Say What?!?

Like most parents, we have to be careful what we say around Audrey because she is very very good at repeating things. I know a lot of kids are parrots when it comes to picking up things we'd rather not hear them saying, as well as the funny things we egg on, but Audrey seems quite extraordinary at memorizing what she hears. She can recite whole poems, nursery rhymes, and song lyrics. She picks up rather adult turns-of-phrase and then uses them in appropriate situations, to our amusement. One of her favorite lines right now is "I can't quite believe it!", which she got from a favorite book of poems. She's managed to pull that out at some opportune times. Another one is, "It's a little bit tart."

So, combine that with the Election Fever that is raging in our household, and it is endless make-your-toddler-say-funny-shit fun. Danny and I spend WAY too much time these days talking politics, pouring over newspapers and news magazines, logging onto to FiveThirtyEight.com, and staying up past bedtime to watch iTunes downloads of the Daily Show and Colbert Report. My folks being over here a lot to lend a hand has not helped matters either, as we sit around with them and compare the latest polls, articles and TV segments everyone has just seen.

Every so often, Audrey will exclaim, "Obama!" (Okay, so we taught her that one; it's a fun word to say!) But now she's starting to say, "John McCain!" a lot, especially as a kind of call-and-response thing after we say Obama. This was a bit embarrassing at the co-op the other night, where the clientele are decidedly leftist, with Audrey loudly, repeatedly exclaiming, "JOHN MCCAIN!!!" We're trying to teach her to spit and say "blech" every time she says John McCain, but so far no go.

The other morning at breakfast she was babbling away as she does all day long, and I thought I heard her say a certain phrase, but then thought, Naw... Then she said it again, clear as day: "Did you see that Daily Show?" Later on, she started adding, "It was so funny!" Oh lord.

Related item: we have a lot of loud Harley's in our neighborhood (NOTHING compared to the biker house that ZestyJenny lives near! Ours are just a bunch of mid-life-crisis doctors and dentists from the tony part of town we are next to). They annoy us with their loudness at all hours of the day and night; even Audrey notices them and says, "Noisy!" It has been VERY difficult for me to not teach her to say, "ASSHOLE!" every time she hears one. It would be soooo easy, but I refrain.... She'll probably pick it up anyway eventually, because that's the response those things always generate from me and Danny (just a little more under our breath these days).