Using Our Words

Have you met my narrator?

Yes, I live with my very own personal life-narrator.  As I go about my daily business, her little voice punctuates each activity with helpful comments like, "Mama, you cleaning up cat throw up," and (as I'm climbing into the shower), "You naked, Mommy.  You got a booty."  I do my best to reply affirmatively to each of these conclusive announcements.

Not only does she narrate my each and every movement, but she has also found herself to be a very worthy subject..  My two-year-old likes to give us up-to-the-minute reports about her state of being.  In keeping with the style of a proper narrator, she keeps it all in the third person.  "Lili needs chocolate milk," she might broadcast or, "Lili doesn't WANT to take a shower!!"

Earlier this week, I found her struggling to get out of a pair of footed pajamas in her bedroom.  She was easy to find as I simply followed the sound of her passionate screeching, "Get OFF Lili's legs, Lili's JAMMIES!!"  When I entered the room, she looked up at me, her face full of rage, and exclaimed, "Lili's jammies NOT WORKING!!"

(This is a very artistic photograph with a balloon in case you were wondering.)

A growing vocabulary and the ability to express her feelings should reduce the frequency of temper tantrums, right?  I am not, however, exactly sure that this is the case.  Sometimes when things don't go her way, words fail her, and the only sounds she can manage are grizzly bear-like growls.  Often she is not impressed with the way I have expressed my feelings as her caregiver, and she reverts to her two most favorite and treasured words: NO and MINE.  The narrator is still a two year old.

I have thus far made mention of everyday words and angry words, but I have saved the best kind of words for last.  Lilianna also has wonderfully loving words tucked up in her brain now.  I cannot explain how extremely loved I feel when this little person whom I spend a great deal of energy taking care of asks ever so gently, "You okay, Mama?" anytime I utter an "ouch."   It goes without saying that her sincere "I love you's" make the grizzly bear moments far more bearable, and the occasional unsolicited "thank you" causes my heart to skip a beat.

Sometimes she even accidentally utters prize-worthy phrases in the midst of all of the mayhem that goes on at our house.  Last night, while I was trying to organize my two older kids and get them into bed, I realized that I had an over-tired two year old on my hands.  She even announced (in the first person), "I'm TIRED, Mama!" as she rolled around on the floor.  A couple of minutes later, she pulled me away from what I was doing, climbed onto my lap and  declared, "I want more mama."  Can you guess what happened?  I dropped everything , and gave her more of me.  I do so like to reward well-chosen words, particularly the sweet ones (even when they are unintentionally sweet.)

"Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson