Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Out of the Mouths of Babes

The 'Thumbs' topic reminded me that I've been meaning to ask if there is a forum discussion on funny things our kids say.

The other day after dinner my DS6 - who has been on a crazy math jag lately, and recently discovered place values - asked me how many zeros there are in a septillion. We used fingers to count them out and came up with 24. DS then said "So a septillion is a ten to the 24th, that means a ten with a little 24 in the northeast."

I don't know if this is funny to anyone else, but it completely cracked me up, and I could not talk to him again for about five minutes.

Too cute!

This isn't gifted-related, but my DD2.5 did something hilarious yesterday. She ran across the house to give my DD2mo her pacifier. I peeked around the corner to see how they were doing and DD2.5 says to the baby in a very serious tone as if to reprimand her, "You listen to Cora, okay??" I guess I've been saying, "You need to listen to mommy," too many times lately!

Maybe that's not so funny written out, but it was hilarious to see in action. All I can see is my DD2.5 bossing around her little sister for life. Uh oh!

I was thinking about this thread yesterday because dd3 did this really funny thing -

she said 'oh mom, your tummy looks so full from eating peanut butter!'. (thanks kid!)
then proceeded to try to pinch me in the tummy - I said, 'Whoa, that is soooo rude!!'
She said, 'I'm not rude. I'm funny!' (Guess I was chuckling a bit at this point). Great to know I'm raising Howard Stern.


Then today she told me about something else funny, and added, 'by the way.' I wondered about this. She has added these little extra cute phrases to her speech for quite a while. For instance, as a young 2 she was using, 'I realize ...'. Any other 2/3/4 year olds out there throwing these odd little phrases into their speech? When I hear other 3's speak, if they're not too shy to speak, I don't hear too much of this...

DS4 was thoroughly engrossed in our solar system for much of the summer... somehow conversation turned to what different planet dwellers are called. He'd heard that Martians are from Mars. And then asked about Venus -- understanding now that they would be called Venusians.

And a couple of days later he was sharing his book with grandparents when he explained what the inhabitants of each planet are called...

"And this is Earth... people who live on Earth are called Earthians!"

We still crack up over it... and tease him about it to this day.

Oh, yes, DD3 does this all the time. Listening her talk is sort of like looking at myself in an amusement-park mirror. All the same stuff, just a bit warped and out of proportion.

So it isn't just us. My DD is full of catch phrases and has been this way for as far back as I can remember. When it comes to the humor she is quick to say how funny she is and also to tell us that we are either teasing her or she is teasing us. It is usually in line with "I'm just teasing you Mommy."

Catch phrases aside I wonder if DD's sentence structures are normal. She has always had complex sentences but the sentences are getting more and more complex. We visited a friend this summer and DD was horrified by the unclean car and refused to climb in because of it and made no attempt at hiding this information from my friend. It was pretty funny since my friend had been apologizing for the unkempt car and house so the look of horror on her face each time my DD brought it up was priceless. Anyway, her daughter came back with us to stay for a few weeks and DD went to get out of my car and made a point to say: "See, I can get out of your car just fine Mommy because it isn't dirty UNLIKE Emily's mommy's car which is really dirty." Do any of you see this with the 2 to 3 year olds? Basically is this seen as normal speech?

Yes, Bear talks like that all the time. No, it is not "normal" just normal for him. I related one of his comments to our pediatrician today and she was astounded that he both knew the word "type" (as in kind) and could and did use it appropriately. He is 2yrs 6m...

LOL, these are cute.

DS5 gets up early each morning and plays in his room until I get up (usually about 30-45 minutes later). Usually when I come in his room he has a million things to tell me. This morning he told me a joke and then he said this "my arm from here to here (he said as he pointed) is about 36 centimeters long" I asked him how he knew that and his reply was "well...I put my arm up across my piano and it took up 18 keys, and then I estimated that each key was about 2 centimeters. So I multiplied the 18 by 2 and my answer was 36" It amazes me how much his mind is going as soon as he wakes up. He has always been like that.

DD2 just turned 2 a couple months ago. I don't write much about her on her because while she is adorable I haven't really thought of her as gifted...although I do wonder at times. She says a lot of words in context such as "probably" and "maybe" and "might" and "actually" She says appropriate pronouns and refers to herself as "I" and "you" for others and all that stuff. It amazes me when she is around others that are even 3 at how much she talks (if she isn't being shy). It still makes me laugh when she wakes up and says things like "maybe I can watch a movie after breakfast, okay?" or something like that. And she describes things she has seen and loves to say "remember when..." yesterday she said "remember when we saw the boy that was eating the icecream right over there"