7 minute read

This cover photo is Celeste doing the dishes for the first time, at 23 months old. She was pretty good but soon was just playing, of course.

Early December 2017

“Nellie”

Her name for Danielle.

Dec 14 2017

“Not sleeping!”

While driving back from preschool. I was telling Danielle we might take a detour driving home in order to let Celeste fall asleep (who had her heavy head tilted way over onto her shoulder, looking into space). Danielle suggested we should turn some Christmas music on to help her fall asleep. When Celeste heard us plotting, she perked up and protested “not sleeping!”

“My matchies”.

Celeste asked to be put into her pyjamas before dinner today (well, she just came out of the bath and pointed to her pyjama drawer). Then, after dinner, once I got Danielle into her pyjamas, she said “Celeste should get changed into her matching pyjamas”. Not wanting any inconvenience, I told her “she’s fine the way she is, come on, let’s go…” but immediately Celeste starts taking off her pyjamas (and Danielle also decided to remove her socks, because her pyjamas had Elsa, from Frozen the movie, on them and “Elsa doesn’t wear socks”. I didn’t follow the logic but didn’t have the fortitude to resist it.) Next thing Celeste is pulling me over to her pyjamas drawer again. I grabbed the pyjamas she wanted, the ones that matched Danielle’s. Once she had them on, she marches onto the living room, telling Ananda and Danielle “My matchies! My matchies!”

“Saar”

Celeste is sometimes downright rotten. Sometimes, if Danielle is playing with something that Celeste knows she won’t share, Celeste comes over and hits her in the head. And if she has a toy bus, she’ll use that too. That’s of course followed by solo screaming, then duet screaming, then a parent separating them. I usually ask Celeste to say sorry, and she is at least good about an obligatory “saarr” (doesn’t add the “y” at the end)

Dec 16 2017

“Sammy”.

Samantha came over for dinner tonight. Celeste was yammering away saying “saaami… saaaami” But Sam didn’t make it out.
Eventually I pointed it out to Sam, and she was overjoyed to hear it. Celeste kept saying it a lot because she knew how much praise she got for it. Danielle tried to win some attention too by telling knock-knock jokes. (She knows 2: “interrupting cow….moo!” and “cow says… no silly, cows go moo!”)

Dec 17 2017

Her first knock-knock joke

She kinda knows the “Cow says…no silly, cows go moo!” Joke that Danielle has been repeating ad-noseum. Except her version is just “Cow…no, moo!” Pretty close for a 1 year old. She’s delighted by it anyway.

Dec 19 2017

“Maui”

Today it snowed… Celeste was awe-struck. And we were telling her it was “snowing”. Well, somehow she got “snowing” confused with “Maui”, the character from Disney’s Moana named Maui. So today everytime she saw snow we were hearing about “Maui”.

“Hurt”

She gets hurts and hurts others quite a lot.

Dec 23 2017

“Colour”, “red”, ” blue”

In these last few days she’s been very interested in colours. At first she would just put at an item of a bright colour (like a crayon, a bright sock, or the special bathtub crayons she has) and say “colour”. Usually this meant she wanted that colored thing, but recently it’s also meaning she wants to know what colour that thing is.

“Pray”

She’s also taken an interest in saying the blessing on the food. She’s good at folding her arms and waiting for everyone to get ready before digging in.
When she says the prayer, Amanda or I will say a phrase of a prayer in order to let her repeat after us, but of course she only half says the last word. So it will often go something like:
Me: dear Heavenly Father…
Celeste: fader
Me: we thank thee for the food…
Celeste: food
Me: please bless it…
Celeste: bless it
Me: In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Celeste: men

Dec 31 2017

Doctor, medicine (spit!), dessert

She got thrush recently, which made parts of her tongue turn white and gross and sore. The doctor prescribed nystatin, which is a moth wash which she’s supposed to also drink. It’s pretty sweet, but not really good. At first Celeste was intrigued by it and had it happily, but once she realized this was going to happen whether she was in the mood or not, she turned. She basically learned to spit with nystatin.She also learned the word “medicine (spit!)”… yes, she’d actually spit every time she heard the word medicine or said it herself. We realized calling it medicine was a big mistake: now she loathes all medicine… even the sweet grape kind kids can’t get enough of!Also, she caught Amanda with a bowl of cake on the couch, and happily announced “dessert!”

January 5, 2018

I’ll pick

Recently she’s been saying things like “my pick!” But this time she got the conjugation right. She said this when wanting to choose a “potty game” (game on my phone for when she uses the potty… FYI she uses it periodically)

January 6, 2018

Borked

Meaning something is broken. I taught her this and so near the shame. If you didn’t know, that’s internet slang for broken too

January 7 2018

Celeste

Today, Danielle was saying to her “you’re a silly girl!” To whom Celeste replied “no girl! (Mumble mumble) Celeste!”

January 8, 2018

Turtle

Pronounced “torto”.

Turkey

Pronounced tookie.

January 23, 2018

Octopus

Pronounced “option”

February 17, 2018

Gueen Bapple

For “green apple”. Whoever we drive anywhere, she demands a green apple. We bring a bag of them with everywhere.

I like this

Over the past month she’s started stringing words together. I’m not sure if I’d call them sentences, but this one certainly was. She said this about Amanda’s black bean burgers (i think later she described them as “yucky!”… her tastes are pretty fickle.)

March 16, 2018

My owl is gone forever (wowel gone forever)

At great wolf lodge, Celeste got a new stuffed, rainbow colored owl, which she takes with her everywhere. So it got forgotten, and so we were searching for it and she was afraid it was lost forever.

March 18 2018

Pocket (pock-pock)

She loves having pockets and the power they give

Backpack (pack-pack)

She also loves toting around a backpack. She feels like a big girl.

April 13 2018

Gongos, fufu, atos, ucy

Mangoes, kung-fu, tomatoes, juicy

April 18 2018

Bambo

Rainbow

October 6 2018

My the Queen!

I’m the queen! (Justification she why she could climb on the couch.)

November 18, 2018

Why “Yo”?

Why did you say “yo”? (Said to Amanda when she responded “yo” to a request.)

January 14, 2019

“Spronkly”

Sparkly

January 26, 2019

Danielle will play with me! Yay!

After Amanda told her she had to feed Elise, but she Celeste realized Danielle was in her room playing with PAW Patrol toys.

February 1, 2019

My baby

For baby Elise

March 27, 2019

The pee is coming!

When she needs to use the bathroom

April 2, 2019

Mincorn!

Unicorn

Volcano water

Evian water

April 3, 2019

Nobody was watching me!

Given as the explanation for why she stuffed the entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet… for the second day in a row.

April 3, 2019

Auntie, shall we whack each other?

When pretending to sit in the back seat with auntie Sam. In response to “Celeste, let’s be naughty!”

June 12, 2019

Sumping

Something.

July 4, 2019

“Backwash” means “you get to finish it”

Her spontaneous definition of “backwash”, probably as a response to her backwashing into bottles, and us then saying “oh yuck, well you should finish it then.”

August 8, 2019

“The floor is lava…”

Said from bed, well after bedtime, with her stuffy Lynxy on the floor.

“He’s cooking.”

“Oh let’s help him then…”

“No, he stole our stuff. My fish (the preferred stuffy, in bed with her) has magic powers and is bad.”

August 14, 2019

“Goodbye parents!”

As she leaves the kitchen while Amanda and I were still in there.

“Air hugs are when you are hugging someone and there’s air coming out of you”

Also “I know about air hugs.”

”Freeze!”

Like what Elsa from Frozen would do to someone she didn’t like.

October 2019

“Do you bemember?”

Despite many corrections, “remember” is always pronounced “bemember?@

That Boy / That Girl

To refer to a male or female, regardless of age, and sometimes even regardless of whether she knows their actual name (eg sometimes Danielle is “that girl.”)

Tell she!

Her pronouns are a little off. Instead of saying “tell her” or “give him the ball,” she says “tell she” and “give the ball to he.”

January 2020

I’ll get the Cuplery!

When asked to get the cutlery, she fetched the cups.

April 2020

His names Pua, it’s resgusting but I love him!With respect to her pig stuffy (from the film Moana)

May 2020

Woggly

Wobbly

October 2020

Risgusting

disgusting

November 2020

I could help you… but I don’t want to

Said to Amanda when she asked for help cleaning up dinner

I’ve Been Waiting For You

said like a Bond villain

February 2021

Raar! …meep

Celeste said to the carnivores in a movie.

Can we live on a Real Farm?

Amanda: “What makes a real farm?”

Celeste: “Cows, and horses, and corn, and other things…”

Amanda: “Who would take care of them?”

Celeste: “Probably me… but you’d have to teach me and remind me”

Amanda: “Who’s going to plant the corn?”

Celeste: “Probably Elise when she’s older.”

April 2021

I give unto you a new commandment… never sit on my water bottle.

When I lifted her up into the SUV and she sat on her water bottle… and had been listening to a lot of Bible stories for few previous weeks.

May 2021

Mmm! So that’s why Sharks Eat Them!

Enjoying a can of tuna.

June 2021

These how many!

Said holding up her hands to show the quantity she means. Eg “how old are you?” She holds up all five fingers. “These how many!”

She’s actually been saying this for a while.

I break the rule! Yeeha!

While driving the mini tractor and Grandma Chantal asked her to stay away from the road. She didn’t actually break the rule after that, despite whatever she said.