Toddler Speak

Get back to work!

George RR Martin likes to take the winter off from writing to watch football, and I think I see his point. Yes, you are indoors and you would think something like that would be conducive to writing. The sad thing is, you just get sick of being indoors and find ways to distract yourself. Personally, I have been watching classic Doctor Who from episode 1. Yes, that's right. Starting with the black and white episodes and the First Doctor. I'm currently up to the Third Doctor and, finally, episodes with color! Much more productive than writing, right? Right?

Outside of that, the kid has been growing of course. She's mobile now, toddling along, over estimating herself, doing face-plants, and then crying. She has slowly been becoming more capable throughout the winter, and H and I have been on cruise control, picking her up when she cries, steering her from dangers, and sympathizing with her when she inevitably disregards the danger.

Reflect my indifference, punk.

So far, we've been able to handle any incidents with "toddlerese" from "The Happiest Toddler on the Block." I could go into the specifics such as reflect 30% -60% of the emotion, use small words and simple phrases, etc, but the easiest way to explain it is that you are The Hulk who just set up shop as a humanistic therapist for toddlers. My life now consists of such great phrases as:

"Cleo fall! Cleo angry she fall! Cleo angry!"

or after 15 minutes of pestering the cat:

"Cleo hurt! Bad cat scratch and Cleo fall! Cleo cry! Bad Emma!"

and also

"Cleo fall! Cleo scared she fall! Cleo scared and cry!" (notice a pattern?)

Such variety is the viscera of my daily routine. Lots of empathizing for accidents and distracting after. Considering that various Hulks represent different traits (Grey = Surly, Red = Rage, Bright Green = Simple Anger, Pale Green = Complex Anger), I wonder what color Toddler Empathy Hulk would be...

Do Hulk feel happy smiley face emoticon or winky emoticon?