Excuse You

You know when someone makes an "unexpected personal noise" and they don't say excuse me.  In my family we would say "EXCUSE YOU!"

I have been doing that lately when Haley makes her personal noises.

She used to be really good about saying Excuse Me, but she is not saying it as readily lately.  So I say "excuse you."  

Then she says "Excuse You."

She has always sort of had a problem with repeating what we want her to say.  

I mean she is literal.

So the other day I heard Haley burp (a real one) and then she said in her most sarcastic tone "EXCUSE YOU!"

I guess I need to cool it on the sarcasm.

Ironically as I sit here typing this she walked up behind me and burped (not a real one) and said "Excuse me.  Excuse you.  Excuse me.  Excuse me."

I think I have confused her completely.

~ Haley's Mom

I am participating in 31 for 21 Blog Challenge this month. The challenge I have accepted is to blog every day in October to raise awareness for Down Syndrome. Learn more about Down Syndrome at the National Association of Down Syndrome.

Misunderstandings Part 2

or

Why I hate the word Case.

Haley loves her grandparents.  That's nice.  Haley likes to visit her grandparents.  That's nice.  Haley is obsessed with visiting her grandparents and won't stop talking about it.

That's not so nice.

In fact it is driving me crazy.

If you have read this blog at all you will know that this is nothing new.  This has been going on for quite some time.  We have breaks occasionally, but it is pretty much the status quo around here.

At any given time, maybe she hasn't mentioned going to her grandparents house, I may say something innocent like "Where is the case for that DVD?" or "In that case..." or "I like this iPhone case." and Haley goes ballistic.

"CASE.  CASE.  CASE." she yells.

Now, I don't know why she yells.  I don't know why she repeats herself.  I don't know why she get mad immediately.  I don't know why she doesn't just listen to the context of the sentence and understand that I am not talking about packing the Suitcase.

Sometimes if I say "Where is the case for this DVD?" she immediately thinks I mean that she should pack all of her DVDs into the Case that we use to pack DVDs that we are taking to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

I know that is what she is thinking.  I know that is what she wants to do. 

What she says is "CASE.  CASE.  CASE."

I say something like "No, Haley.  We are not packing.  We are not going anywhere."

Of course that doesn't help.  She just keeps yelling. 

Do you realize how many times in any given day you might say the word Case.  I would be willing to bet that it is a lot.  I seem to say it frequently, and believe it or not, innocently. 

And I have a legitimate reason to avoid it.

So, if I stop and think about what I am saying, I find myself thinking of new words to use instead.  Like the Box that the DVD goes in.

It can be exhausting.

Misunderstandings

Our lives seem to be filled with them lately.

I don't know if it is because Haley is understanding more so I am pushing the envelope or if she is starting to understand less.

It is happening frequently and it seems to be more upsetting to her now.

And to me too.

Like yesterday afternoon.

Haley likes to have popcorn when she gets home from school.  I make a microwave popcorn that only has oil in it, so no dairy or artificial flavors.  I usually dump the bag in to a larger bowl and then take handfuls of popcorn and put them into a smaller bowl for her to eat from. 

I do this for two reasons.

1.  Her Dad likes to eat some popcorn too.  If there was just one bowl she would eat it all likety split.

2.  If I just dumped the bag into a bowl she would eat it all likety split, unpopped kernals and all.

The unpopped kernals eventually make their way through, but I like to avoid that step.

So, Haley finished her small bowl and then brought me both her empty bowl and the big bowl.  She wanted me to put some more popcorn into her small bowl for her.  I started to do that and then I thought "She could do that herself." 

So I started to show her how to take handfuls of popcorn out of the bowl big bowl.  Then I thought "I dumped the unpopped kernals into the garbage can today."  I was trying to head off the eating of the unpopped kernals by getting rid of them entirely.

My thought continued "She could just eat the popcorn out of the big bowl."

So I said "Why don't you eat the popcorn out of this bowl (holding up the bowl with the popcorn in it) and put this bowl by the sink (holding up the small bowl.)"

She took the bowls and walked away.

Then I heard a weird sound.

I got up and headed to to kitchen.  There she was standing at the sink making a sad sound and looking down in to the sink.  I walked up behind her and realized what she had done.  She had dumped the popcorn in to the sink and put both bowls on the counter next to it. 

She was looking at the sink with a sad look on her face. 

Then she looked at me.

"Haley, that is not what I meant." I said.

And don't freak out...

I picked the popcorn out of the sink and put it in the small bowl and handed it to her.  She still looked very sad, but she walked away carrying her bowl.

I couldn't make this stuff up.