Fun with Words

Juliana has been saying a lot of funny things lately.  She likes to talk a lot anyway, and in the past month or two she has gone from just repeating everything we say to experimenting liberally with word and sentence structure.  The other day when she said, "The TV is back there, on the table," I thought, ‘Look at her, learning directional compliments,’ something I practiced not too long ago in Chinese.

Since Juliana is not limited by parts of speech, she comes up with all kinds of useful words.  Her favorite word form is adding -ing to any noun.  For example:
"I rounding!" (spinning in circles)
"Daddy classing." (when he’s at class)
"I louding!" (her favorite - yelling of course).

She likes to imitate the things we say.  "I'm going to class.  Bye," she says, heading for the door.  Or she holds her back and says, "Juliana's back hurts.  I'm going to stretch my back."  After I have been reminding her to do whatever I asked, she often says solemnly, "I need to listen to mama."

She also repeats many things to her dolly.  When dolly is lying on the floor Juliana stands over her saying, "Do you need help?  Say, 'help please,’" before picking her up.  One day I heard her in the other room saying, "Don't hit!  Don't hit!"  I walked in and saw her hitting her left hand with the right, then looking at the right hand saying, "No! Don't hit!"  She went back and forth until each hand was thoroughly scolded.

She is also fond of combining Chinese and English, particularly when speaking with her ayi.  "这是Juliana的!" (This is Juliana's.  She says that a lot.)  She‘s a big fan of the possessive.  One night Juliana was very excited to eat quesadillas. She cried, "It's a quesa-Juliana-dilla!!"

Some others worthy of mention:
Daddy: Do you need a boost?
Juliana:  No, I’m not boosting right now.

Juliana at dinner: “Juliana’s stinky.  Daddy’s SO stinky.  Mama…mama not stinky.”

The other day as we were getting ready to head out, she randomly decided she wanted to pray.  She scrunched her eyes shut and said, "God, Jesus...Mama and Daddy...thank you for friends...and pajamas.  Thank you for couch and chair.  Thank you for God and Jesus.  Thank you for Amen."  She definitely makes us laugh a lot!