Princess Addendum

NJ's vocabulary is expanding daily, primarily based on things she sees in her many books. Other words she picks up from real life, and she's already learning that sometimes one word is not enough. She's figuring out what words go with other words. For example, one of her books has a picture of a pile of balls. Thanks to The Wife's reading and her day care playtime, NJ knows that "kick" (and a little kicking pantomime) goes with "ball."

Her best two-word phrases didn't come from a book, though. And while I don't mean this in a harsh way, they sort of expose her as a shallow, flippant, conniving little liar. Perhaps she has a future in southern politics.

Her new favorite word for the moment is COOKIE. (Yes, we have created a monster, with the help of the late Paul Newman, whose Fig Newmans are delicious.) In hopes of boosting her chances of being handed a Fig Newman, NJ now pipes up with ONE right after she asks for a cookie. She even holds up a pudgy little index finger to illustrate her point, which is that if she could have just one delicious fig cookie, all would be well. But here's the thing: She doesn't really mean it. Because once that cookie's been consumed, she's back at it: "Cookie! ... one" again, with finger extended. And when that second "one" cookie doesn't materialize, she instead chows down on the bitter snack of tears and heartache.

Her other common phrase favorite of late comes after she's slugged me in the chin, a new hobby she's picked up. Prompted by her manners-minded mother, NJ belts out a SORRY ("saw-wee!"), and then a beat or two later adds an OK for good measure -- it'll have to do until she learns "We're good, right?" But here's the thing: She doesn't really mean it. I tend to take her apologies at something less than face value because 1) She has to be prompted by The Wife, as well as my own chin-rubbing exclamation of "Ow!", and 2) her declaration of "Sorry ... OK?" is punctuated by uproarious giggling, and usually is followed by another smack to my face.

These are rapidly approaching the top of NJ's catch phrase list, but this is still the favorite. A few evenings ago we heard her stirring on the baby monitor. The noise escalated quickly, and suddenly she blurted out a rather desperate "No way!" and started bawling. It was the cutest nightmare ever.