From the Mouth of Molly

 In the last few months, Molly's vocabulary has really blossomed.  She has gone from the parrot stage, where most of her phrases were verbatim repeats of things she heard us say, to using her own words to express her own thoughts.  It has been a lot of fun to hear her share what's going on inside that little head.  At times it can also be quite hilarious.  What makes it even funnier is that her little voice is SO expressive.  She speaks with an enthusiasm that's difficult to express in words on a page, but I'll try with some capital letters to capture the spirit of her speech.  Here's a sampling of a few of the things that she's said lately:

"Time for sleepiness.  Sleepiness time."
Not really sure how she came up with this one, but she only says it when she's really tired and knows that she needs a nap or needs to go to bed.  I don't hear it often enough (she's usually very reluctant to go to bed), but when she does say it, it's quite precious.

"I'm a lettuce sign"
Translation: "I'm gonna let it shine."  Her absolute favorite bedtime song is "This Little Light of Mine".  One night I asked her what song she wanted to sing before bed and this is what she said.  It took me a minute to figure out what she wanted.

"No M&Ms for Ian.  He's TOO little.  He'll choke and die!"
No idea where she came up with this one, but she makes a good point.  Truthfully, I just think she doesn't fancy sharing her potty prizes with her little brother.

"Not now.  I'm TOO busy _____________."
Shamefully, I think she may have picked this one up from me.  The first time she said it, I asked her to come to the table to eat dinner.  She responded with, "Not now.  I'm TOO busy picking up toys.  You'll JUST have to wait."  Thankfully, she has dropped that last part, but whenever we ask her to do something (eat dinner, use the potty, brush her teeth, get her shoes on), the standard response has become, "Not now.  I'm TOO busy playing blocks/holding my babies/watching Ponyo/etc.".  Now, I can understand where she's coming from.  What 2-year-old wants to leave a fun activity to do something as boring as eating dinner?  But the one that totally cracked me up was the other day when I asked Molly to step up to the sink to brush her teeth.  She had been standing in the bathroom watching me get ready at the mirror.  She stuck both her hands in her pockets, leaned against the wall, and said, "Not now.  I'm TOO busy standing in the bathroom."

"Got to get up.  Get changed.  I'm ALL sweaty."
This has become her go-to excuse for getting out of bed when she should be going to sleep.  At bedtime she runs through her normal litany of 'one more book', 'one more song', 'one more drink', 'Mommy give my babies a kiss', 'Mommy give my babies a drink'.  Once she's finally settled into bed, she then tries to find excuses to get out of bed, which hasn't worked out well for her.  That all changed a few weeks ago when she had a little virus that gave her a fever.  She woke up all sweaty and, of course, I changed her pajamas and gave her some cuddles before putting her back to bed.  "Ah-ha" said her little brain.  "If I'm sweaty, Mommy will have to change my PJs and I'll get out of bed for a bit."  For a while, she just tried to tell me she was sweaty.  When the evidence didn't match the claim, she kicked her game up a notch.  Three times this week, she has gotten out her bed crying "all sweaty" and she actually was soaking wet.  It took me the first two nights to realize what was going on; she was using the water bottle by her bed to dampen her head and shirt!  If you're looking for proof that small children have a sinful nature, there it is.  Clever little girl!

"See ya next week."
I think this one was picked up at church when she says goodbye to her Sunday School teachers, but Molly uses it in all situations.  Daddy's going into his office for work..."See ya next week."  Ian's going to bed..."See ya next week."  Mommy's going into the kitchen to start dinner..."See ya next week."

And because I can't possibly publish a post without a picture of sweetness, here's my squishy with me and her babies (named "Molly" and, you guessed it, "Molly"):