Chatterbox!

It seems that in the last month or so, Aili has been stringing more and more words together. She has a deeper grasp on the English language, as well as French, and can differentiate words and their context.

She cracked us up in the car today on the way home. But let me preface the story with a bit of history.

She has recently discovered Veggie Tales. Gone are the days of Steve (or Joe) and Blue, singing their songs while trying to find Blue's Clues. I don't mind, because the premise of Veggie Tales is that it teaches children morals and values that we as parents believe in. And the songs are pretty catchy, too!

Well, Gary and I were getting sick of hearing the same movie, over and over, so while he was out one day, Gary found Veggie Tales: Lord of the Beans. For those of you who are LOTR fans, you'll understand why Gary got a kick out of reading this DVD's cover:

It's a tale of good versus evil ... with beans! VeggieTales: Lord of the Beans (TM) follows the fantastic journey of a Flobbit named Toto Baggypants (Junior Asparagus) who inherits a most unusual and powerful bean. With the help of his mentor, Randalf and a spirited group of friends, Toto embarks on a mission to discover how he should use his gift.
On their quest, the group encounters many challenges, including crossing the Mountains of Much-Snowia, and facing the dreaded Lord Scaryman -- who seeks the bean for misguided, selfish reasons. Will Toto discover the purpose of his gift, or will the scary dude and his Spork army capture the bean and wield its awesome powers? Find out in VeggieTales: Lord of the Beans (TM).

It is a great movie, with hilarious references and parodies of the original LOTR. Both kids love it. Aili refers to this movie as "Bean".

So with that not-so-brief history, let's fast forward to today's episode. The kids have been spending too much time in front of the TV, and Aili has become obsessed with it, especially in the car ride to and from work/daycare. So today, I simply left the entire DVD binder of movies at home. When she asked for a movie (almost instantly after her derriere hit the carseat!), I just told her that "Bean" was at home and that there would be no "Bean" today. That's it. End of story. No whining, crying, screaming. I was a bit surprised, as she has been known to be a bit of a drama queen... :)

Periodically, while picking up Gary and Connor, she would say, "No Bean? Bean at home?".

Well, in chatting with Connor on the way home about his day, he told me of a girl in his class who claimed to have sold $1,000.00 worth of magazines for their fundraiser (as an aside: thanks to all who supported Connor in his efforts!!). Now, this child has told Connor tall tales before and in jest, I said to him, "Oh, Connor, I think ******* may be full of beans!"

To which, Aili, who had been mumbling away to herself, reading some books, piped up:

"No Bean! Bean at home!!!!"

Amazing how they can always hear what they want to....



(Speaking of chatterbox... thanks for reading my LONG post!) :D