So, my two-year old son and I have this conversation everyday...
Him: Mama, eat?
Me: Ok, what do you want to eat?
Him: Mama, EAT. (as if I didn't understand him the first time)
Me: Ok, what do you want to eat? Yogurt?
Him: No, Mama, EAT! (as if that's not what yogurt is for...or that I don't know what "eat" means)
Me: I know you want to eat, but WHAT do you want to eat.
Him: Mamaaaah....Eeeeat!! (ah yes, he has already learned to speak slower and louder when people don't seem to understand you)
Me: I know you want to eat. Do you want pancakes?
Him: No, Mama, EAT!
Me: Waffles?
Him: No, Mama, EAT!
Of course, the foods I offer vary (though not much), and it goes on like this until I either give up, or I actually get to something he wants to eat. There are two sure fire ways to end the conversation - I can offer chocolate pudding or cookies. Of course, I don't want him eating only chocolate pudding and cookies, so I usually don't go there (strangely enough, these are also the cards I keep up my sleeve for getting him out of the bathtub...)
But lo and behold, yesterday he comes into the kitchen and says...
Mama, yellow yogurt?
Eureka!! We have a breakthrough! (Incidentally, yellow yogurt is yogurt that has the yellow lid. Once he opens it, the name changes to whatever color the yogurt actually is, usually white, though sometimes pink.) Of course, the "eat" part of the question is gone, but I think it's a relatively safe assumption that is what he wants to do with the yogurt (yes, I say relatively safe because I do understand the creative food uses of toddlers...)
The real test will come today when he gets hungry. Will we go back to the game where Mama gets to list every food in the house? I sometimes actually list foods we don't have, since I know he's likely to say no to everything I offer. I also get creative and offer things like elephant sandwiches and rock and dirt pie. Sometimes he says yes to elephant sandwich, I think just to see where I'm going to get the elephant.
(no elephants were harmed in the writing of this blog...)
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3 comments:
I totally hear ya! It has become dangerous for me to offer Nick things that we don't actually have though, because that is inevitably the thing that he cannot live without! Anger ensues. I have been able to work in acceptable substitutions though. If he is in desperate need of a cookie, I can give him whole wheat crackers and say that these are a special kind of cookie and he generally buys it. Brilliant.
Ah yes, the whole wheat cracker is a special cookie trick...my kids never bought it. I must've done it wrong.
Welcome to bloggerland, Falcor. I feel your pain with the two year old son thing...btdt.
I talk the same way to my wife and I'm 50 years old.
http://organizeddoodles.blogspot.com/
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