"Bawkkk...I'm a Pretty Emily"

Like most moms of toddlers I am a mom to a parrot. Conveniently I can tell you exactly what is said to her and for the most part how it is said. I can tell what I say the most, what others say, and I can even tell you how she is disciplined at daycare.

It can actually be quite fascinating listening to my little parrot talk in the evenings and on weekends. I get to hear repeated back to me her television shows, praise that I or others tell her, as well as which random kids from daycare get told no, and why. In fact, two of the most memorable items repeated back to me over and over were:

"Anthony's the boss" (of course this followed an evening when her older cousin was watching her. Brain washing at it's finest. Ha!). And then there was...

"You're pregnant?! Oh no!!" (Talk about awkward on that one...)

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Sometimes though it's not so "convenient". Case in point, we have a spitting problem in our house. Timeout was a fail so I turned to using words. "Oh princesses don't spit. That's yucky." "Oh no, Emily. We don't spit." I went back and forth with her a few times, and was pleasantly surprised when a few weeks later I finally got to see the fruit of my efforts.

Emily (spits on the floor out of frustration): "No Emily, princesses don't spit. Yucky."

Yay! My message was received and without any effort on my part, she set herself straight. Fabulous.

Of course my excitement quickly ended as I watched her spit and discipline herself two more times in that same moment. Followed by weeks later of her saying it over and over again while she ate, while she played, while she went potty, and while she was of course spitting...

Yep, I guess it's a good thing there's 26 letters in the alphabet, because I'm obviously moving on to Plan C.