Friday 27 March 2015

Kids say the funniest things: Keep a 'What they said' book

Tucked away at the end of a shelf in a corner of my kitchen are two battered, tea-splattered, hardback notebooks. You wouldn't even notice them. But if my house was on fire, they would be one of the things I would try and rescue.
They are my son's and daughter's 'WHAT [insert name of child] SAID' books: Inside are recorded the funniest/strangest/most adorable things they have said over the years from when they first started to speak. 
The books have sat here through the years ready to grab and write in every time a wonderful, precious soundbite came out of their mouths. Or just when they got a word deliciously wrong. 
I mean there’s no way I would remember otherwise that my daughter used to call meringue "marangatang" or that my son said he had "fizzery feet" when he got pins and needles. Next to each utterance I have recorded the age they said it, down to the nearest fraction.
As time goes by, these books just get more and more precious. The kids love to look back at the funny things they said when they were little once in a while too. And although The Teenager's book doesn't get added to anymore, my daughter, just turned nine, still comes out with the occasional gem.

Here are five of my favourite quotes from each of their books.

What The Big One said ...

After he'd been to a friend's birthday party: 
“I had ham and potatoes and cake and a treacley tart thing but I didn’t really enjoy it because the smell of dog had melted into the food.”  (4 ¾)

Feeling poorly with a tummy bug: 
“Poos and burps, that’s what’ll help me get better.”  (5 ¼ )

He’s been out with daddy for the day. I ask him what he had for lunch.
“Bikini and chips.” [= panini and chips]  (5 ½)

The day we bought a DVD player for the first time:
“I can’t believe it’ll be ours forever!”  (¾)

“I was telling my friend Jack about daddy’s operation.” I ask him which operation he means. He replies: 
“The one on his tentacles.” [referring to my husband's vasectomy!]  (7¼)

What The Little One said ...

I am getting her dressed and I accidentally put both her legs in the same trouser leg. Trying to alert me to the situation, she shouts out desperately: 
“Help, help! I’m a mermaid, I’m a mermaid!”  (2 ½)

She climbs onto daddy’s lap and says to him:
“I think it’s time you knew how babies are made."  (3 ¼)

"When I’m a big girl, can I have a betweeny?" [= a bikini]  (3 ½)

She asks me when she is going to start school. I tell her it's September. She thinks for a while and then says: 
"Ooh, I go the school when the blackberries grow!"  (almost 4). 

"Mummy, where did you get that top? You look like Cinderella ... in scene one!"  (7 ½) 
(To see how my daughter would like me to dress, look what happened when I took her shopping and let her choose me a whole outfit!

That second to last one I liked so much I turned it into a painting, to capture that special time in her life.

Now I am off on a trip with my naughty little sister to celebrate a Very Big Birthday I recently had. Back in a couple of weeks ...

18 comments:

  1. Eve and I do this. We ever published them in a book. Nobody was interested through :(
    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-Nicolas-Diary-baby-attitude/dp/1507764715/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427458283&sr=8-1&keywords=baby+nicola+diary

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  2. Good for you! And a shame.

    I guess they are so personally precious - everyone's only interested in what their own child said...???!

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  3. This is a wonderful idea! I wish I'd written more down when the girls were small. They are 21 and 30 now. We used to measure them against a door casing and mark their height and the date. I can't bring myself to paint over the marks. I'm going to clean it carefully and varnish over it to preserve the marks.

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  4. Oh, that's nice - the preservation of the marks - I like that a lot!

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  5. I do this! and I always tell every new parent to do it too...those precious words are so easily lost - you think you will always remember, but you don't. My favourite one of my daughter's (now aged 11) comments was when she was about three and we were in a baby clinic waiting room. She couldn't read, but she loved pretending to and so she was passing the time by 'reading' the posters aloud...she came to one that was advertising eating fresh fruit and veg (It was one of the 5 a day posters) and she called to everyone to listen (she loves an audience) and pointing to the words she said very loudly "When..you..have..a..baby..you..must..feed..it..love" Everyone in the clinic loved it! I love to look back at these comments -They bring back such vivid memories and our children love to hear those stories again and again. :o)

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  6. Oh, that is a brilliant quote from your daughter! Love it!!!

    And yes, my new rule of life (especially now I'm past a certain age!): You will not remember what you think you are going to remember, even the things you are certain you will remember!

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  7. What a fabulous idea that was to keep those journals, Claire. They are priceless. Have a wonderful time on your trip!

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  8. Oh I wish I had started this early on!!!

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  9. I love this, such a special idea, and lovely to be able to look back on. That painting is just beautiful, too.

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    1. Thank you. I think every household needs one!

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  10. This is such a lovely idea :) #LetKidsBeKids

    http://mumx3x.blogspot.co.uk

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  11. Aww a lovely idea! I think I will need to start a book for our two, O has said some amusing things that we haven't yet recorded! :) x

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    1. Ooh yes - catch them! You think you'll remember them but I bet you don't!

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  12. I love hearing all these wonderful things children say, I wrote a post on it to help me remember them. My son used to say fizzy feet too...Love it!
    Thanks for linking #LetKidsBeKids

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    1. "Fizzy feet" seems to be such a common way for kids to describe pins and needles - so accurate and so cute!

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  13. I MUST MUST MUST update mine this week! Thankyou for the nudge!

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