All We Like Sheep (Have Gone Astray)

[dr_pretentious]

For a few months now, whenever I've needed to amuse Gareth and haven't had a lot to work with, I've been able to make him laugh by saying, "Bah!" interspersed with "Babababababah!" A few goofy facial expressions, a little vocal modulation, and I can usually prevent a meltdown in the checkout line at the grocery store.

I'd been thinking of this syllable as just a signal that we were playing, but Gareth, with his avid pattern recognition efforts, put together that it was the same syllable that the sheep say in the Old MacDonald song, and the same syllable the sheep say in his This Little Chick book. At some point, the Bah game shifted in Gareth's mind from a game of utterances and facial expressions to a game of imitating sheep.

I realized this change had taken place when we dropped by catpaw67's shop. As we approached the toy section, Gareth caught sight of a lamb pull toy, and he immediately started baaing at it. Of course, I was too charmed to leave without the pull toy--Happy Yule, kiddo. That night at home, I realized he'd been baaing along with one of his electronic toys that sings "Old MacDonald." And when we went to jeneralist's house for our Yule vigil, she brought out various toys to amuse the three kids in our party. Gareth greeted the sheep hand puppets with more vigorous baaing.

Last night, Dan and I put the boy to bed and listened with half an ear to the baby monitor. It was so quiet we thought Gareth had gone to sleep, until we noticed he was quietly baaing to himself.

Comments

[purpledice.livejournal.com]

*squeaks to death from cuteness*

[citabria]

That is totally, totally, totally awesome.

Baaaaa!

[shellyinseattle.livejournal.com]

They are so adorable when they burble while lying down for the night!

Thanks for posting such cuteness.

[jasminewind.livejournal.com]

You do such a great job of capturing the cuteness of Gareth - it makes me wish I had been more of a journal-er, or were a better writer, when my kids were little. I doubt my anecdotes would have come out as polished as your, but the keepsake of them would have been nice. Next best thing is hearing your stories and remembering my kids when they were little and Garethy. Thanks!

Sheep

[ingridsummers.livejournal.com]

Cute story. AND, you have reminded me I need to get out my Messiah CD. Because, of course, I have gone astray....

[onyxtwilight.livejournal.com]

No, no, he's even more precocious than you know. What he's REALLY doing is practicing THIS:



You tell 'em, little witchling! >:-)

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

I haven't thought of that cartoon in years. Where did you find it?

[onyxtwilight.livejournal.com]

They have a website, and a few of the originals online. I have a line on purchasing a complete set, so I can have a good copy of the one that lampoons our tattoos, but I haven't heard back from them. I'll poke them again after the holidays and see if they've managed to dig the box out of the basement yet.

http://www.bandia.net/crones/index.html

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

so lovely!

[laradionne.livejournal.com]

That's one of the best stories I've heard all week! Perfect!

[violet-moon25.livejournal.com]

Very cute! I will get out the stuffed sheep and assorted hand puppets next time he visits. A. really started liking the animal hand puppets around Gareth's age. (He still loves them but now he has whole conversations with them.) You might want to check out the Sandra Boynton book Moo, Baa, La, La, La (it's short and cute with funny pictures).

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

We don't have that Boynton, but Gareth loves Barnyard Dance. A couple of weeks ago I demonstrated to him that music can be stomped to, and since then he's very enamored of stomping. Barnyard Dance, being eminently stompable, with bonus sheep, is now a great favorite.

[violet-moon25.livejournal.com]

I like Barnyard Dance but my favorite is All the Hippos Go Beserk. I think David's favorite is the Belly Button Book. But they are all a lot of fun. She also has 3 kids music CD's with very funny songs.