As we were performing our morning routine on Friday, X picked up her rubber duckie and said, "wasis". (That'd be what's this for those of you with out kids.) I told her "duckie". She repeated, "duckie". I, as a mom, was tickled that she repeated. Since she has been doing that and will be doing that I didn't think much of it.

So I take her to school for half the day. Then I bring her back to the office as I wasn't quite finished with what I was doing when I had to go get her. We are walking down the hall, we pass the door of one of my coworkers. He has an impressive display of wildlife oriented things and part of that display is a pair of duck decoys. She looks in his office as we start to pass his door and she spots them and hollers "duckie". She runs in picks them up by the bill and proceeds to carry them down the hall.

As you can see there is a big difference between these duckies and her rubber duckie at home. I mean the rubber duckie has a pacifier in it's mouth. She still recognized a duck shape and that is what impresses me. Now I will have to help her be able to identify different duck species because . . .

It obviously inspired these to appear anonymously on my desk this morning. These are 3T but it is never too early to get kids interested in the outdoors. Incidentally, I took a short tour of a gun shop here in town and they have a couple of rifles that are made for children that will fit these pants. I think it is possible to teach children this young about gun safety and how to hunt and shoot. The guns I saw in the store had pink handles and otherwise looked like toys. They were not toys. If I am going to get a gun for my kid, it had better look like a fire arm so there are no mistakes. Also there will not be any toys that are gun shaped in my house. We don't play with guns because guns are serious business. My parents would both be proud, though, if she was an accurate shot by 5.

Two posts ago . . .

How is this for, well, I don't know if it is considered irony or not.

Two posts ago I tell about a dream I had meeting an uncle I was vaguely aware of and today I find out that my mother has connected with two uncles I am pretty sure I never even heard about.

Weird. But my family is now two people bigger than I thought. Cool.

What she says. . .

I was ecstatic when I was sure I heard Xyla's first word. I tried not to get a big head and think that it was a status report but it's hard not to when that first word is "happy". It reminds me of a joke about a horse. Ask me, I will tell you sometime.

So much of language is about mimicking words and then learning what those words mean - or vice versa. There is a theory in philosophy that centers entirely on the concept of how we learn what we learn. I won't bore you with the details but it was a fascinating class no matter what grade I got.

I was puttering around the house and trying to do something that resembles cleaning when Xyla looked me dead in the face, extended her arm with her first finger straight up in the air (palm facing me and her other fingers balled in a fist). She shook the finger back and forth and says with all seriousness, "no, no, no, no, no." I laughed. I laughed almost as hard as when I found out she was trying to undress herself. I have never done that to her so I know she didn't get it at home. She didn't pick it up from her grandma's house. I figured it was probably something she'd learned at daycare.

We went to a birthday party on Saturday where all the daycare workers attended and I brought it up with the owner. I told her Xyla does this all the time now. She says, "we haven't ever had to tell her no. But sometimes Bob (who's party it was) is a little rough with her so we have to tell him "no, no".

Let this be my lesson that any and every thing I say can be locked in that little mind and come spilling out, whenever.