Little Language Nuances I Want to Remember

Along with all the other changes lately (namely impending big sisterhood, but also the potty training) Matilda's language skills are suddenly making me feel like she's growing up so fast. She has finally started using "I" and "my" in place of speaking of herself in the third person always. Thankfully she is only using the correct form about 50% of the time so far so we still get lots of "Matilda wants to do it herself!"

M now has this great ability to give even the simplest response in a voice dripping with attitude. "Do you have to pee?" "Noooooo, not right now." The shrug and eye squint that generally accompanies her response is the part that slays Tim & I both. The best, however, is how she'll walk up and say, in a big sappy voice while clinging to me, usually as she wants something, "Oh Maaama, I looove youuu!" She says it so much lately that rarely do I feel it is sincere, and more often I feel like she is leveraging for something. But regardless of intent, her delivery is adorable.

For quite a while now she has been saying anything, when she really means nothing.

Me: "What's in your mouth?"

Matilda: "Anything."

An appropriate answer since it really could be anything - Matilda is still surprisingly bad about putting non-food items in her mouth. Her current favorite is a ball of wadded up gum-type adhesive that affix new credit cards to the envelop they are shipped in. I thought the mouthy-baby-phase would be long gone by now.

Me: "What did I just ask you to do?" (Delivered with my own form of attitude since this is my classic do-I-need-to-tell-you again?? phrase.)

Matilda: "Anything."

Usually after a bit of heel dragging the anything that she then chooses to do is what I have been repeatedly asking for. Yesterday I noticed that her anything was replaced by a correct nothing in response to several queries.

I almost feel grateful for all the little language errors that I do catch as proof that she's not all grown up yet. Today I noticed that she still says "headfore" instead of forehead, which is something. I think I am hanging on to every little vestige of her babyhood that I can at this point.