Talk Like...

I do imitations. Probably started when I was a kid and used to like watching Rich Little do Richard Nixon among other imitations. I've used this to my advantage to entertain/distract Elizabeth, break down her stubbornness, and gently guide her to do what I want her to do. Well, that's what I *used* to be able to do.

Now, in the words of Susan, Daddy has become Sweetpea's little "trained monkey."

It probably started when she was about 18 months old or maybe even younger. (What's that about the days are long but the years are short?) She would hand me her stuffed panda and say with excited anticipation "Talk-a-panda!" And Panda would talk to Sweetpea (with a Chinese accent since they are native to China after all) and Sweetpea would talk to Panda. Then it was "Talk-a-Ernie" and "Talk-a-Bert. And "Talk-a-Big Bird". And "Talk-a" random teddy bears. And "Talk-a" plastic fish.

I began to wonder if my little girl ever wanted to hear Daddy's normal voice again or if I was destined to a life of falsettos, baritones, and varied accents in communicating with my daughter.

But the piece d'resistance had to be the anthropomorphism of the Cutie-jamas.

Shortly after turning 2 and outgrowing her 18 mo pajamas, Susan bought two cute pair of pajamas. Said pajamas are displayed below.



In case they are difficult to read, the pair on the left say "Cutie" and the ones on the right say "Pretty." I really liked these pajamas and when it was cool enough, I tried to get E to wear them. She didn't exactly share Daddy's enthusiasm for the pajamas, rejecting the Cutie pair in particular. After a few weeks of this, I figured that if I could not properly present the case for her to wear the pajamas, maybe they could do it themselves.

And so were born Cutie-jamas and Pretty-jamas.

I gave Cutie-jamas somewhat of a little boy's voice and Pretty-jamas a sweet girl, if for no other reason than the Pretty-jamas are pink.

I think the first exchange went something like this:

Daddy: OK, Sweetpea, time to put on the pajamas.
Sweetpea: No! I don't want to wear those!
Daddy: Oh, come on, Elizabeth. They're so cute!
Sweetpea: No! Ahhhhhh!
Daddy: Oh, poor Cutie-jamas. They're sad.
Sweetpea: [silence, with an excited look]
Daddy: Poor poor Cutie-jamas. They just want to be worn. Will you wear them tonight?
Sweetpea: [softly] No.
Daddy: [pauses, looks at the pajamas, holds the shirt up in front of Elizabeth]
Cutie-jamas: Hi, Sweetpea. I'm Cutie-jamas. Will you wear me tonight?
Sweetpea: [with a look of delight and fascination that has since not been duplicated] Hi, Cutie-jamas!
Cutie-jamas: Oh, please, Sweetpea. Will you wear me tonight? It would make me so happy.
Sweetpea: [smiling] No.
Cutie-jamas: Oh, boo-hoo. I'm so sad. Sweetpea won't wear me tonight. [slight sobbing] Well, I guess I'll go back in the drawer. Will you wear me?
Sweetpea: Ok.
Cutie-jamas: Oh, yay! That makes me so happy! Sweetpea is going to wear me tonight!
Sweetpea: [shouting] I'm going to wear you tonight Cutie-jamas!

[Daddy hurriedly dresses Sweetpea in the pajamas and ends the dialogue]

Subsequent occasions yielded differing dialogues, but the basic principle was that, if Sweetpea didn't wear the Cutie-jamas, the Cutie-jamas got sad. And this delighted E - I guess it was her way of wielding some sort of power. Usually, she would give in before I put the pajamas away. Other nights she just wanted to make Cutie-jamas sad and wore something else. Either way it added a little fun to the bedtime routine.

Pretty-jamas came in to give Cutie-jamas a rival. E picked up on it right away and would play one off the other - at first usually picking Pretty over Cutie, but, more recently, jumping right to Cutie. It's gotten so that when I ask her the question "What pajamas would you like to wear tonight?", E would jump up and down and shout "Cutie-jamas!" If Cutie was dirty, she'd yell "Pretty-jamas!" She no longer seems interested in making them sad. Now she just seems to like them.

Some other examples of the Cutie-/Pretty-jamas saga:

- Early on, I thought Cutie-jamas should exercise some influence by saying "You will wear me tonight!" and tossing the shirt on E's head. This caused some serious shrieking and a look of horror from E. Needless to say, the Cutie-jamas have not gone on the attack since.

- I'd pull the pajamas out of the drawer and wouldn't start talking like them right away, to which Sweetpea would shout "Talk like Cutie-jamas!". And so it would start. "What are you doing, Cutie-jamas?" "No, I won't wear you Cutie-jamas" with a devilish little grin.

- E made the connection between Cutie and Pretty by saying that they were "twins" and then were "friends."

I have no idea what will happen when she finally outgrows these pajamas. Haven't really thought that far ahead. Pretty-jamas had a little accident the other week when we allowed E to "help" stain a wood stair railing while wearing said jamas. Now they're a little spotted.

The other area where E expects Daddy to perform is to do various Muppet voices. I specialize in Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzy Bear (not so good), Rowlf, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, and, of course, Beaker. She usually expects me to roll from one right into the other. After several weeks of this (we first saw the Muppet Movie back in July), my vocal chords are taking quite a beating.

