You cannot get anything past Annie. Even when you think she isn’t listening, she is. She hears everything. She also remembers everything. For example, the other day she came up to me and said, “Mama, remember da penguins at da zoo?” You know, the zoo she went to once, six months ago. I can’t even remember if I’ve written about her having a great memory, but if Annie could read? She’d remember.
Anyway, back to her listening. Since we know she hears everything and remembers everything (is she Santa?), Mike and I are much more careful about what we say around her. Okay, we are attempting to be much more careful. Every now and then one of us will say something we don’t want her to hear. Sometimes it’s something as simple as saying, “Oh, we got invited to Tim’s daughter’s birthday party in two weeks,” which means for the next fourteen days Annie will ask 187,000 times a day if it’s time for the birthday party.
Other things you shouldn’t say around Annie unless you intend to immediately deliver:
~Present
~Ice Cream
~Christmas
~Swings
~Balloon
~Shopping (clothing, grocery, you name it)
If one of us (Mike or myself) says one of these words, the other will usually reply with a quick but forceful, “Don’t say that!”
Of course, we do occasionally say things that aren’t appropriate for a kid to hear, period. Swear words, dirty jokes, math, stuff like that. When that happens, the other doesn’t say anything so as not to draw Annie’s attention to it, but we do give the other person “the look.”
The other day I spilled something and muttered a swear word under my breath. Annie was right next to me, though, and heard it. After I cleaned up my mess, I looked up at Annie and she was giving me, “the look.”
I opened my mouth but before I could even speak Annie said, “Don’t say that, Mama!”
I need to start speaking in another language around her.
MissyK says:
Oh my gosh…”the look” from Annie is HILARIOUS!! Sorry but I might be tempted to say more bad words just to get “the look” from her. She is just too adorable.
jewl says:
That pic is awesome!! I’m trying to figure out what the convo code should go to when they are 9?! We can’t spell it out anymore, ugh. Our’s has been spotting the difference between literal and figurative, its a blast Take Care!
Christina says:
That look is perfect! She is just too cute for words. Start spelling everything, at least until she learns to spell, then you’re both in trouble.
michelle in mo says:
My dad says that when my mom gives him that look, his face gets hot. I will share this picture with him!
Lisa says:
Love her pic! We used to spell around our now 4 y/o daughter so she wouldn’t get what we were saying. But even though girlfriend cannot spell yet, she now knows what we are spelling most of the time now. Its incredible! These kids are so smart! If I say a bad word around her, which definitely happens, I tell her it is a grown up word and she can say that same word when she is older if she chooses to. That has seemed to work so far… But if I call someone stupid when I’m driving, she will then yell it at the other car too. And then say “mommy am I allowed to say that word?” And all I can do is laugh and laugh. They are hilarious!
meg....ct says:
Wow! She has perfected “the look”
Megan @ Fiterature says:
Ooooooh, that is the BEST face!!! How did you ever capture it on camera?!
Lanie says:
The look is pretty intense :-). We also try spelling but it is not full proof. A toddler proof language would definitely be the way to go.
Aubrey says:
No toddler should ever hear math! haha! I don’t know how you kept a straight face after that. My 4 year old told me the other day that daughter was a gross word as well as son. It was pretty funny
Trisha says:
We’re only human after all!! I too have been the recipient of the look from my almost 4 year old. It happens!!
Veronica says:
I was watching the news over the weekend and saw something quite funny/dangerous and just blurted out “holy sh!t”, yup 2 year old repeated it and then when they showed the clip again later in the day she promptly shouted “holy sh!t”. her other favorite saying now is “oh my God” said like a valley girl – and she never uses it in the proper context which makes it so funny to hear!
LaurieSL says:
I am chuckling pretty hard right now. If i wasn’t standing at a bus stop with a bunch if people, I’d be rolling on the floor. I love the way you write, Heather! Annie is ADORABLE!!!
Adrianne says:
Oh my goodness, that picture of Annie is perfection! My Annabel is only 10 months, so she doesn’t understand a lot (ok, MOST!) of what we say, but I still give my husband “the look” when he says something inappropriate in front of her. We are no strangers to swear words in our house and I’m thinking we’re really going to have to tone that down in the not to distant future. Bummer because sometimes there’s just no substitution for a good ol’ swear word comically timed!
Kristen @ The Chronicles of Dutch says:
That face!!! OMG!
Shannon says:
Lol, the look is precious!
Kirsten says:
One of the awesome things about being bilingual is that we can speak in Afrikaans in front of my nephew. Unfortunately, he’s starting to understand it. >_<
Elizabeth says:
Haha, that’s too funny! I love ‘the look’ she gives!! The other day in a parking lot someone nearly hit our car backing up, and I honked the horn then yelled out, ‘IDIOT!’ without even thinking. My 3.5 yr old son said, ‘Mommy, calling someone an idiot is NOT NICE EVER, so next time just lay on the horn but don’t say anything, OKAY?!’ LOL kids are priceless!!
Beckie says:
Love the picture! I don’t comment often, but I love reading all your posts. As a mom of 2 gifted daughters (now adults), I recommend using every opportunity as a teachable moment. By Annie a calendar or make her one (together) with sparkly, princess appeal. One month at a time. Put the special dates on it and then daily have her cross of each day as it comes… either in the morning or evening. Then she can learn the days of the week, the order of the days, and how many days will be between today and the event. The teachable moments become memories!
Jenn says:
Love the picture!!! The best is when you guys start spelling and then your kids suddenly answers you!!! It’s then you realize, life as you know it is OVER!!! Your Kid Knows How To SPELL!!! OMG!!!!! ha ha Enjoy the “code years”!!! ha ha
Kelly says:
We have been doing the spelling thing for a few years, this year spelling is all over for us. My husband, “What time are we going to the M.O.V.I.E?”
“We are going to the movies? YAY!”
We have moved on to pig latin. I figure we have at least a year before she figures that one out.
Shauna says:
Oh my gosh, I LOVE the look. It’s so awesome that you managed to get a picture of it, she’s going to love it when she’s older! It’s hilarious that she corrected you!
Jeanie says:
Math. Ha! That photo is hilarious!
Annalisa says:
I love her look.
Luckily for you, toddlers rely on memory, but older children don’t as much. It’s a developmental thing. They use memory to remember everything until they figure out that writing things down helps you remember then. Then they start showing more interest in writing, and they don’t rely on memorizing everything.
But yeah, that stage is funny, because it’s unpredictable what they’ll hear and repeat. Two weeks ago, my daughter and I were playing dress up, and she heard me say “oh my goodness, you look so pretty!”, and now of course whenever something surprises her she goes “goodNEss” (yeah, it’s hard not to laugh at how serious she looks while she’s saying it).
Mommy says:
Omg that face! My little guy gives that look when he is not getting his way, and will sometimes say, “I have my angry eyes on! I’m very grumpy!!”
As for the spelling, they catch on soooo quickly! My 3.5 year old knows what we are spelling when we say “c-a-k-e”, “c-o-o-k-i-e” and of course, “z-o-o” and has even started spelling them himself. We only figured this out recently when he started crying in the car. He had overheard me talking to my hubby about taking the kids to the zoo in a couple of days. And even though I spelled it out and thought we were in the clear, when we pulled up to Trader Joe’s, he burst into tears and shouted, “Noooo! This is not the Z-O-O!!!! You said we were going to the Z-O-O!!!!!”. Oops. So now we have resorted to texting each other even when we are in the same room if we don’t want him to know what we are saying!
Sarah says:
I wouldn’t mess with a girl who gives that look… Go Annie! Keep your parents in line!
Carrie says:
My daughter picks up language like nobody’s business. Yesterday she said, “Goddamnit, the dog pooped over here” Whoops..(she’s 3).
My son has an amazing memory. The other day he asked if he could play in the guest room now that the wasps were dead. All thanks to “the lady who had the red truck”. That was last summer!!! I was astounded (he’s 4).
Your daughter is so freaking cute and I love her dirty look. Hilarious.
jess says:
I was having a horrible day. Cried at work kind of day. And this post? That picture? Made my day so much better. Thank you.
brooke says:
best. expression. ever.
Audra says:
Great photo! It’s so frustrating when our own parental rules come back to bite us. At some point, my daughters were being really unkind to one another and someone called someone else “stupid” which resulted in tears and hurt feelings. So now “stupid” has been banned in our house, sometimes referred to by the littles as “the S word.”
A couple of weeks ago I got a speeding ticket. I paid the ticket, but somehow fell through some beaureaucratic crack and the city where I got the ticket issued a warrant for my arrest. Upon receiving a letter explaining this in the mail I flew into an anxious, flappy fit and tried to call the number at the top of the paper to clear things up.
I was put on hold FOREVER. Listening to crappy easy listening music that was interrupted every thirty seconds with a message about how important my call was did nothing to raise my spirits.
“This is so STUPID!” I wailed and was promptly chastised by two tiny voices for using “the S word.”
Becca_Masters says:
oh my god did I laugh at this post!
kids really do pick up on these things though.
I remember when my brother (now 24) was 2 and he just came out with “fucker” and the grown ups nearly had heart attacks. but he just went round singing it over and over again. to this day we still don’t know where he heard it.
his son (now 4) dropped something when we were on holiday in April and promptly said “oh shit”, which was hilarious, but it something we really should laugh at.
I love Annies “the look”.
Becca_Masters says:
i meant to say we shouldn’t laugh at!!!