A Devoted Mom's Tale

Advice from a 2-yr-old
Sometimes, Tamsin's smarter than we give her credit for. She's learned to apply the principles of what is or is not OK to various aspects of her life.

• [In reference to Snuffleupagus on Sesame Street] We don't pull trunks.
• We don't pull the horse's tail or he will be sad.
• We don't hit penguins.
• We don't hit cars.

It's My Party
For Christmas last year, we gave Tamsin a tent to play in in her room. Lately, she's been wanting to sleep in it most of the time. Kenji made a little bed in there with a small pillow and a bunch of stuffed animals, so it's a nice comfortable place for her to sleep. One night, about 20 minutes after we'd put her down to sleep, she came out of her room saying she needed to sleep in her bed because her friends (also known as stuffed animals) were having a party in the tent. So Kenji put her down in her bed and she went right to sleep.

Grammar Snob, Party of One
One day as I was watching videos on YouTube, Tamsin joined me on the couch. When the video was over, she said "Oh my *)^%." Not sure how to respond to this new word usage, I just shook my head and said, "No." Tipping her head in confusion, she asked, "Is it Holy *)^%?" Yeah, I'm raising her right - she'll talk like a sailor, but it will be grammatically correct.

Story From the Lost Period
We turned Tamsin's carseat around to forward-facing about 6 months ago - in May or June. Whenever we'd drive somewhere, she'd start asking me "Are those big rocks?" I had no idea what she was talking about until one day she asked at a stoplight so I was able to see where she was pointing. Straight at the Wasatch Mountains. I just answered, "Yes, those look like big rocks. They're called mountains."

Ursula and Ludovica?
When we first found out the twins were girls, we asked Tamsin for naming advice. She very quickly named them "Bear" and "Ludo." We do not know the origins of these names, but they stuck. In the intervening months, we've been unable to agree on names and have gone back to the drawing board on several occasions. At this point, with less than 3 weeks to go, we're thinking Tamsin may have been on to something and we'll just have to name them Bear and Ludo.