Wednesday, July 30, 2008

What's a mencil?



Hannah is learning about rhyming. Not surprising, since she wants to spend most of the day reading books. And, for mommy and daddy's sanity, we frequent the library to keep the selection ever changing.

For several days last week, every time she addressed anyone, it sounded a little something like this, "What are you doing you silly, billy, chilly, willy, nilly daddy?" But as her little vocabulary is ever-expanding, she thinks that every time you change the first letter of a word it makes another real word with an actual meaning. So along with her new found love of rhyming is a constant barrage of questions, mostly inspired by the everyday objects she sees around her-- like when she ran into the kitchen and we had this exchange:

"Mom, what's a mencil?"
"Mencil isn't a word in English."
"Oh. What's a lireplace?"
"That's not a real word either."

She runs back into the living room. Not more than one minute later, she is back. "What's a lippopotamus?"

Given the enormity of the English language, and the persistence of my particular two year old, I have a feeling this may go on for a while.