Ahhhh…the joy of newly found vocabulary to a one year old.  Not knowing the correct context to use new phrasing in all the time does not seem to stop them saying it  non-stop from dawn till dusk.

Lo, the resident one-year-old, has taken to the phrase, “I don’t want it.”  In true toddler fashion, she doesn’t enunciate all the syllables and letter sounds yet.  No ‘t’ sounds…’n’s’ not so much…so its funny to watch her try to pull rank on all of us with her, “NAOU! NAOU! I DEO WAAAA Iiiii.”

Naturally, when Lo began to talk we immediately cracked open the ‘Animal Sounds’ game.  When Brianne was that age, I sent my sister a video of us quizzing Bri on her animal sounds every single day.  Some of the funniest times of my life were sitting there asking her to make animal noises while she sat in the bathroom waiting for nature to run it’s course.  She’ll appreciate that one day, right.  Bah, ha ha ha.

Being the second child, Lauren enjoyed the spotlight that the game gave her.  Even big sister was a riot coming up with different animals to stump Lo with.  Until about round 3.  Lauren…being her own person…decided it would be funnier TO HER if she started refusing to make the animal sounds.  Funnier, still, became the ‘What?!?!?!” reaction she received.  Yep.  She spun the game around us, and was now laughing at us trying to get her to make these ridiculous noises.

“Lo, what does a cow say?”

“MOO! NO! NO! I DON’T WANT IT!”

“Lo, what does a pig say?”

“NO! I DON’T WANT IT!!”

“Lo, what does a horsey say? Neigh?”

“I DON’T WANT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“What does a ducky say?”

“WA-WA-WAAACK!!”

Ha!  Even little Lauren has her weaknesses….”NO!!!!! …….I don’t want it.”

So, that’s become her response for everything now.  Certainly, a kid of mine would be the one to go through a ‘NO’ stage by adding more words to it.  Makes perfect sense.

Since my adorable little peanut happens to be the biggest food grazer of all time (I mean…the-finish breakfast-get down from the high chair- turn around and ask for more food-kind…), I thought I’d kill the boredom one afternoon by turning her little game around on her.

Calling my three year old over to watch…I waited in the kitchen for Lo to, ever-so-predictably, come tip-toeing into the kitchen to scope out the cookie jar…and beg me as if she’s starving…for a ‘coooooooooookie’ or a ‘nina’ or a ‘cooooookie’…  So instead of just telling her ‘No’ or handing her a cookie or a banana…

“Lauren, you want a cookie?”

“NO! NO! I DON’T WANT IT!!!”

At this point Brianne is already cracking up so hard she’s raining cookie crumbs from her snack all over the floor.

“Are you sure you don’t want a cookie?  How about a banana, Lo?”

‘”NO-NO-NO-NO-I DON’T WANT IT……..PLEEEEEEEAAAAAASSSSSEEEEEE?”

Now I’m laughing out of control, and poor Lauren is shaking my leg doing the cookie-nina chant.

Finally, feeling like I’ve won a small victory, I handed her a cookie.  Lo reacted with an immediate hug, a ‘dank you, Mommy’ and a tip toe out to the family room to spread those crumbs around.

Who says being a stay-at-home-mom is isolating? lol.

Happy Toddler Tricking…

Megs