When we woke up this morning, “Ha” was gone. In its place was a well-pronounced “Yeah.” Am I sad to see it go? Ha, oh ha.
There’s still one context in which I get to hear “Ha,” and that’s here (and I’ll warn family that we’re about to talk about my nummies, so this might be [...]

This is “Yudd.” You may know him as Curious George, but to Robby’s unpracticed vocalizations he is called “Yudd,” or “Yode,” and sometimes “Yudge.”
Yudd is a toy that my husband got sometime in college, a play on a nickname he had on his ultimate frisbee team, I believe, since you’ll see that this George [...]

Robby doesn’t say the word “Yes.” It’s not in his vocabulary. Instead he has always said “Ha.”
“Do you want more milk?”
“Ha.”
“Ready for bed?”
“Ha.”
I don’t know how it began. Soon after he started talking he started saying “Ha,” and we quickly learned what he meant. I guess we reinforced it, because now, just one month short [...]

“PooPoo!”
“No, Poo-PEE!”
“PooPoo!”
“Poopie!”
“PooPOO!”
“No! It’s a Poo-PEEEE!”
This is what I’ve been listening to for the past ten minutes. Robby insists it’s a Poopoo (because he can’t say poopie, and yes, he is presently doing one, whatever you call it), and Sam is confident that it’s a Poopie.
Welcome to a rainy, cold Monday morning in our house.
Looks like [...]

Sam: “Mommy, I don’t like to sleep. I’m not sleepy.”
Sam begins to sit up
Mommy: “Yes you are, honey.”
Mommy lays him back down
Sam: “No I’m not. I’m not sleepy. You just think so. You just think so because that’s what you think. But I’m not. I’m telling the truth.”
Sam yawns
Sam: “I’m not sleepy.”
Mommy grins. Sam yawns [...]

As I was tucking Sam into bed tonight his last words were:
“I want to see a mortician.”
“Excuse me?”
“I want to see one, a mortician.”
“Are you saying mortician? Mortician?”
“Yes. Mortician.”
“Why do you want to see a mortician?”
“Because he does cool things. He has a wand and a bunny and a hat.”

Last night when Sam was getting out of the car to go to see a doctor about his ear pain, I went through my regular reminder that he should stand by his car door and wait for me while I got Robby out of his seat. Our regular method is that I undo his buckles [...]