Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Rhymes with "doodie"


Growing up, I referred to my little sis as Judy Doodie. Mostly to torment her, but eventually, it just became a habit. I can't remember when I stopped, probably when she got married, I think. Which was two years ago.

Judy visited this weekend with baby Margo. Who isn't yet talking but someday, I will be sure to tell her about her mom's alter ego, Judy Doodie. Sunday afternoon, Max had pooped, and I was changing him. "Max made a big dooooodie," I sang. We often sing ridiculous poop songs at our house, and if you'd like the CD, I'll let you know once we've recorded it. Anyway, Judy walked by Max's room. Max gestured at her, said his version of "Aunt Judy," then pointed at his pull-up.

At first, I didn't get it. Then it dawned on me.

"Judy and doodie rhyme! Right, Max?" I asked.

Max grinned and nodded vigorously.

"Judy Doodie! Judy Doodie! Judy Doodie!" I chanted, and Max laughed.

It is fascinating to see him beginning to understand how language and words work. First the sight-reading kicked in and now, he's getting rhymes. Actually, he is fond of invoking doodie; the first joke he ever told me involved lion crap. (You'd think potty training would be proceeding at a rapid pace, but, no.)

Sabrina's development is fascinating to me, too. Every afternoon, I watch her sit there with a workbook in which she has to fill in missing letters (like B __ T, with a picture of a bat), hear her spelling the word out loud—"Buh-aaaa-aaaat"—and smile as she figures it out.

I take none of this for granted; both my kids' language development is wondrous to me. Sabrina's because I can't believe this stuff is coming naturally to her, without speech therapy or a communication device or much coaxing from me. And Max's? Because we were told he might never talk. And that he might have severe mental retardation.

And now he's rhyming. And carrying on the tradition of Judy Doodie, no less.

Now sure how my sis feels about that. Me, I'm pretty psyched.

16 comments:

  1. Watching our children grow is truly miraculous! My 4 yr old, who had no interest in reading, is suddenly seeing letters in his world everywhere he goes now. It is amazing to watch.

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  2. Max...you crack me up!!! Way to go! Poop jokes are simply the best!

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  3. My brother used to call me "Katy Baby." I guess that's better than Judy Doodie.

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  4. a tear jerker for me, love it :)

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  5. Ok, so now my secret is out. But since it was revealed by a very handsome and adorable boy, I am ok with that. The most important thing is that Max did something really good and he can call me "Judy Doodie" whenever he wants but his mommy can't!!!

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  6. wow! pretty great stuff Ellen!
    Kristen : )
    by they way, we just purchased an iPad and are incredibly excited to get the Proloque app. Max's video inspired us! and you inspired us too! thank you!

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  7. The magical bonding of poop humor!

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  8. I love Max's sense of humor. He and my daughter would get along famously.

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  9. great news. what a guy!

    Oh! We heard yesterday that Ashley's getting an Ipad! His Visual Impairment Team are getting him one. Can't wait!

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  10. So happy here, got tears in my eyes!

    What a long journey it's been...and this is so wonderful!

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  11. I guess that proves that teasing your baby sister is genetic. And can be passed on a good tradition. Sorry, Aunt Judy, you will henceforth be known as Aunt Doodie. Max, thank you. Poop jokes are big in my house, too. Well, really, all jokes are basically poop jokes, aren't they?

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  12. I used to sing silly poop songs to my kids too. Ok fine. I still do.

    I know people with the last name Doody.

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  13. We sing all kinds of silly songs around here too. So glad to hear Max is getting the hang of rhyming. That is a beautiful thing! If I were your sister, I probably wouldn't be excited about the nickname coming to the surface again, but I guess you have to take the good with the bad.

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  14. Amazing Max - wow I am so happy for all of you! Tears reading this post...tears of hope, inspiration, excitement, understanding...and laughter!! Aunts are the best aren't they? :)
    I also had a sense of relief while reading this - that we're not the only family that has poop sing songs!!
    To many, many, many more poop rhymes to come - fingers crossed...Cheers!!
    :) Rose

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  15. YAY! Rhyming is a big deal. Are you doing multisesnory Orton Gillingam reading stuff?

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  16. Molly, the reading program we're doing is centered around phonemes (aka sounds). Here's a very long and boring video about it:

    http://mcn.ed.psu.edu/dbm/Light_Reading/index.htm

    Multi-sensory approach sounds intriguing, will Google.

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Thanks for sharing!