Think before you rhyme

Anya has been really into rhyming and singing lately. The singing is definitely influenced by music class. And I think the rhyming is an influence of her cousin Dylan. For a long time, I have been so amazed at Dylan's ability and interest in rhyme. A couple months ago, Dylan was going through the names of the whole family and rhyming them like this - Lara, Cara, Tara, Mara, Lara. And then she would move onto the next person, Noah, Boah, Toah, Coah, Noah, etc. And many, many months ago, she was able to finish the song Willoughby wallaby. If you don't know the song, it goes like this...Willoughby wallaby Wylan, an elephant sat on Dylan, Willoughby wallaby Wanya, an elephant sat on Anya. Well, you could pick just about anything for the elephant to sit on and Dylan could fill it on. And I don't just mean, replacing the first sound with "W," that's the easier part. I mean, you could do the replacement, and she would figure out the correct word. I was amazed.

Anyhow, this post is about Anya. Like anything she gets excited about, we encourage it by participating and then she does it more and more. So, the singing and rhyming has been increasing lately. Today we were driving in the car and she started making up this song that pretty much went like "Daddy went to work" over and over and over. Then she started to change it up a little bit and said, "Daddy went to dirt." She was in her own little world and thought it was funny when I commented on it. Then she (and I) kept singing it differently.

A: Daddy went to shirt.
L: Daddy went to squirt.
A: Daddy went to squirt soap.
A: Daddy went to soap.
A: Daddy went to take a bath.

And on and on. Not all rhymes, but word associations, too. I was filling in some of my own, too, and she liked some of them and for some she said, "No, that's too silly!"

Eventually, we pulled up to our house and she sang, "Daddy went to the house." I thought it was my time to chime in with a verse and I sang out - "Daddy went to the whore!"

I totally meant to say Daddy went to the store. But I was thinking about having just said Daddy went to the house and I was half rhyming and half word associating to another place daddy could have reasonably gone, but instead it got all mixed up and turned a little in the wrong direction to the whore.

Luckily, I quickly changed the word to store before she had a chance to learn a new word or even ask about it. I'll be more careful next time! Or else have an even funnier story to report.