Noeyspeak

Conversations with our almost 2.5 year old are getting more interesting by the day.

Here are a few instances.

(1)

Some weeks ago, Noey was busy playing a game of pretend where he declared that he was different things, ranging from animals like the giraffe and lion, to objects like a lamp post. We played along and asked him to show us how he was what he declared.

This went along until he declared, “I am a Papa!”

“You’re a Papa?” I asked in mock surprise. “Then where are your children?”

“Gone!” he said, before adding sagely, “You have to give them money.”

Huh?

“Who told you that Noey?” asked his flabbergasted father.

“Noey!” he said cheerfully.

Just to be clear, it wasn’t me!

(2)

Yesterday while having dinner, Noey said he wanted to play “supermarket”.

“Noey’s a supermarket?” I asked.

“Noey’s a grocer,” he corrected me.

“Oh, a grocer! What do you sell?” I asked.

“Vegetables!” came the reply.

“Hmmm, let’s see. I don’t want vegetables. I want some fruit. Do you have fruit? How about some apples?”

“Yes.”

“What colour are your apples?”

“Red.”

“I don’t want red apples. Do you have any green apples?”

“Yes,” said Noey.

He then proceeded to flip the pages of the storybook in front of him. I thought he’d lost interest in the game but suddenly he stopped at a page where there was a picture of a man offering a basket of green apples to an elephant. (It was a rather thick bible storybook and it was one of the illustrations accompanying the story of Noah’s Ark.)

“There!” he said triumphantly, pointing at the green apples.

I was amused and impressed.

“That’s right Noey, those are the green apples! I’ll take those then,” I said, stretching out my hand.

Noey tapped my hand to give me the apples and as I retracted my hand to pretend to put the apples in my mouth, he stretched out his own hand and said, “You have to pay money, Mummy.”

Ok, I don’t know why he seems so savvy about money, seriously. He’s clearly more of an entrepreneur than I am!

(3)

One of Noey’s current favourite books is “The Adventures of Lowly Worm”. (We love Richard Scarry around here!). His favourite characters are Huckle Cat and Lowly Worm and he just loves to pore over the pictures, tell anyone who would care to hear what the characters are doing, and laugh at their antics.

Some time a while back, he was doing just that — merrily pointing and describing pictures when he stabbed at one and said, “And that’s Huckle Cat!”

“That’s not Huckle Cat,” I said. “Look, it’s a pig!”

Not willing to give up, he said, “It’s Huckle Pig!”

This boy just doesn’t like to lose!

(4)

Before Noey turns in for the night, he often tried to get us to either tell him stories or sing him songs. His favourite stories are those “about a little boy called Noey”. A couple of nights ago, after DD finished his tale, Noey piped up.

“Now it’s Noey’s turn to tell a story,” he said.

“Once upon a time there was a little boy called Baby Bear. And he lived in a house called… Beary House. And he BANGED! the crabs.

“There were crabs in the house?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “And they sailed…”

“They sailed?”

“Yes. They swimmed. In the tank.”

There was more gibberish after that but DD and I were too busy laughing over his first rather nonsensical tale! (And by way of explanation, Noey sometimes calls himself Baby Bear or Noey Bear, with us being Papa Bear or Mummy Bear respectively. I can’t remember how it started but it’s too cute mostly so we’ve been happy to play along.)

It’s never a dull moment with our little chatterbox!