Toddlerisms

By Paige Tucker

One of the best things about having children has to be the way they make you laugh. They do and say the funniest things as they’re growing up and I for one wonder how I ever lived without that daily entertainment. And let’s be real, sometimes laughter is the only way to survive some of the crazy days with children!

I love when my Julia Reynolds says things that are just slightly off and I don’t dare correct her! I know one day she won’t ask to go eat “noon-yuls” at Nuigi’s and that will be sad. It will probably hit me when I’m sitting in a booth eating noodles at Luigi’s.

She won’t say that she’s “sugaring” when she’s cold or show me the chiggers on her little baby arms. I get shivers and chill bumps just thinking about it.

I already desperately miss her throwing her baby arms up saying, “I hold you, Mama” when she wanted me to scoop her up. Those mixed up pronouns get me every single time.

A “Dianne Coke” doesn’t seem quite as unhealthy as a Diet Coke and wine perhaps isn’t such a guilty pleasure when a toddler points out the consumption. Julia Reynolds declared she was ready to drink some wine because she was ________ now. (*Name redacted to protect the innocent extended family member who loves her wine!)

I’m trying to teach Julia Reynolds to be gracious and polite, so when she kindly tells people when we’re leaving somewhere that, “ she’ll come back anytime,” I couldn’t be more proud. 

As toddlers grow and discover the world around them, we as parents get the gift of seeing things with fresh eyes. There’s nothing sweeter than sharing a sunset with your child. The awe-inspiring beauty is new to Julia Reynolds and it’s as if “God painted with pink tonight.” Her words, I’ll never forget them.

I’m pretty sure on a clear night the moon is there for all to see. But in that little three-year-old’s eyes, the moon comes to our house to shine over it alone.   

Julia Reynolds is an avid collector, mostly rocks but mainly anything she can stuff in a bag. We were hunting seashells on the beach last summer and she would proclaim each one she picked up “the gorgeous shell I’ve never seen!” They were indeed the most gorgeous shells she’d ever seen and I can’t wait to take her back to the beach to collect more.    

It’s not always something poetic in nature she’s talking about. Sometimes she’s explaining the way things around us work, in her own cute way. “Please turn on ‘Neckflix’ for my movie, NeNe,” she asked, as she encouraged her grandmother to find the Apple “commote” and “just press the house to start the movie.”

Children can be so very honest and you can only hope their thoughts and proclamations will be endearing. My dad, who’s been the owner of a bald spot for the better part of my life (total coincidence!), has endured plenty of inspections of his hair, or lack thereof, from the little people in our family. 

Julia Reynolds would not share her toy hair straightener with him when they were playing one day. Why? “You don’t have enough hair, ShaSha. Look at it. Somebody took the last little bit of hair out.”   

Out of the mouths of babes! I do try my best to jot down all the funny little things she says. Every tomorrow she’s a little wiser than yesterday and all these silly sayings will one day be but a memory.    

The days are long, but it’s true the years are oh so short. Case in point, we are celebrating her fourth birthday this month!! In the words of the birthday princess… “Happy To You,” my precious baby girl!

After twelve years in local news, most recently as evening anchor of NBC 26, Paige Tucker is now a work-at-home mom and freelance journalist. She produces two series for NBC 26 TV, First Responders and 26 Women Today, and you can see those stories on Tuesday nights. Paige and her husband have one daughter, Julia Reynolds.