"Talk like Kermit the Frog!"
"Hi Ho! Well, hello there, Sweetpea."
"Hi Kermit the Frog!" "Talk like Miss Piggy!" "Talk like Fozzie Bear!" "Talk like Rowlf!" "Talk like Dr. Bunsen Honeydew!" "Talk like Beaker!"

The requests usually come around bath time. So far it's an effective distraction. All I can say is that I have *tremendous* respect for Jim Henson and Frank Oz.

I charge $20/hr and am available for all kids' parties.

- Rich

Wordless Wednesday

When in doubt, a picture will do - this is from my birthday day trip to the beach.

Last night at dinner

E: *burp* (giggle giggle giggle)
Mommy: [disapproving stare, eyebrows raised for the polite phrase that's supposed to come next]
E: Is it funny?
M: [shakes head no]
E: Excuse me! Is it funny now?!
M: (giggle) Yes, yes it is!

I'm Sweetpea, and I approved this message

1) We watch too much TV
2) Virginia is clearly in play, with at least one political commercial every TV break.


She just started doing this out of the blue yesterday, no prompting from anyone. Ok, so technically, today she did the same for the other guy, too, but you know what? Rich can put up that video.
- Susan

(not quite) wordless wednesday

Does a caption make it not quite wordless? E got this pink satin chair last year for her birthday. It's been completely co-opted by Harrison.

Our Little Football Fan - Opening Game

Yesterday we piled the family in the car and drove down for one of UVa's biggest college football games in recent memory -- against the #3 USC Trojans. It was a beautiful day, but that stadium is hot hot hot in late Aug/early Sep especially with 65,000 people there. Kickoff was 3:30, weather was in the 90s, and our seats are directly in the sun. In spite of the oppressive heat and my team getting crushed, we all had a pretty good time, especially Sweetpea. As we were walking up to the stadium - E on my shoulders and throngs of people all around - E spots the stadium, points, and shouts "Look, look! Over there! There it is! It's there, it's there! Over that way!"

Proud moment #1 for Daddy.

We had an extra ticket and had to get rid of it. Initially, I had E on my shoulders and walked around holding up a ticket asking if anyone needed one. It didn't take long for her to snatch the ticket out of my hands. I put her down, and she walked along with Mommy, holding the ticket up and doing her best to help out, saying "Who needs a ticket?" My little scalper.

Proud moment #2 for Daddy.

Sweetpea got lots of comments on her outfit. It was from last year, so a little small, but Mommy cleverly suggested that she wear shorts underneath, which worked out perfectly. And she wore it well.

Once in the stadium, we went to the seats, making it just in time for kickoff. Because of the aforementioned heat, it was really necessary to take breaks from the sun and hang out on the concourse. When Susan took her down for the first time, E looked back through the tunnel and said "I want to go back! I want to go back with Daddy!" Something tells me though that she wanted more football.

Proud moment #3 for Daddy.

When we were all back at the seats, E made herself comfortable across Mommy & Daddy's laps. But there was a problem. People were blocking her view. She couldn't see the action on the field. "I can't see!" Upon sitting her up, she noticed people waving their towels for a big play and joined in with some towel waving and pom-pom shaking.

Proud moment #4 for Daddy.

By the half it was pretty clear that we had to leave early. The game was getting out of hand and the heat was getting to everyone. We had gone through two shaved ices (mostly eaten by E with some from Mommy) and a couple bottles of water. Thing about those shaved ices is the syrup they put on -- pure sugar. Sweetpea was running around like a crazy girl in the picnic area within the stadium. She wanted to keep hanging from the lowest branches of the trees there and would summarily do some pull-ups, counting off each one. With Daddy's help, of course. Still, while Mommy & Daddy were dragging, Sweetpea was ready to go.

Proud moment #5 for Daddy.

E didn't get a nap so we really needed to get her dinner and get on the road so that, hopefully, she would fall asleep on the 2.5 hr drive back. We left midway through the 3rd Qtr and made the long hike back to the car. E was in great spirits the whole way back. The heat and the outcome of the game didn't matter. Which is a valuable lesson for Daddy who, occasionally, expresses some unhappiness when his team loses. Mommy gets serious props too -- she really hung in there and took most of the E duty in the stadium so that I could watch the game.

We stopped at a local establishment for some quick eats and left town. E stayed awake for a good hour-and-a-half before finally dropping off. Mommy did likewise.

All in all, a good outing. My brainwashing seems to be working. My little one loves football and loves Daddy's team. Now if I can only get her to stop calling it baseball..

Go Hoos Go!

- Rich

Stupid Toddler Trick #119

To further demonstrate Sweetpea's ability to mimic (and to add more posts from Daddy -- this isn't just Mommy's blog ya know!), here is an older video of another movie quote. This one is near and dear to my heart. She needed a little prompting, but she got it! Voice inflection and all!

The quote is from the movie Coming to America which is easily Eddie Murphy's cinematic tour-de-force. Sweetpea is doing the following quote from Arsenio Hall's character "the Reverend" during the beauty pageant scene:

"Girl...you look so good...Someone oughta...slap you on a plate...and sop you up with a biscuit!"

In searching for this video, I ran across several other cute ones that I'll post later on. Good thing that E doesn't know how to surf the Web yet, cuz she would *hate* me for posting this stuff.

- Rich