Sunday, January 09, 2011

2010: A Year in Words

Griffin, January 2010


(Note: this will probably only interest die-hard Griffin fans, like his grandparents, but I'm going to post this veeeeery long list anyway!)

1/10/10
Maman, on her way out the door to go to work, leaving Griffin's grandfather in charge of lunchtime and naptime: Griffin, finis ton tofu et puis fais dodo. Dodo bientôt. [Finish your tofu and then go nighty-night. Sleep soon!]
Griffin: Griffy take nap. Grandad take nap.

1/15/10
Maman: On va aller au restaurant ce soir! [We're going to a restaurant tonight]
Griffin: No cooking!

1/25/10
Griffin, whenever he sees the mailman, which is facteur in French: "Fucker! Fucker!" [It's taking him quite a while to master consonant clusters.]

Griffin, whenever Maman yawns especially loudly: "Mommy fucky-gay!" [his unfortunate pronunciation of fatiguée]

1/31/10
He remains very bossy, yet very loving. (Sometimes simultaneously, in fact, as in when he ordered his father one morning last week, who had kissed him good-bye and then me, "Now Daddy kiss Grandpa!")

2/4/10
Griffin: Mommy chatch off read-it book fauteuil bascu Mimi Bear come in!
Translation: Mommy, take off the blanket (chatch is his pronunciation of couverture, "blanket") and read me a book in the rocking chair (un fauteuil à bascule). I want Mimi and Bear to sit with us too.

2/7/10
My pants fall down again.

2/8/10, as he chews pensively on an uncapped marker:
No don' put in mouth.

2/15/10
"My écrire!" as he grabs at a pen his maman is currently using. Écrire means "to write" in French, but I don't know if he meant "I write" or "my pen," because he tends to use "my" as the first person subject pronoun (eg "My running! My off shoes! My take a bath!"). But I suppose that either way, it means the same thing to him: he wanted the pen and he wanted to write with it.

2/25/10
My love oo Mommy, my love oo, je t'aime, je t'aime.

3/2/10
Maman, holding Griffin tenderly in her arms at bedtime: Je t'aime de la tête aux pieds. [I love you from your head to your toes.]
Griffin, looking at the lamp above Maman's head: Je t'aime de la tête à la lumière. [I love you from your head to the light.]

5/15/10
Maman: Qu'est-ce que tu as planté dans le jardin aujourd'hui? [What did you plant in the garden today?]
Griffin: Worms.

5/23/10
Avion vole comme un aigle! [The plane is flying like an eagle.]

6/9/10
Time out for owie! [He wanted to put his injured knee in time-out.]

6/15/10, speaking to his maman:
Hi beautiful!
6/18/10, singing
Griffin's pants are falling down, falling down, falling down
Griffin's pants are falling down
My fair baby
Daddy's pants are falling down, falling down, falling down
Daddy's pants are falling down
My fair daddy
Mommy's bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down
Mommy's bridge is falling down
My fair mommy

6/22/10
Need me go on the alligator, Maman. [He meant "escalator."]

6/27/10
I love my penis.

7/2/10
In the Appleton airport, upon seeing a display of stuffed animals in the gift shop, after Ed just won him a garish orange bear out of one of those toy machines with the claw you pay to operate in hopes of grabbing a cheap and tacky stuffed animal to placate your child after you realize that you left his lovey back home in Colorado:
Griffin: I need a toy.
Maman: Nous venons de t'acheter un nouveau jouet! [We just bought you a new toy]
Griffin: I need two toys.

7/5/10
Daddy: Griffin, stop kicking.
Griffin: Noooooo!
Maman: Griffin, Daddy a dit "non." [Daddy said no.]
Griffin: I said yes!

7/12/10, 1:15 a.m., on the shuttle between concourses at Denver International Airport after eight hours of delayed and canceled flights, accompanied by two parents who feel like zombies:
Wheeeee! Chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga choo choo! We going fast.

7/15/10
Maman: Qu'est-ce qui est dans ton ventre? [What's in your tummy?]
Griffin: Foods.
Maman: Quelle sorte de nourriture? [What kind of food?]
Griffin: Petit dejeuner. [Breakfast.]
7/27/10
That's not good soup. I don't like soup. I want a crouton.

8/1/10, while holding his loose-weave belt over his eyes and trying to peer through it:
Lunettes de ceinture! [belt glasses]

8/4/10, while eating Life cereal for breakfast, looking down at his empty bowl:
Boucles d'or a mangé mon Life! [Goldilocks ate my Life.]

8/15/10, singing while watching a peacock, paon, at the zoo:
Sur le paon d'Avignon, on y danse, on y danse [This is a great pun--the tradition song is "Sur le pont [bridge] d'Avignon", and he picked up on the fact that pont and paon sound very similar!]

8/17/10
This caca tomber, Maman. I attraper caca. 'Nudder big one in dere. [This turd fell out of my diaper. I caught it. There's another big one sliding down my pants.]

Explanation: His daycare provider apparently put a new diaper on him but didn't attach the tabs. Fifteen minutes later, we're at the library and he hands me what looks like raisins. Nope, not raisins. Little turds. The diaper had come completely loose and slid down one pants leg. The turds were trickling out all over the library. In front of my boss. And her boss.

Don't you think daycare owes me a refund for today?!
It's time for potty-training.

8/24/10, chanting while playing with a teddy bear and eating breakfast:
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground
[looking at the table and getting inspired] Teddy bear, teddy bear touch the table
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the milk
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the Cheerios
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the mommy

9/2/10, singing:
I'm wiping up my baby bumblebee, won't my mommy be so proud of me, I'm wiping up my baby bumblebee, it's trash!

