Thursday, March 26, 2009

Flash to the past

I'm beat. I babysat a little girl today. Not that watching one more kid is all that exhausting, but the fact that I'm watching somebody else's kid means that I actually have to pay attention to them. She got along well with my kids. I couldn't understand much of what she said. She was 3 years old. She babbled some nonsense at dinnertime and my kids were laughing at her. She was their dinner comedy entertainment. I don't think she liked them laughing at her, but it was funny. I understood her when she told me that she didn't like my kitchen. She wouldn't tell me why she didn't like it. She just didn't like it. I think it might've had to do with the fact that my husband was in there and he had just finished punishing Wendy who had to stand in the corner in the kitchen. The little girl was probably afraid that she was going to get in trouble.

I sometimes can't even understand my own 3 year old. I often depend on the resident translators. Tonight as Wendy was getting ready for bed, she was trying to tell me something, but my translators weren't around. She told me that she wanted "those fings in her hair." I didn't know what she meant by "things" so she proceeded to explain, "You know dat doggy."
"Doggy?"
"Yeah."
"What about the doggy?"
"You know. Dat waydee dat melts."
"A lady that melts?"
"Yeah."
"What lady that melts?"
"You know. Her has hat and her melts."
"Ok. You want a hat?"
"Nooo! (laughs as if I'm a moron) You know. Dat waydee dat melts wif dat big hat. We watch dee udder day."
I didn't recall that we watched any lady melt in our recent past, then it clicked that she might be referring to a movie. Yes! I tried to quickly recall which movies we had watched recently in reverse chronological order -- Curious George, Barbie and Magic Pegasus, The Brady Bunch, Barbie and Magic Pegasus, The Letter Factory, Barbie and Magic Pegasus, Cinderella II, Barbie and Magic Pegasus.
"Does somebody melt in Pegasus?"
"No! (laughs) You know. Doggy, waydee melts."
I thought back a little further, "Ohhh! The Wizard of Oz?!"
"Yeah!!! Da Wiz uh Ah! I want doe fings in my hair."
Great! Back to the beginning. "What things are you talking about??!!"
Finally I used my smarts and made an educated guess. It ended up that she wanted braids like Dorothy in her hair. Either that or she got sick of me not understanding and finally agreed to my guess.

***************************

At dinner tonight we were talking about Monster Inc. and Emily asked what "Inc" meant. Daddy explained it stood for "incorporated" which led to me singing the Kids Incorporated theme song, which led all the kids to ask why I was singing that song, which led to me looking it up on YouTube, which leads to me posting this tonight. I thought we could all enjoy a little flash to the past. (Sorry if you are too young to remember this or too old to care, but this show was AWESOME! I so wanted to be Fergie!) And Holy Cow! I just now realized after Googling "Stacy Ferguson" that she is the actual Fergie in real life! How did I not know that??!! Probably because I no longer subscribe to People Magazine and news to me is that Johnnie Depp is the voice for the surf guru in an upcoming new Spongebob episode that priemeres April 17th (can't wait!) Anyway, here is the clip of Kids Incorporated:

4 comments:

  1. you just might be the biggest geek i know! :) i say that with lots of love.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I laughed so hard about deciphering a three year old. I mostly cannot understand Mary (3) but she has a trick. She always repeats the last word that you say. If you called over here and she answered the phone this would be the conversation:
    You: Hello Mary: Hello You: Is your mom home? M: Home May I speak to her? M: Her Y: Is she busy? M:Busy Y: Are you alone? M: Alone Y:I'll call back later. M: Later
    Three year old speak can be amusing and fustrating. Thanks for the laugh.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Johnny Depp on Spongebob? Wow!

    You are very patient with your kids. I'd have given up. That was too cute.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amber - I appreciate the compliment. I guess it takes one to know one. I feel honored that you rank me above yourself!

    Beth - That's funny. My husband speaks kind of like that sometimes too. If I don't understand what he said and I say, "What?" he repeats the last word or short phrase that he said, which is usually the only part that I actually did hear and then I have to ask him to go back further, and being that he is getting old, he sometimes can't remember what he did say.

    Cindy - Yes, Johnny Depp. Spongebob is becoming the new Love Boat of TV, with guest star appearances. (Can it still be called an "appearance" if it's only a voice?) And I was only patient because I was in their room doing laundry. It was a nice distraction from the monotonous folding of toddler T-shirts.

    ReplyDelete