Billa Babble: Foley Noises, Cars, Cereal, Help, and Grandparent Names

Billa's vocabulary continue to expand each day and I sometimes catch myself completely understanding and then realizing, "Hey, I didn't teach her that word!"  So here are some random words and phrases that she says:

MIMICRY: This isn't a word, so much as what she does.  While she hasn't repeated anything awful yet, she certainly mimics a lot of things, and lately she likes to make foley noises.  If you're not familiar with that term, a foley artist is someone who specializes in making "the natural, everyday sound effects in a film." (Thank you, Wikipedia! I couldn't have said it better myself :o)  Stuff like the sound of a fist hitting flesh, or thunder rolling, or the snick of a sword being slid back into it's scabbard.  Billa likes to make these noises and often times I find her pretending to be a ninja or something else and making action noises.  I am relieved to know that my daughter is a tomboy!

CARS THE MOVIE: Since we cut the cable and went with Netflix, Billa watches a lot of movies instead of TV shows now.  One of her favorites is Cars, the movie.  But even though she can say the word "car," she prefers to call the movie "truck."  She'll bring it over to me and say, "Truck mo, mommy!  Truck!"  The word itself actually sounds like a cross between "chuck" and "truck" which makes it even funnier.  I guess she really likes Mater!

CEREAL:  I've posted about this one before, but now that cereal is one of her favorite snacks (and a staple in the Guerra household diet), I'm going to post on it because the way she says the word has changed greatly.  She now says "Yeh-yule!" Sometimes, it's "yer-yule," but when she says it, you know exactly what she wants.  Her favorites are Kix, Alpha Bits, and Mom's Best Honey-Ful Bites (which if you haven't tried any of the Mom's Best brand, you should.  It's the best all-natural/organic cereal brand, and it's waaaay cheaper than the others out there).

HELP:  Billa has figured out how to ask for help.  Any time she finds herself in a precarious situation, usually after she has thrown herself on the floor, she'll reach her hand out to you and wail, "Hel! "Hel!"  And no, she's not swearing.  She's asking for help and it's so funny, because she's VERY dramatic about it. 

PAPA & BOPPA:  This one makes me particularly snicker.  My mom has this thing against grandmother names.  She doesn't want to be Gramma, Nana, MeeMaw, Mimi, or any other nickname that grandparents end up with.  I think they're all great nicknames.  I wanted to call her Mamo, which is Gaelic for grandmother.  I thought she would have liked that and it's easy for small mouths to pronounce.  But my mom shot it down and kept insisting that she be "GRANDMOTHER."  Maybe I hate the word Grandmother because for the majority of my life, both of mine were called that and it was just too formal for my taste.  My dad's mom who is still alive (and will be celerating 90 this year!) is now Maw Maw after I kept hearing my cousins use it.  Well bad news, Ma!  My daughter picked up Papa for my dad very easily and somehow, that name has also become attached to my mom now.  So Billa gets very excited when she gets a chance to spend some time with her "Boppa" and "Papa."  Mwaahahahaha!  Victory is mine!  And really, my daughter couldn't have come up with a better nickname for my mom...Boppa.  I love it!  Someday my mom will too, I just know it.

That's all we have for this week!

Cheers,
Kelly