Today in the car, on the way to our friend Julia’s first birthday party, Claire Helen saw a bicycle, and said “bicycle!” clear as day.

This is so sad. Until today, the same sight would have elicited a gleeful “Bo-peh-doh!” the same as the question, “What does mommy ride?” had the answer “Bo-peh-doh!” She has started using grammar words (a, an, the, is, was, possessive pronouns of all stripes- correctly, even. Ex. "Mommy, get my diaper" instead of "Di-puh?"), and generally becoming a socialized little creature. So for posterity’s sake, a Claire Helen to English dictionary of our favorite mispronunciations. There is an assumed exclamation point, because she is a toddler, and everything in a toddler's world is So! Urgent! And! Important!

Bo'-peh-doh- bicycle
Wim' -mee- swimsuit, swimming, (can we go) swimming?
Si-Si- Simon
Geef- giraffe
Doh'-de-poh- octopus
Fop- flop (on the bed), any number of long eared favorite stuffed animals
Mise- mine, my, "Betty is doing something she shouldn't be doing!"
Boo-ey- Veggie Booty (kale and rice puffs);Anything salty and crunchy
Up'-Pee-Doh- Up we go
Boff (in your best Super Nanny impression)- bath
Ap'-poo- apple, "Sing any song from preschool"
Bo-Be- Doh'- Peek-a-boo
Tee-tee- tickle
Mom-my- Mommy, come here, "Something is not right with the world!"
Tau-pau- Paw paw, Grandpa (as in, "I love grandpa," her first spontaneous "I love" anybody.)
Tom-pau- Grandma, Nanna
Muk-muk- "Get me milk." (note the conspicuous lack of "please.")
Ah-fah-vah- I love you
Tay- Claire
Neet- Nate
Doo-tee- Cookie (which, luckily for us, can also mean "wheat thin.")
Eets- Ants (obsession du jour, in conjunction with "worms," which she can pronounce correctly)

My parents came this week, in a cataclysmic collision with the week our camera battery died, so it was a woefully underdocumented trip. Everyone had a lovely time, and Simon charmed the pants off my mom, I think. The pictures we take of him are so out of character, because like most babies, when he sees the camera, he stares at it earnestly instead of smiling. Which was fine for Claire Helen, because that's what she was going to do anyway. What's out of character for Simon is that's the only time he stops smiling with people around.

If you so much as glance in his direction, he'll start giggling loudly and lunging for you, both arms straight out, to hold him so he can smile at you closer up and maybe sort of faux hug you. Whoever you are, he finds you to be the most scintillating and wonderful person to have ever walked the earth. You can imagine the size of my head after living with this for so long. If he suspects a room is not paying close enough attention to him, he'll shriek two times and look around, and if that doesn't work, he shrieks four times before looking around, grinning. That has yet to fail to work, even during my very serious and important pre-school board meeting last week. Claire Helen has started to notice in public that he is the reason people keep coming up to her and even occasionally speaking to her, so she'll give him a withering stare from her seat in the stroller if he starts his come hither shrieks, but he does not care at all. He's far too busy with the cute. Right now he also appears to be attracted to anything pink, as well as cats of all sizes. I have been on the lookout for a stuffed pink cat just to blow his mind, but have so far come up short.