’ve made a mistake or a complete ass out of myself. I’m starting to think she can read my mind or just catches on to a whole lot more than I give her credit for.
It’s almost like she’s become a portable soundtrack for my life at the moment. I have to admit that it’s kind of nice. There’s nothing like hearing a toddler say “uh-oh” in that cute, sing-songy voice to make a seemingly disasterous or embarrassing situation seem trivial and even funny.
zahra, March 24th 2010 |
Tags: talking, toddlers, uh-oh
Posted in Parenthood + Childhood
This morning after a night of only a couple hours of sleep, Azita wakes up, jumps to a sitting position and gives me a big slobbery kiss. On the mouth. And she says MMMMMMMMmmmmmmm-uh and then giggles. I couldn’t help but laugh semi-hysterically.
Then when she was eating her breakfast, she says “mmmmmmmm. bah-bah-bah-bah” and she rubbed her tummy. When Iranians eat something tasty, they say “bah-bah-bah.” Apparently, Azita has picked that up. And that’s not all. When she stopped eating and moved on to playing with her food, I took her tray away, and she wasn’t too thrilled about that. Her response? “eh-baba.” If you’re Iranian, you know why that’s cute. It’s just such an adult thing to say. The way she said it, it was like an old man was talking in my little toddler’s voice. You can also probably imagine from whom she picked that up.
Me thinks it’s time for Roger to get serious about watching his language before she moves from copying the eh-babas and bah-bahs on to the “F*%! you, asshole” and other choice things Roger likes to say when he drives, walks or does just about anything.
zahra, March 4th 2010 |
Tags: azita, milestones, talking, toddlers
Posted in Parenthood + Childhood
