I like watching my husband hold his nephew and pretend his (husband’s) hand is a dinosaur coming to eat the nephew.  Crazy, silly and yet very entertaining for all involved.

Pretending to be a baby is a fun sounding game.

I am only reading blogs right now because my TiVo is broken. WOE.

Jack couldn’t figure out how to get the lid of the CD player to stay close. He’d push down so hard and you know with those lids that’s exactly how to OPEN them. I laughed and laughed and he was all, “Um, this is not funny.”

But whatever, I miss my television.

There are so many things that I find amusing about my children.  We have really limited t.v. time and they have adjusted quite nicely.  They don’t even ask for it to be on. 

I also repeat mispronunciations, and while they think it’s funny at first, it doesn’t take long for them to get a little irritated with me.  Then I just scoop them up and tell them I’m sorry and blow a zerbert on their neck.  Then they laugh again.

Oftentimes I will just watch my kids play with each other.  Or while I’m standing there doing the dishes, I will listen to them play with their toys.  They love the imaginary play and it’s so much fun to hear the things they say.  I hear myself come out in them.  Sometimes it’s funny, and sometimes it’s not if you know what I mean!!...

We’ve been TV-free for all of our marriage (14 years), so making our own fun is the norm in our home.  Board games, books on tape, games of make-believe, old-time recordings we find online, spending lots of time outside, listening to music (Classical, Big Band & Zydeco are some favorites), creating different crafts to celebrate the numerous Feasts of the Liturgical Year… there’s not enough time to do it all!  In an active home of 6 children, my husband & I sometimes wonder what on earth we did before our children came along that could have been nearly as interesting!?!?

Linguists have studied this phenomenon you describe - the theory is that the toddlers can tell when someone else mispronounces the word but they don’t have the ability to produce the proper pronunciation. Language acquisition is such a fascinating thing to watch!

I just had to comment because Violet does almost the same blueberry thing with us!  She’ll randomly call them “blue blobs” or something, to be silly, and then when we repeat it back at her, she thinks it’s the funniest thing she’s ever heard.  Then the word just gets sillier and sillier, until we’re calling them “bird buzzies” or something like that.  Isn’t this the best age yet?  I can’t get enough.

We have only been TV free for 5 years…and really, I don’t miss too much.  My kids, on the other hand, miss all of the violent, suggestive, over-sexualized commercials and previews that were so rampant when we decided to *kill our television*

My little ones are playing the game of one sibling “chasing” the two-year old as she runs for the protection of another sibling.  Squeals and laughter from all….but especially me!