Lightning Speed

So my little boy is becoming his own person. Sometimes I listen to him talking to himself, and I wonder where the heck he has come up with this stuff. And I don't know if it is because this house is so small and there are two "alpha male" personalities, but he and Hubba-hubba cannot seem to get along.

One of his favorite things to do right now is make up words, and especially pleasing is stringing them together and rhyming them. So, in the tub, he will chant, "Mika, bika, wicka, locka, wocka..." Then, if I don't laugh, he will say plaintively, "Can you laugh?" There is no denying that little voice, so I will belt out some hearty guffaws. Or the other day he told me with great seriousness, "Baca means eat."

He is also suffering from a case of scatological humor, with the words poo poo and caca (which he knows I loathe him saying the latter) being the front runners. I don't know if I do smell or not, but he is fond of telling me that I smell like poo poo. I am suddenly a little pathological about taking a shower lately.

I have been working on reading with him, with special emphasis on phonics. When reading an alphabet book, for example, I will be sure to give him examples of the phonic sounds of all the letters. Sometimes, I will pick a word that he has a particular interest in, and spell it out, and then say it phonetically. I thought that it was falling on deaf ears, but I was ok with that. Then the other day, he picked up a box of some of his play food. On it was a picture of popcorn along with the word. To my surprise, he said the word "popcorn" phonetically! Sometimes he is so smart, he scares me a little.

Already he is coming up with the rationalizations for his actions. Upon being scolded for fiddling with the blinds, he said, "Oh, I was just helping you, mama." Or when asking for more milk, he qualified it with, "I need it because my teeth are coming in and they need to be healthy."

I have a feeling I'm gonna be in some serious trouble...