Friday, October 03, 2008

Three-year-old humor

Kate has been reciting "Hey-Diddle-Diddle," and when she gets to the end, instead of "the dish ran away with the spoon," she says, "and the man ran away with the fork." and then laughs hysterically. Every time. (Sometimes, to really shake things up, she says, "The horse jumped over the sun.") It is fun to see her coming up with her own substitutions.

She's also decided that the "Suffering till Suffrage" song on Schoolhouse Rock is hilarious. The other day she wanted to watch it over and over and just kept laughing at it. I'm pretty sure it's not meant to be humorous.

I mentioned that Kate has been developing more narrative structure in her play--she's also started adding dialog tags. Like, "'I'm hungry!' said the rubber dragon, 'I need some dragon treats!'" Last night when Doug was getting her to bed she was in full story mode with her animal toys and just chattering away. When I took her sippy cup to her, she said, "'Oh, thank you!' said Kate, as she put down her sippy cup and began to drink." She's definitely synthesizing a lot from the stories we read together. (Sometimes she says, "said me," or "said him," which we think is very cute.)

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've never heard the horse jumping over the sun! heh!
Don't forget the MP3 recording I made of her laughing hysterically as she watched the "Pluto's Fledgling" cartoon--during a certain segment she laughs non-stop for nearly a minute! I certainly didn't think it was *that* funny...

Mimi said...

That's so cool. I love watching kids develop their selves.

Heather T. said...

I remember Allen making his own words up for Twinkle, Twinkle

Twinkle, twinkle, little train ...

That thing with the narrative structure is hilarious, though. So cool.

Anonymous said...

There was a horse, in a barn (bahn), then it went poop, and then it died.

I love the self-narration. How hilarious!

Laura Call said...

Okay, I am so impressed right now! I think it's hilarious, adorable, and VERY smart of her to be doing all of this. How fun!

Kathey said...

I love it! I do so wish we could be around you guys more. I love the "'Oh, thank you!' said Kate, as she put down her sippy cup and began to drink." Are you recording any of this on tape?

She will probably tell stories to her brother just like you did with Peter. ^o^

Love, Mom

Lara Neves said...

It always makes me giggle when my kids think something is funny...or the jokes they make up, that make no sense, but have them in stitches.

Kate sounds like a kindred spirit...I am always catching myself narrating my day in the third person as if it were a novel. :) I do generally have my nose in a book, so perhaps it's no surprise.

Horn Family said...

That is so cute!!! It amazes me how quick they catch onto things! Children are great!!!

Expatriate Buckeyes said...

It fun to see how literate Kate is. I can't imagine where she gets this from. :P

Anonymous said...

Wow! She's such a little smarty! She'll be writing novels in no time!