9/3/10, on seeing a grown-up sized toilet after getting used to his little potty:
Ca c'est pour les grandes fesses! [This one is for big butts.]

9/8/10, just beginning to figure out potty training with the help of his beloved Elmo underpants:
Elmo don't want caca on him!

9/20/10, upon seeing a picture of spaghetti and meatballs:
Oh look Maman! It's a poor meatball!

9/27/10
Maman: Ce livre s'appelle "Simon et la plume perdue." [This book is called "Simon and the Lost Feather.]
Griffin: De Robert Munsch? [By Robert Munsch?]
Maman: Non, de Gilles Tibo. [No, by Gilles Tibo.]
Griffin: Oh. J'aime Robert Munsch. [Oh. I like Robert Munsch.]

10/9/10
Maman: Je vais faire jouer des berceuses pour ta sieste, d'accord? [I'm going to play some lullabies for your nap, okay?]
Griffin: No, Mozart! I want Mozart.

10/15/10
Maman! J'ai des griffes! Comme les Maximonstres! [Mama! I have claws! Like the Wild Things!]

10/16/10
Maman: Tu as bien dormi? Tu as fais de beaux rêves? [Did you sleep well? Did you have sweet dreams?]
Griffin: Yeah.
Maman: De quoi as-tu rêvé? [What did you dream about?]
Griffin: Monstres. [Monsters.]
Maman: Des monstres? Quelle sorte de monstres? [What kind of monsters?]
Griffin: Des monstres recyclés. [Recycled monsters.]

10/18/10, at the end of storytime, to Miss Karen, the librarian:
Thank you for coming!

10/20/10, after peeing in his beloved Elmo underpants, while plaintively clutching the sodden garment to his cheek, hugging it to make Elmo feel better:
Elmo est triste. [Elmo is sad.] Sorry Elmo! Sorry Elmo!

10/21/10
Maman: La lune est pleine ce soir. [The moon is full tonight.]
Griffin: What's in it, Mama?

10/25/10: Some creative uses of prepositions
I'm ups-and-down! [upside down]
Now I'm ups-and-up! [rightside up]
Mommy, are you awake-up?

10/29/10
Maman, opening a box for a jigsaw puzzle of the 50 states: Tu sais ce que c'est? [Do you know what this is?]
Griffin: Texas pieces!

10/30/10
Daddy, a little exasperated: We need to get you a sticker that says, "Hello, My Name is Broken Record."
Griffin, proving his point: I'm a broken cracker! I'm a broken cracker! I'm a broken cracker! I'm a broken cracker! I'm a broken cracker! I'm a broken cracker! I'm a broken cracker! I'm a broken cracker! I'm a broken cracker! I'm a broken cracker!

11/5/10
Griffin is "cooking" with his toys; here are the flavors he concocted:
--Pizza with "vanilla, ice cream, and citrouille" (pumpkin)
--Pizza with "vanilla and dog"
--A sandwich with "vanilla and bristle blocks"

11/9/10, after pooping in the potty unprompted! Hallelujah!
You fière, Mommy. [proud--right you are, my boy!]

11/15/10, song lyrics revisions:

Shoo fly, don't bother Grandpa....

Chou-fleur, don't bother me.... [cauliflower]

Sunflower, sunflower, running in the sand.... [This is a parody of his favorite Music Together song, "Sandpiper, sandpiper, running in the sand"]

11/30/10
Talk me another story, Mommy.

12/2/10: Griffin's first poem?
Swim, swim, don't swim.
Swim, swim, don't swim.
Swim, swim, don't swim.
There's no more water.

12/6/10: Every time he walks into the family room:
Ohhhhh! Sapin de Noël! [Christmas tree]

12/8/10, upon hearing Christmas music:
Oh! I need my jingle bells!

12/20/10, decorating Grammy and Grandpa's Christmas tree:
Maman: Accroche le fromage sur le sapin de Noel! [Hang the cheesehead ornament on the Christmas tree]
Griffin: No, I want to dance with it. [frolicks around the room] Now I'm taking it to market.

A wish from Griffin and Sarah: May your 2011 be full of wonderful words and ideas too!


Griffin, December 2010, stealing his daddy's slippers

5 comments:

  1. zomg this breaks my heart with awesome

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was laughing out loud reading your Griffinisms. Had to explain to hubby what was so funny... ;-D
    Your story about the diaper incident in library literally had me in tears! hahah!
    Great idea to do a years review like that! I might need to steal the idea and go through my book of "Liam quotes" and post a couple too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. OMG
    Plagarism!

    I wonder if Ketcham's minions are among your readership...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sarah, I appreciate the motivation I found from reading your blog to keep our pens handy with paper spread all around the house that we can collect in her baby book...THANK YOU!!
    Tamara

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi all--thank you for your comments!

    Eric--Perhaps we can attribute Dennis the Menace's Griffin-esque quote simply to the way a child's mind works, the universality of wondering what the moon could be full of? Still, I'm glad that I posted mine first! I don't recognize your name--are you a new reader? a long-time one who has only recently de-lurked? or maybe just one I'd forgotten about?

    Cryklein--I'm glad you enjoyed my list! I have to admit that though the library diaper incident wasn't too funny at the time, remembering my calm son informing me "nudder big one in dere" makes me smile now. As far as explaining/translating for hubbies goes, I know what you mean and do this often! I'll look forward to seeing your Liamisms.

    Tamara--You're welcome! Have fun taking notes about Kaya's fun and brilliant bilingual sayings!

    What does it say about me that I have a typed, chronological list of my son's utterances, but less than five months' worth of pictures in his baby scrapbook and nearly three years' worth of unprinted digital photos on my computer? And his baby book is mostly empty. I'm a word nerd and proud of it!

    ReplyDelete